When you turn on most NETGEAR routers, the Power LED lights amber while the router boots, and then turns white or green when the router is ready to use. If the Power LED does not turn white or green, or stays blinking for an unusually long time, then your router might have a problem. For more information, see What do the LEDs on my NETGEAR router mean?
You might want to try these troubleshooting steps if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- Power LED is blinking or solid amber
- Router doesn’t boot properly
- Unable to access router web interface
- Router does not assign DHCP addresses to clients
- Cannot connect to Internet through router
Power cycle your home network
If you have connection issues with your NETGEAR devices, performing a complete power cycle of your network might help. To power cycle your home network, you must turn off all of your networking devices and then turn them back on. For more information, see How do I power cycle my home network?
Check your power adapter
Make sure that you are using the power adapter that was included with your router. If you use a different power adapter, your router might not function correctly. You might also want to try plugging your router directly into a power outlet instead of a surge protector, or try a different power outlet. For more information about NETGEAR router power adapters, see How much power does my NETGEAR router use?
Disconnect all Ethernet connections
A faulty Ethernet cable or a malfunctioning device on your local area network (LAN) can cause your router to behave erratically and fail to boot. If you use Ethernet cables to connect devices to the LAN ports on your router, disconnect them all and see if the router boots normally. If it does, you can reconnect the Ethernet cables one by one to see which connection is causing the problem.
Make sure that you don’t create a network loop with your Ethernet cables; network loops are a common cause of router problems. For more information, see What is a network loop?
Perform a factory reset
A factory reset restores your router to NETGEAR’s default settings so that you can set your router up again. You might want to try a factory reset to resolve your connectivity issues. For more information, see How do I perform a factory reset on my NETGEAR router?
Upload firmware to your router via TFTP
If your router still isn’t working, its firmware might be corrupt due to a failed update or a power outage during the update process. You can use a TFTP client on your computer to upload firmware to your router remotely, which might restore your router to working condition. For more information, see the following articles:
- How do I upload firmware to my NETGEAR router using a TFTP client on Microsoft Windows?
- How do I upload firmware to my NETGEAR router using TFTP on Apple macOS?