Wi-Fi down? Five things to try before you ring me

The most common reason people call me is “the internet is down”. And in a good half of those cases it can be fixed without me coming out. Try this in order; each step takes a moment.

1. Work out whether it is the internet or just the Wi-Fi

These are two different things and each is fixed differently. Pick up your phone and turn its Wi-Fi off so it runs on mobile data. If pages load, the internet itself is working and the problem is in your home network. If nothing loads on mobile data either, your provider has an outage and you will have to wait.

The other test: connect to the Wi-Fi with a different device. If it only fails on one computer, the fault is in that computer, not in the router.

2. Restart the router — properly

Not with the button, but by pulling the plug out of the socket. Leave it unplugged for a full minute, not five seconds. It needs that time for the capacitors to discharge and the device to genuinely reset. Then plug it back in and wait another two or three minutes for it to come up.

This alone solves most problems. It is not folklore — routers are small computers that run for months on end and occasionally just seize up.

3. Look at the indicator lights

A router usually has a row of little lights. Two of them matter:

• The internet light (often labelled Internet, WAN or a globe symbol) — it has to be on, ideally green. If it is off or flashing red, no signal is reaching your home and that is one for your provider.
• The Wi-Fi light — if it is off, Wi-Fi is switched off. Some routers have a button for this that is easy to press by accident.

4. Check the cables

It sounds silly, but it happens surprisingly often. Pull the cable from the wall to the router out and click it firmly back in. The connector has to click. In a home with a vacuum cleaner, a robot hoover or a dog, cables work themselves loose.

5. Join the network again from scratch

On your computer or phone, find your Wi-Fi in the list of networks and choose Forget network. Then connect to it again and enter the password. The password is usually on the sticker underneath the router, next to WPA key or Wi-Fi password.

When to stop

If you have been through all of it and still nothing, do not keep going. Above all, do not press the Reset button on the router — that returns it to factory settings and wipes the configuration from your provider. At that point a call-out really is needed, because it all has to be set up again.

That is the moment to ring me. Often I can connect remotely and see what the router is reporting without going anywhere.