How to Restart Your AT&T Wi-Fi Gateway: 3 Methods for Fiber and Internet Air

ll you need to do to restart your AT&T Wi-Fi gateway is to unplug it for 20 seconds, plug it back in, and wait for the status light to return to solid white. That's the easiest way to restart your gateway, which will clear the temporary faults behind most slow-speed and dropped-Wi-Fi complaints without changing a single setting. A factory reset is a more drastic action that erases everything and should be reserved for complex scenarios and in coordination with AT&T support.

This guide covers the three restart methods AT&T recommends (a power cycle, the Smart Home Manager app, and the gateway admin portal at 192.168.1.254), plus what each status light color means, which is where most troubleshooting goes wrong.

Restart vs. Factory Reset: Know Which One You Need

More often than not, when you think your gateway needs a reset, a simple restart will clear up most problems. A restart and a reset are different actions with different meanings and outcomes, and the difference matters more here than on most gateways because AT&T uses the same red button for both a diagnostic step and a full reset.

1. Restart (also called a reboot or power cycle): turns the gateway off and back on. It clears temporary memory faults, renews the IP address lease, and re-establishes the link to AT&T's network. Every setting you have configured survives.
2. Factory reset: returns the gateway to the state it shipped in. Your Wi-Fi name, Wi-Fi password, port forwarding rules, custom DNS settings, and parental controls are all erased. Firmware may also be reset.

Restart vs. Factory Reset at a Glance

The factory reset hold is 10 seconds, not 20 or 30. A shorter press will reboot the gateway without resetting it, which is why the red button is a poor way to trigger a restart on purpose.

Identify Your Equipment First

The model number is on the sticker on the back or bottom of the unit, next to the Device Access Code you will need for the admin portal. AT&T's equipment overview covers what each piece of hardware does.

1. BGW620: the current AT&T Fiber gateway, introduced in 2025 with Wi-Fi 7, tri-band 2.4/5/6 GHz, and multi-gig Ethernet. AT&T publishes a dedicated support page for it.
2. BGW320: the previous fiber standard, Wi-Fi 6, still in wide deployment.
3. BGW210, NVG589, NVG599, Pace 5268AC and similar: earlier fiber, U-verse, and DSL gateways. These show a green Broadband light rather than a white status light, and several have internal battery backups that change the restart procedure.
4. CGW450-400 and BGW530: the AT&T Internet Air hubs. These are fixed wireless devices that reach AT&T's cellular network instead of a fiber or DSL line.

A Note on the "All-Fi Hub" Name

This trips up a lot of AT&T customers. AT&T applies the All-Fi Hub brand to both product lines: its equipment page states that the All-Fi Hub provides the connection to AT&T Internet Air over the wireless network, while its support pages for the BGW320 and the BGW620 describe those fiber gateways as All-Fi Hubs as well. AT&T's All-Fi explainer adds to the confusion by insisting the Hub belongs to Internet Air rather than to All-Fi.

Go by the model number on the sticker, not the name on the box.

One more piece of hardware matters for fiber customers: the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), the box that converts the fiber signal to Ethernet before it reaches your gateway. It is usually mounted outside, in a garage, or in a utility closet, and AT&T notes it should never be removed. The ONT is the equivalent of a modem for fiber internet.

Finally, the admin portal address for AT&T gateways is 192.168.1.254, not 192.168.1.1, which most other manufacturers use.

Method 1: Power Cycle Your Gateway (Start Here)

A physical power cycle is the most thorough option and the one AT&T lists first in its restart instructions. It works on every model, needs no app, and works when the connection is completely down.

1. Unplug the power cord from the back of the gateway.
2. If your gateway has an internal battery backup (common on the NVG589, NVG599, and some BGW210 units); remove the battery. Otherwise, the unit keeps running and never actually powers down.
3. If you have DSL service, unplug the telephone cord from the gateway as well.
4. Wait 20 seconds. Longer doesn't do any harm, but 20 seconds is enough.
5. Put the battery back in if you removed one, plug the power cord back in, and reconnect the telephone cord if you unplugged it.
6. Wait. AT&T allows up to 10 minutes for a full restart, though most gateways are back in two to five. Do not unplug it again during this window.
7. Confirm the status light is solid white on a BGW320 or BGW620, or that the Broadband light is solid green on an older BGW210, NVG, or Pace gateway, before testing your connection.

Internet Air customers: there is no battery, no telephone cord, and no ONT. Unplug the power, wait 20 seconds, plug it back in, and give it the same 10-minute window.

What the Status Light Is Telling You

This is the part most restart guides get wrong. The BGW320 and BGW620 use a single Service LED for status, and on the BGW320 the WPS light beside it acts as a second signal that distinguishes two very different red-light conditions. AT&T publishes the full charts for the BGW320 and the BGW620; our wider guide to modem and router lights covers how other manufacturers signal the same conditions.

Solid red is not an authentication failure; it is overheating unless the WPS light is also red, in which case it is a hardware fault, and those two problems have completely different fixes. Blinking red is not a normal part of the boot sequence; if you see it, something is actually wrong. And a slow-blinking amber light means an update is installing, which is the one moment during a restart when pulling the plug can cause real problems.

How Long Should a Restart Take?

AT&T allows up to 10 minutes because the gateway must re-establish its link to AT&T's network, verify its firmware, and renew its IP lease before it reports as online. But most gateways return to solid white in 2-5 minutes. If it is still cycling past 10 minutes, the restart is not the problem. Move to the troubleshooting section.

Method 2: Restart from the Smart Home Manager App

Use this when the gateway is in an attic, closet, or basement…somewhere that isn't easily accessible. You will need mobile data or another connection, since the app cannot reach a gateway over the Wi-Fi network that just went down. AT&T documents the path in its restart article.

1. Sign in to Smart Home Manager and select Network.
2. Scroll to and select Home Network Hardware.
3. Select your Wi-Fi Gateway, then Restart.
4. Select Restart again to confirm, then allow the same 10-minute window.

AT&T lists the BGW320, BGW210, NVG589, NVG599, Pace 5031NV, Pace 5168, Pace 5268AC, and the 2Wire 3600HGV, 3801HGV, and 3800HGV-B as Smart Home Manager compatible, and the app also manages Internet Air hubs. While you are in the app, it is the fastest way to check whether an outage is affecting your address. Note that if you have Internet Air, you need to look for a wireless outage, not an internet one.

Method 3: Restart from the Admin Portal (192.168.1.254)

Use this when you are already at a computer on the network, or when you want to check signal levels in the same visit. No internet connection is required, since the portal runs on the gateway itself.

1. Connect a computer to the gateway by Ethernet (preferred) or Wi-Fi.
2. In the browser address bar, not the search bar; enter http://192.168.1.254.
3. Enter the Device Access Code from the sticker on the back or bottom of the gateway when prompted.
4. Open Diagnostics or System Information — the label varies by firmware version — and select Restart Gateway.
5. Confirm, then wait for the status light to return to solid white.

Internet Air hubs are the exception here. They are designed to be managed through Smart Home Manager rather than a browser portal, so use Method 1 or Method 2 for those.

What About the Buttons on the Gateway?

AT&T gateways have no dedicated restart button, and every button they do have does something else. Knowing their differences prevents an accidental wipe.

1. The red Reset button is recessed on the back panel. Holding it for 10 seconds performs a full factory reset. AT&T does recommend it in one narrow case (a slow-blinking red light that survives a cable check), but it is not a restart control.
2. The WPS button on the BGW320 pairs Wi-Fi devices. Its light doubles as a diagnostic indicator, which is why the red-light readings above depend on it.
3. The Wi-Fi button on the front of the BGW620 and the Internet Air hubs toggles the Wi-Fi radios on and off. Pressing it will knock every wireless device off your network at once, including guest and smart-home devices, without rebooting anything. If your Wi-Fi vanished but the gateway looks healthy, check this button before anything else.

AT&T Internet Air: What Changes

Internet Air runs over AT&T's cellular network rather than a fiber or copper line, so several steps above simply do not apply. There is no ONT, no telephone cord, no battery, and no cable between the hub and a wall box to check. The restart itself is identical: unplug for 20 seconds, plug back in, wait up to 10 minutes.

What differs is what to do when the restart does not help. With no cable in the path, a hub that comes back unhealthy points to signal quality or a wireless outage. AT&T's Internet Air setup guide recommends placing the hub on the highest practical floor, near a window facing the nearest tower, and Smart Home Manager will help you find that direction and test signal strength at a candidate spot. Our guides to troubleshooting a 5G gateway and improving 5G home internet speeds go deeper on placement and interference.

When a Restart Does Not Fix the Problem

The Light Comes Back Red

Read the pattern before you act, because the three red states have three different causes. Solid red with the WPS light off means the gateway is overheating: move it onto a flat, hard surface with clear space above and around it, and restart once it has cooled. Solid red with the WPS light also red is a hardware failure, and no amount of restarting will clear it.

Slow-blinking red means no broadband is reaching the gateway. On fiber, check that the Ethernet cable from the ONT to the gateway's Broadband port is fully seated at both ends and undamaged, and confirm the ONT itself has power. Fast-blinking red points to a network service issue on AT&T's side rather than your equipment. Check AT&T's outage page or our real-time outage maps from a phone on mobile data before calling. If a red light survives a cable check, an outage check, and a second full power cycle, the issue is a line or provisioning problem that AT&T has to resolve.

It Reconnects, But Speeds Are Still Slow

Run a wired AT&T speed test with a laptop plugged into the gateway by Ethernet, and compare the result against your plan. Because results differ between testing services, it helps to know which speed tests are most accurate before drawing conclusions. If wired speeds match the plan but Wi-Fi does not, the problem is placement, interference, or band selection rather than the connection. Check out our resource on common home Wi-Fi problems that covers the usual causes.

If wired speeds sit consistently below your plan's speed at all hours, request a line check. Slowdowns confined to roughly 7 to 11 p.m. usually indicate upstream congestion, which no restart will fix; fiber holds up better than shared cable at peak but is not immune. And if everything measures correctly, but the connection still cannot keep up, the plan itself may be undersized.

Factory Reset: The Last Resort

A factory reset erases every custom setting on the gateway. Do it only when AT&T support instructs you to, when the Device Access Code or admin password has been lost, if the gateway is secondhand, or when a slow-blinking red light survives a cable check.

Before you start, photograph the sticker so you have the default Wi-Fi name, password, and Device Access Code. Write down any custom SSID, port forwarding rules, DNS settings, and parental controls you will need to rebuild.

1. Leave the gateway powered on.
2. Press and hold the red Reset button on the back panel, using a straightened paper clip, for 10 seconds.
3. Release. On a BGW320, the WPS light blinks green rapidly while the reset runs.
4. Wait up to 10 minutes for the gateway to restore defaults and return to solid white.
5. Reconnect using the default Wi-Fi credentials on the sticker, then rebuild your network name and password, port forwarding rules, custom DNS, and parental controls.

How Often Should You Restart Your AT&T Gateway?

Restart when there is a reason: speeds drop with no obvious cause, Wi-Fi starts dropping devices, or the power flickers. A monthly power cycle is harmless, but it is not required. If you are restarting weekly to keep the connection usable, then you likely have hardware or connection issues that a restart will not resolve.

Restart First, Reset Only as a Last Resort

Restarting an AT&T Wi-Fi gateway is safe, preserves every setting, and clears most common connection problems within 10 minutes. Work down the list in order: power-cycle first because it is the quickest and preserves settings, Smart Home Manager when the hardware is out of reach, and the admin portal at 192.168.1.254 if you are at a computer. Read the status light before you act: red means three different things depending on the pattern, and the fix differs for each. Save the factory reset for the cases that genuinely call for it.

If the restart worked but the connection still is not keeping up with your household, the gateway may not be the limitation. Review current AT&T plans and pricing, or compare every internet provider available at your address, to see how what you are paying for stacks up against the alternatives.