Flush DNS Cache and Restart Router Hardware Without Losing Settings

Restarting the router is the oldest fix in the book, and for good reason: it clears a surprising number of streaming faults in one move. The trouble is that most people do it in a hurry. They pull one plug, push it back in five seconds later, and then wonder why the TV app still says it can’t load the playlist.

Done properly, a power cycle and a DNS flush take about ten minutes and reset every layer that can hold on to a bad address or a stuck connection: the modem’s link to your ISP, the router’s own memory, and the small DNS caches kept by your computer, phone, streaming stick and even your web browser. Done badly, you can wipe your internet settings, lose your Wi-Fi name and password, or end up in a loop of reboots that never reaches the real fault.

This guide covers the right order and wait times for modems, routers and the all-in-one gateways Canadian ISPs hand out, the exact commands to flush DNS on Windows and macOS, the closest equivalents on Android, iPhone, Fire TV, Apple TV and smart TVs, and how to clear the separate cache inside Chrome, Edge and Firefox. It also explains when a factory reset is the right call, and the mistakes that turn a five-minute fix into an afternoon on hold with your ISP.

If you watch live TV through an IPTV Canada service, these are the first two tools to reach for when channels stop loading, the guide goes blank or an app says it can’t reach the server. They won’t fix everything, and the last sections show how to tell when the problem lies somewhere else.

What a restart and a DNS flush actually fix

Every streaming app starts with a name, not a number. Your player is configured with a server address made of words, and before it can request a single second of video, something has to turn that name into an IP address. That lookup is DNS, the Domain Name System, and the answer gets cached at several points along the way so the next lookup is instant.

Caching is normally a good thing. It becomes a problem when the answer changes and your devices keep using the old one. Streaming services move traffic between servers, content delivery networks rotate addresses, and your ISP’s resolver occasionally serves a stale or failed answer. Until the cached record expires, the app keeps knocking on the wrong door, and you see messages such as “connection failed”, “unable to resolve host” or a playlist that never finishes loading.

A router restart fixes a different set of problems. Consumer routers run small operating systems with limited memory. Over days and weeks they can pile up stuck entries in their connection-tracking table, a Wi-Fi radio can get into a bad state, and the modem can hold on to a degraded link with your ISP after a line fault has cleared. A clean power cycle forces all of that to start fresh.

The layers of DNS caching in your home

It helps to know where cached answers live, because flushing one layer does nothing for the others. Each record also carries a time-to-live (TTL) set by whoever runs the domain, which tells every cache how long it may keep the answer. That can be a few seconds or many hours.

The last row explains why a full flush and restart sometimes still doesn’t fix a lookup problem. If the resolver itself is handing out a bad answer, every device in the house gets the same bad answer the moment it asks again. Switching resolvers is the fix in that case, and our comparison of the best DNS for IPTV explains which public resolvers to consider and how to change them on each device.

Before you unplug anything: a two-minute check

A restart wipes out useful evidence. If you reboot first, you lose the chance to see which lights were off, which devices were affected and whether the fault was even inside your home. Spend two minutes on these questions first.

• Is it one device or all of them? If your phone loads websites on Wi-Fi but the TV app fails, the router is probably fine and the fault is on the TV or in the app.
• Is it one app or every app? If a mainstream video app plays but your IPTV player can’t log in, look at the login details or the service before blaming the network.
• What do the modem lights say? A red, orange or blinking “Internet” or “Online” light usually means the link to the ISP is down. Note the colour before you touch anything.
• Is there an ISP outage? Check your ISP’s app or status page on mobile data. Restarting your gateway during an area outage just makes it hunt for a signal that isn’t there.
• Did anything change recently? A new router, an overnight firmware update, a changed Wi-Fi password or a newly installed VPN app are all common triggers.
• Is someone in the middle of something? A restart drops every connection in the house, including work calls and game downloads. Give people a heads-up.

If you can open your IPTV subscription on mobile data but not on home Wi-Fi, that’s a strong sign the home network is involved, and the power cycle below is the right next move. If the answers point to a single device, skip the router and go straight to the device sections further down.

The correct order to power-cycle a modem and router

The order matters because each box depends on the one before it. The modem has to finish connecting to your ISP before the router can get a public address from it, and the router has to be fully up before your devices can get local addresses. Start things in the wrong order and the router may come up without an internet address, leaving you with full Wi-Fi bars and no internet.

Separate modem and router

1. Unplug the router first, then the modem. If you have mesh satellite units, network switches or powerline adapters, unplug those too.
2. Wait at least 30 seconds. This lets the electronics power down completely and gives the ISP’s equipment time to register that the link dropped. Thirty seconds is a safe habit rather than a magic number; waiting longer does no harm.
3. Plug in the modem only. Wait until its “Online”, “Internet” or globe light is solid. On cable (DOCSIS) modems this often takes two to five minutes, and longer if the modem installs a firmware update while it starts.
4. Plug in the router. Wait until its internet or WAN light shows a connection and your Wi-Fi network appears, usually one to three minutes.
5. Power up mesh satellites, switches and powerline adapters, starting with the ones closest to the router.
6. Restart or reconnect your streaming device last, so it requests a fresh local address and fresh DNS answers.

All-in-one ISP gateways

Most Canadian homes no longer have a separate modem and router. The ISP supplies a single gateway that does both jobs and provides the Wi-Fi. The order is simpler: unplug the gateway, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in, and wait for the status light to settle on its normal colour. Then bring up any mesh units and, finally, your devices.

Gateways take longer to boot than standalone routers, because they bring up the modem side, the router side and the Wi-Fi radios in sequence. Five minutes is common. Resist the urge to unplug it again because the light is still blinking at the two-minute mark.

Fibre homes with a separate ONT

In fibre-to-the-home installs, the fibre line ends at an optical network terminal (ONT). In some homes it’s a separate small box on the wall near where the line enters; in others the ONT is built into the gateway or plugged into it as a small module. If yours is separate, treat it as the modem: unplug it with the router, plug it in first, and wait for its lights to settle before plugging in the router.

Never unplug or sharply bend the thin fibre cable itself. Fibre connectors are delicate, dust on the connector end causes signal loss, and reseating them is a job for the ISP’s technician.

Treat these times as rough guidance. A firmware update, a weak line or a busy node at your ISP can stretch any of them.

Canadian ISP gateways: what to know before you restart

The large Canadian providers, including Bell, Rogers, Telus, Vidéotron and Cogeco, each issue their own branded gateways, while smaller ISPs such as TekSavvy often supply or support third-party modems. Model names change every few years, so rather than memorizing one box, learn the behaviours they share.

Remote restarts. Most large Canadian ISPs let you restart the gateway from their phone app or your online account. That’s handy when the box sits in a basement utility room or a locked cabinet, and it performs a proper software restart. If the app can’t reach the gateway at all, fall back to unplugging it.

The admin page. Every gateway has a local settings page, reached by typing its address into a browser on your network. Common addresses include 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1, 192.168.1.254 and 10.0.0.1. The right one for your box, along with the admin password, is usually printed on the label.

Restarting is not resetting. Many gateways have a small recessed button marked Reset. On some models a short press restarts the box, while holding it for ten seconds or so wipes the configuration back to factory settings. Because the behaviour varies, the safest restart is always the power cable or the ISP app, never the pinhole.

Home phone and alarms. If your home phone or a monitored alarm system runs through the ISP gateway, a restart briefly takes it offline too. A few minutes is usually fine, but avoid restarting during an emergency or while someone is on a call.

Bridge mode and double NAT

If you’ve added your own router behind the ISP’s gateway, for better Wi-Fi or a mesh system, you may have two devices both acting as routers. This is called double NAT. Ordinary browsing usually survives it, but it adds another layer that can hold stale connections, another DNS cache, and another box that has to be restarted in the right order.

The clean fix is to put the ISP gateway into bridge mode, so it acts only as a modem and your router handles everything else. Rogers, Vidéotron and Cogeco gateways typically include a bridge mode setting. Bell’s Home Hub and Giga Hub lines are known for offering an Advanced DMZ option or PPPoE passthrough instead, and Telus hubs vary by model. Menu names and availability change with firmware, so check your ISP’s help pages for your exact model before you start.

Two cautions before you switch. First, bridge mode usually turns off the gateway’s Wi-Fi, so your own router must be ready to take over. Second, on connections that use a PPPoE login, which includes many Bell services and some TekSavvy plans, your own router will need that PPPoE username and password, so find them before changing anything. After a change like this, restart in order: gateway first, then your router, then your devices.

How to flush the DNS cache on Windows

Windows keeps its own DNS resolver cache, and clearing it takes one command. You don’t need to restart the PC afterwards, although closing and reopening your player app or browser helps it pick up fresh answers.

1. Press the Windows key, type cmd (or PowerShell), then choose Run as administrator. A normal window usually works for the flush itself, but an administrator window avoids permission errors with the other commands below.
2. Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
3. Look for the line “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.” If you see it, the cache is empty.
4. Optional: type ipconfig /displaydns to see what’s cached now. Right after a flush the list is short or empty, and it fills up again as apps make new lookups.
5. Close and reopen your IPTV app or browser.

In PowerShell, the command Clear-DnsClientCache does the same job as ipconfig /flushdns.

Going a step further on Windows

If the flush didn’t help and the PC seems to have a wider network problem rather than a DNS one, two more tools are worth knowing, in this order:

• ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew asks the router for a fresh local IP address. Expect the connection to drop for a few seconds, and don’t run it over a remote desktop session, because you’ll cut yourself off.
• netsh winsock reset returns the Windows network catalogue to its defaults and needs a restart afterwards. It’s a heavier tool for a PC that struggles with every connection, often after VPN or security software was removed. It is not something to run every time a channel buffers.

If you watch on a computer, our Windows IPTV setup guide covers VLC, MyIPTV Player and the other apps that work well on a PC, including the hardware decoding setting that matters for 4K channels.

How to flush DNS on a Mac (and Linux, briefly)

Recent versions of macOS cache DNS answers in a system service called mDNSResponder. Clearing it takes one line in Terminal.

1. Open Terminal from Applications → Utilities, or press Command + Space and type Terminal.
2. Paste this line: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
3. Press Return and type your Mac’s login password. The cursor won’t move while you type; that’s normal.
4. Nothing is printed when it succeeds. Quit and reopen your browser or player app.

This command has worked across many macOS releases. If Apple changes it in a future version, the idea stays the same: clear the directory service cache and restart the mDNSResponder service.

On Linux desktops that use systemd-resolved, which covers many current distributions, resolvectl flush-caches clears the local cache. Other setups use different resolvers, and some keep no local cache at all.

Phones and tablets: Android and iPhone

Phones don’t give you a flush command, but they make up for it with quick ways to drop and rebuild the network connection, which clears cached lookups along with it.

Android phones and tablets

• Airplane mode: swipe down for Quick Settings, turn on Airplane mode, wait 10 seconds, then turn it off. Wi-Fi reconnects with a fresh state.
• Restart: hold the power button (or power and volume up on some recent phones) and choose Restart.
• Private DNS: Android can send lookups to a resolver you choose. On Pixel and stock Android it’s under Settings → Network & internet → Private DNS; on Samsung Galaxy phones look in Settings → Connections → More connection settings → Private DNS. If you set a provider here and later run into trouble, switching back to Automatic is a quick test.
• Last resort: reset network settings (Pixel: Settings → System → Reset options → Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth; Samsung: Settings → General management → Reset → Reset network settings). This erases saved Wi-Fi passwords and paired Bluetooth devices, so use it only after the simpler steps fail.

iPhone and iPad

• Airplane Mode: open Control Centre, tap the airplane icon, wait 10 seconds and tap it again.
• Restart: press and hold the side button and either volume button until the slider appears, slide to power off, then turn it back on.
• Rejoin the network: Settings → Wi-Fi → tap the (i) next to your network → Forget This Network, then rejoin with the password.
• Last resort: Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset → Reset Network Settings. This wipes every saved Wi-Fi network and VPN configuration.

A VPN or content-filter app on a phone or tablet can override the DNS settings you chose. If a lookup problem only happens with the VPN switched on, the VPN app’s DNS setting is the one to look at.

Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and smart TVs

Streaming sticks and boxes are where most IPTV viewing happens, and none of them has a DNS flush button. A proper restart is the equivalent, and it also frees memory the player app may be holding on to.

A few device-specific notes help here.

Fire TV. Fire OS only lets you enter custom DNS addresses if you also enter a static IP address, gateway and network prefix length. That works, but it sets a trap: if your router is later replaced or factory reset and the local address range changes, the Fire TV keeps trying its old static address and won’t connect. If you’ve used a static setup, write the settings down. If the stick suddenly can’t connect after router work, forget the network and reconnect with automatic settings.

Android TV and Google TV. Menu paths differ between brands and software versions. If you can’t find a restart option, unplugging the power for 30 seconds does the same job.

Apple TV. Setting DNS to Manual on the Apple TV affects only that device. If you later want to undo it, choose Automatic on the same Configure DNS screen. Remember that picture problems such as judder or stutter usually have nothing to do with DNS, so if your issue is motion rather than loading, look at the player and display settings instead.

Samsung and LG smart TVs

Smart TVs add one complication: pressing the power button usually doesn’t restart them. Samsung and LG TVs both drop into a low-power standby so they can switch back on instantly, which means apps and the network stack keep running in the background. To clear a stuck state, you need a real restart.

Samsung (Tizen). With the TV on, press and hold the power button on the remote until the TV switches off and the Samsung logo appears again, usually after about five seconds. That performs a full reboot. Unplugging the TV from the wall for 30 seconds works too. To set DNS manually, look under Settings → General → Network → Network Status → IP Settings → DNS Setting; on newer models the path starts with Settings → All Settings → Connection → Network instead.

LG (webOS). Unplugging the TV for 30 to 60 seconds is the reliable way to force a full restart, because the Quick Start+ feature keeps many LG models in standby otherwise. If you’d rather turn that feature off, it’s usually in Settings → All Settings → General, or under Devices or System on some models. DNS settings sit under Settings → All Settings → General → Network → Wi-Fi Connection (or Wired Connection) → Advanced Wi-Fi Settings → Edit, where you untick Set Automatically. Paths shift between webOS versions, so pick the closest match.

Both brands also offer heavier reset options in their support menus, such as resetting Smart Hub on Samsung. These delete installed apps and their saved logins, so treat them as a last step rather than a routine fix.

Clearing the DNS cache inside Chrome, Edge and Firefox

Browsers keep their own DNS cache, separate from the operating system’s. If you manage your account, open a web player or test a server address in a browser, flushing Windows or macOS alone may not be enough.

• Chrome: type chrome://net-internals/#dns in the address bar and select Clear host cache. Then open chrome://net-internals/#sockets and select Flush socket pools to close connections still open to the old address.
• Microsoft Edge: the same pages exist at edge://net-internals/#dns and edge://net-internals/#sockets.
• Firefox: type about:networking#dns and select Clear DNS Cache.
• Safari: there’s no separate button. Flushing the macOS cache and quitting Safari completely with Command + Q does the job.

Chrome on Android accepts the same chrome://net-internals/#dns page. Browsers with secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS) switched on may also use a different resolver from the rest of your computer, which is why a site can load in one browser and fail in another. In Chrome, that setting is under Settings → Privacy and security → Security → Use secure DNS.

When a factory reset is justified (and what it erases)

A factory reset returns the router to the state it left the factory in. It’s a legitimate tool, but it’s the last one, not the first. Before you reach for it, be clear about what you’ll lose:

• Your Wi-Fi network name and password, so every device in the house has to reconnect.
• The admin password you set, port forwarding rules and DHCP reservations.
• Custom DNS servers set on the router.
• Bridge mode, DMZ or PPPoE passthrough settings.
• On your own router, the PPPoE login if your ISP uses one. Without it, the router can’t connect at all.
• Parental controls and Wi-Fi schedules.

Use this decision guide:

• Reset if you’ve forgotten the admin password and can’t change anything.
• Reset if the router started misbehaving right after a settings change you can’t undo, or a firmware update left it unstable and restarts haven’t helped.
• Reset if you suspect someone changed settings without permission, such as unfamiliar DNS servers appearing on the router’s settings page.
• Reset if you’re selling, giving away or returning the router.
• Don’t reset if you haven’t tried a plain restart yet, if there’s a known ISP outage, or if the problem affects only one device.
• Don’t reset an ISP gateway without checking with the ISP first if it was set up with special provisioning. Many gateways re-provision themselves automatically, but if yours doesn’t, the fix becomes a support call.

Before resetting, photograph or write down the key settings pages: Wi-Fi name and password, DNS servers, port forwards and any bridge settings. Rebuilding from notes takes ten minutes; rebuilding from memory can take an evening.

To perform the reset, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your model. Most require holding a recessed button with a paper clip while the device is powered on, often for ten seconds or more, until the lights change. Then wait for a full boot before reconnecting anything.

What not to do

Most router mishaps come from a handful of habits. Avoid these:

• Don’t use the pinhole button to restart. On many devices it doubles as the factory reset, and the line between a short and a long press is easy to cross.
• Don’t unplug during a firmware update. If the lights are doing something unusual after you plug the box back in, give it ten minutes. Cutting power mid-update can leave a router unusable.
• Don’t restart repeatedly in quick succession. Each restart takes minutes to complete. Several in a row keep the modem stuck in its start-up sequence and make it harder to tell whether the fault is in your home or on the ISP’s side.
• Don’t change five things at once. If you change DNS, restart the router, update the app and move the Wi-Fi channel at the same moment, you won’t know which one fixed it, or which one broke something else.
• Don’t set static IPs and forget them. A static address on a streaming device works until the network changes. Keep a note of every device you’ve set up manually.
• Don’t paste network commands you don’t understand. Some forum fixes involve registry edits or adapter resets that cause more trouble than they solve.
• Don’t hide the router in a closed cabinet or behind the TV. Heat shortens its life and causes instability, and metal and concrete hurt Wi-Fi. If restarts keep “fixing” things for only a day at a time, overheating is worth suspecting.

A worked example: channels stop loading on a Saturday night

Here’s how the pieces fit together in a typical scenario. It’s Saturday evening, and the IPTV app on a Fire TV Stick in the living room opens but won’t load the channel list. A phone on the same Wi-Fi can browse the web.

Step one: check before touching anything. The phone works, so the internet connection is alive. The TV is the odd one out, which points at the device or the app rather than the router.

Step two: restart the Fire TV properly. Settings → My Fire TV → Restart. When it comes back, the app still won’t load the list.

Step three: test another device. The phone has the same player app with the same login. It fails too on home Wi-Fi, but works on mobile data. Now the pattern looks like a lookup or routing problem on the home network.

Step four: power-cycle the gateway in the right order. Unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it in, wait for the status light to return to normal, then restart the Fire TV again. If the Canadian IPTV channels list loads now, a stale cache or stuck connection in the gateway was the culprit.

Step five: change one variable. If it still fails, set a public DNS resolver on the router and restart the Fire TV. If that works, the ISP’s resolver was the weak link, and you can decide whether to keep the change. If nothing helps and the app shows a specific code or message, our guide to IPTV error codes explains what each one means and what to send to support.

The lesson is that each step narrowed down the fault before the next, more disruptive one. Nothing was factory reset, and nothing was changed that couldn’t be put back.

When the problem isn’t DNS or your router

Restarts and flushes fix lookup failures and stuck connections. They don’t fix every problem, and repeating them won’t help with the symptoms below.

A stable home network matters as much as the service you choose. When people compare the best IPTV Canada options, they tend to focus on channel counts and price, yet a tidy router setup with known settings is what keeps any service watchable night after night. If you’re setting up a new router or gateway and want to see how streams behave on it before you commit, the free trial is a low-stakes way to test.

If you can stream a demanding video in another app at the same moment your IPTV app fails, your home network is probably fine. In that case, contacting the provider is quicker than another round of restarts. IPTV Gold’s Live Chat on the support page is open 24/7 in English and French, and it helps to mention your device, app and the exact message on screen.

Key takeaways

• Check first, restart second: note the modem lights and test another device before unplugging anything.
• Power down everything, wait at least 30 seconds, then start the ONT or modem first, the router second, and your streaming devices last.
• Restart with the power cable or the ISP app, never the pinhole Reset button.
• Flush DNS with ipconfig /flushdns on Windows and sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder on a Mac; restart phones, sticks and TVs instead.
• Clear the browser’s own cache separately, and remember you can’t flush your ISP’s resolver, only switch away from it.
• Save factory resets for forgotten passwords, broken configurations or a router changing hands, and write your settings down first.