Whether you’re working or relaxing, a sudden Internet connection issue is always unwelcome — especially if you’re working remotely. Unfortunately, these issues are common, with a third of the UK population experiencing poor Internet connections during lockdown.

Thankfully, some of these broadband hiccups have easy fixes. In this blog, we outline four of today’s most common Wi-Fi problems and how to overcome them.

1) A connection that randomly drops out

There’s no good time to lose connection, but it’s especially frustrating when it happens randomly. This can be particularly tough when you’re in a work meeting or during a tense moment in a film you’re streaming!

These connection outages could happen for several reasons. It could be that your router is faulty or just isn’t capable of supporting your Wi-Fi demands. If this is a frequent issue, it’s worth speaking with your provider about upgrading — or potentially taking your business elsewhere.

However, interference from other devices may be to blame. Cordless phones, Bluetooth-enabled devices, or even microwaves often use the same frequencies as your router, so turning this equipment off could help.

2) Slow Internet access in some rooms — or none at all

Wi-Fi coverage can vary throughout a building or home, so some rooms might have a weaker Wi-Fi connection than others.

As Wi-Fi uses radio waves, its strength depends on how far your device is from the router. Importantly, walls, floors or furniture can also limit coverage for some areas. To address this, it’s worth putting your router in a central location. If this doesn’t help, consider using a secondary router or Wi-Fi repeater in affected rooms.

3) Devices won’t connect to Wi-Fi

When you can’t get online at all, Internet speeds are the least of your worries. This problem often stems from your devices rather than your router. There are multiple potential solutions here:

• Double-check that your Wi-Fi password includes the right sentence case, numbers, and special characters.
• Ensure you’re in range of the correct router and that it’s on without any error lights.
• Turn off the Wi-Fi on your device and try again. If that doesn’t work, forget the network and start from scratch.
• Where possible, plug an ethernet cable into your device. If this works and your Wi-Fi doesn’t, you’ll know the router is the issue.

4) Poor Internet speeds everywhere

If you’re burdened with low speeds across rooms and devices, there may be a more fundamental problem. But first, you could see if a factory reset on your router helps.

To know what speeds you’re paying for, you can test your connection with free sites including Speedtest. If this doesn’t match the average speeds for your package, it’s best to speak to your provider or even switch to a better one.

We hope this blog has been helpful. If you’re interested in reliable home or business broadband with responsive customer support and engineers, look no further than us. We’re totally transparent about informing you of any service disruptions, too.

Contact our expert team today for more information about our full range of packages.