People are just now realizing what the blinking lights on your wireless router mean – and two should never be ignored

FEW people know what each light on their router means—but you might be missing a warning sign.

However, experts warn that adopting an ignorance-is-bliss mentality with your wireless router could mean you miss important red flags.

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Networking expert Theodore Covey shared his troubleshooting guide to Networks Hardware to learn what each of these lights means.

Your router has a range of light colors: white, amber, amber and green, each color determines the status of your router.

We break down what both the bad and good colors mean below.

RED

Red lights mean something is wrong that needs urgent attention.

“If you see flashing red lights, you’re having trouble connecting to your network,” says Covey, while “steady lights indicate there’s an error with your connection.”

AMBER

Yellow lights have several possible meanings.

“If you see a solid amber light on a Linksys router, it means you have problems with your router due to configuration options,” says Covey.

But if you see it on a TP-Link router, all you need is a firmware update — firmware is a computer program that is “embedded” in a hardware device and is an integral part of the hardware.

WHITE

On certain routers, blinking white LEDs can mean that your router is unable to connect to your modem, or that your router’s firmware is corrupted.

But it’s not all bad: In other routers, white lights serve the same purpose as green LEDs.

GREEN

Green lights indicate that everything is fine at your router.

“It shows that you have a router turned on and you’re delivering signals over different paths — like Ethernet or Wi-Fi,” says Covey.

More WiFi tips to get to know

If your WiFi connection is lagging, a lesser-known reason is router placement.

Your router should be placed 5 to 7 feet off the ground with a clean line of sight, plus other considerations such as proximity to nearby devices, The US sun recently outlined.

Also, you might not have heard of this quick 15-second trick to solve slow WiFi problems.