Why does my Wi-Fi keep disconnecting?

Wi-Fi that keeps dropping is usually caused by something in your home, not by the ISP. The most common causes are a weak signal at the edge of the router's range, a device's power-saving settings, a router that shifts devices between bands, interference, or an overheating or aging router. The fastest way to find the cause is to notice the pattern: does one device drop or all of them, and does the Wi-Fi itself disconnect or only the internet?

First, work out what is actually dropping

Two questions narrow it down quickly.

One device or every device? If only your laptop disconnects while phones and the TV stay online, the problem is that device or where it sits. If everything drops at the same moment, look at the router, the modem or the line.

Does Wi-Fi disconnect, or just the internet? Look at the Wi-Fi icon when it happens. If the device leaves the network completely, it's a wireless problem. If the device stays on Wi-Fi but shows "No internet," the router is fine and the connection beyond it is failing. That's a different fix, covered in connected to Wi-Fi but no internet.

Keep a short note of when drops happen for a few days: the time, which devices, and what was going on. Patterns like "every evening," "only in the bedroom" or "when the microwave runs" point straight at a cause.

When every device drops

If the whole house goes offline together, check from the outside in:

1. Modem lights. When it drops, does the modem's internet or online light go out or blink? If so, the line or the ISP is dropping. Check your provider's outage page or app.
2. A wired test. Plug a computer into the router with Ethernet. If the wired computer drops at the same moments as Wi-Fi, the problem isn't Wi-Fi. It's the modem, the router or the line.
3. Heat and age. Routers in closed cabinets or piled on top of other electronics can overheat and restart. Give the router air, and check its admin page or app for a recent restart time or uptime.
4. Firmware. Install any router update. Firmware fixes for stability bugs are common.
5. A clean restart. Power off the modem and router, wait 30 seconds, then start the modem first and the router once the modem is online.

If drops continue on a wired connection after all that, give your ISP the log of times. A line that keeps resyncing is something they can see and fix.

When only one device drops

One device dropping almost always comes down to that device's settings or location.

• Power saving. Laptops and phones turn the Wi-Fi radio down to save battery, and some do it aggressively. In Windows, open Device Manager, find the network adapter, and on the Power Management tab untick the option that lets Windows turn it off to save power. On any laptop, check whether drops only happen on battery.
• Drivers and updates. An outdated Wi-Fi driver on a Windows laptop is a classic cause of random disconnects. Install the latest driver from the laptop maker, and keep phones and tablets updated.
• Forget and rejoin. Removing the network and joining again clears a stale saved profile, especially after you've changed the router's password or security settings.
• VPN and security software. Some VPN clients and firewalls drop the connection when they reconnect. Test with them paused.
• Location. A device at the far edge of coverage will hang on to a signal that's too weak, then drop. Move it closer and see if the drops stop.

Weak signal and dead zones

If drops follow a place rather than a device, such as the bedroom, the garden or the far end of the house, the signal there is too weak. Each wall and floor costs you signal, and some materials, like brick, concrete, metal and mirrors, cost a lot.

Move the router somewhere central and raised, out of cabinets. If that's not enough, add a mesh node or access point between the router and the weak spot. Don't add it in the weak spot itself, because a node can only pass on the signal it receives. How to boost your Wi-Fi signal covers placement and extenders in more depth.

Band steering and mesh roaming

Many routers broadcast 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under one network name and decide for each device which band to use. Mesh systems do the same between nodes. Newer devices handle this smoothly. Older laptops, smart plugs and cheap cameras sometimes drop instead of switching.

To test, give the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands separate names in the router settings, and connect the problem device to one band only. If the drops stop, keep it that way for that device. The 2.4 GHz band reaches further and 5 GHz is faster. 5 GHz vs 2.4 GHz explains which suits which device.

Interference from neighbors and appliances

The 2.4 GHz band is crowded. Neighbors' networks, Bluetooth, baby monitors and microwave ovens all share it. Microwaves work at about 2.45 GHz, which is why some Wi-Fi drops only while one is running. Evening drops can also come from neighbors' networks getting busier.

Fixes, in order:

• Move devices that can use it to 5 GHz.
• Leave the router's channel on automatic, or pick a less crowded one. On 2.4 GHz, channels 1, 6 and 11 are the ones that don't overlap.
• Keep the router away from the microwave, cordless phone bases and big metal objects.

What a speed test can and can't show

A speed test measures download, upload, idle ping and jitter at one moment. A high jitter figure or a slow result in one room is a useful clue. But a test can't catch a drop that happens ten minutes later, and SpeedMetric doesn't measure packet loss.

To catch drops in the act, run a continuous ping in the background. On Windows, open Command Prompt and run ping -t 8.8.8.8. On a Mac, open Terminal and run ping 8.8.8.8. Run it on Wi-Fi, then on Ethernet. "Request timed out" lines show exactly when the connection dropped, and comparing the two runs shows whether Wi-Fi is to blame. If you see occasional lost replies rather than full drops, read packet loss, jitter and lag.