TP-Link Router Lights Meaning (Explained) – HomeNetworkON
The LED lights on your TP-Link router can show you what’s the status of your network and the connection between the router and devices connected to the network. They also show us what’s going on with the WPS connection, the WiFi, Internet. Normally, some lights will be off, others will be solid or blinking depending on whether they are active and whether data is being sent and received.
And of course, if there is a problem inside the network these LED lights will change their normal color indicating that we have to act immediately.
In this article, we are going to cover the meaning of each LED indicator light on a TP-Link router.
TP-Link Router Lights And Their Meaning
Here is a brief explanation of every light on the TP-Link router.
The Power light doesn’t require any additional explanation. When the router is not turned on it should be off, but when everything is working properly, the light of this LED light is solid green.
The 2.4GHz and 5GHz lights tell us which network is being used at the moment. When one or both of these networks is active this light will be on. If they are blinking it is an indication that data is being sent and received at the moment.
If we decide to disable one of these two networks, the matching LED light will be off. However, it is good to know that the 5GHz network is faster but it has a shorter range, while the 2.4GHz network is slower but its range is much longer.
When your TP-Link router connects to the internet the Internet LED light will turn on and it should be green. This is important because in some situations you can see this light change its color into amber (orange) and this is a sign that the cable is properly connected, but there is no internet connection at the moment. This is something that requires our attention and needs to be fixed.
As for the Ethernet LED lights, there are normally four of them just like the number of Ethernet ports at the back of the router. When you connect the Ethernet cable to any of these ports, the matching LED light will turn on. Otherwise, these LED lights will be off.
The USB light is normally off unless there is a device like an external hard drive or a printer attached to it. When you connect a device to the router like this, it will make the HDD drive or printer available for other devices in the network.
Just like with other LED lights, when there is no USB device attached to this port, the LED light will be off. When you connect a device and it’s ready for use, this light will be on. And finally, when this device is being used the USB LED light will blink.
The WPS light is normally off unless you are using the WPS feature. WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup and it allows you to connect a WPS-enabled device to your network with just a press of a button, without the need to enter a wireless password.
The WPS light will be flashing when you press the WPS button. This means that it is looking for a signal from another WPS device. Normally, this blinking lasts for 2 minutes or until these devices connect.
Once a connection is established, the WPS light will stop blinking and it will be solid for the next few minutes and it should turn off after that time.
In normal situations, when we don’t use WPS the WPS light will be off.
Frequently Asked Questions
The WiFi Light Won’t Turn ON. What To Do?
The first thing to check in this situation is whether WiFi is enabled on your device. Some laptops have a physical WiFi switch or a button.
If everything looks good, then login to your TP-Link router and make sure that WiFi is enabled. If it isn’t, enable it and save the changes.
And finally, reset the TP-Link router to factory defaults and set it up again. Please note that a factory reset deletes all the custom settings and a reconfiguration is necessary after that.
How To Reset TP-Link Router To Factory Defaults
1. Use The WPS/RESET Button
Make sure that the TP-Link router is turned on. press the WPS/RESET button for 10 seconds or more. The LED will flash quickly at the beginning and then it should start blinking slowly. This is an indicator to release the button. The router should reboot and once it boots up again it will be reverted back to its default setting.
2. Use The Router’s Admin Dashboard
Login to your TP-Link router using the default router IP address and admin username and password. You can find these printed on a label on the router.
Then select Advanced in the menu and go to System Tools. Find the Backup and Backup & Restore section and the factory reset button should be there. Click on it and the router will reboot.
In both cases, you will have to set up your TP-Link router because all the custom settings like WiFi name, wireless password, admin login details and others will get deleted during the factory reset process.
Final Thoughts
If you pay attention to the LED lights you will see their normal behavior pretty soon. This will help you notice any irregularities in their behavior like changing the color or blinking pattern.
Normally, a change in the color from green to red or amber is a sign that there is something wrong. In most cases, all the issues can be resolved quickly except if there is a problem with the ISP or if we are dealing with a defective router.
Please note that the LED lights on your TP-Link router can be a bit different depending on the model. The good thing on the other hand is that the symbols don’t change so you won’t have problems figuring out which light is which.