What action can a technician take to discard unsaved changes made to a router configuration?

The most effective action a technician can take to discard unsaved changes made to a router configuration is to issue the reload command without saving.

When a router is running, configuration changes made in the current session are stored in the router's running configuration. If these changes are not saved to the startup configuration, the router will lose them upon reboot. By using the reload command, a technician can initiate a restart of the router. If prompted to save the configuration, the technician should choose not to save. This will effectively discard all unsaved changes, allowing the router to revert to the last saved configuration stored in the startup configuration.

This method is direct and ensures that any temporary changes made during the session are simply ignored, allowing the technician to start fresh without affecting the stability or reliability of the router's operational state.

Other options, such as saving the changes before reloading, would ensure that new configurations are retained, which is counterproductive if the goal is to discard them. Disconnecting and reconnecting to the router does not affect the running configuration or help in discarding changes, as any modifications would still persist during that session. Lastly, restarting the router without specifying not to save would typically save the current configuration unless otherwise instructed, potentially losing important previously saved