Wi-Fi keeps dropping at home? Fix the usual causes first

Wi-Fi that drops in the middle of a call, dies upstairs, or turns to syrup at 8 p.m. is one of the most common problems we get called about, and most of it comes down to a few things anybody can check. Go through these in order before you pay anyone, including us.

Is it the Wi-Fi, or the internet?

They are different problems with different fixes. If you can, plug a laptop straight into the router with a network cable. If the internet still drops on the cable, it is the connection coming into the house, and that is your provider’s department: check their outage page, then call them. If the cable is rock solid and only the wireless drops, keep reading, because the fix is inside your house.

Where the router lives

• Wi-Fi is radio, and it hates walls, floors, metal and water. A router in a basement corner, a closet, a cabinet, or behind the TV is serving half the house from the worst possible seat.
• Move it to the middle of the house, up off the floor, out in the open. That alone fixes more dead zones than any gadget.
• Microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones and the neighbor’s router all talk over the same airwaves. If it drops every time someone heats a coffee, that is the microwave.

2.4 GHz versus 5 GHz

Most routers broadcast two networks. 2.4 GHz goes farther and through more walls, but it is slower and crowded with every neighbor’s network and every smart plug. 5 GHz is much faster but has shorter reach. A phone that keeps switching between the two, or clings to a far-away 5 GHz signal, feels like it is dropping. If your router shows them as two names, try putting the far-away devices on 2.4 and the close, fast ones on 5. If it shows one name and decides for you, that is usually fine, unless it is deciding badly, which is a settings fix.

How old is the modem and router?

• A combined modem-router from your provider that is more than five or six years old is often the whole problem. They run hot, their radios age, and they were built for a house with four devices, not forty.
• Count what is on your Wi-Fi: phones, TVs, doorbells, thermostats, speakers, consoles, the printer. An old router quietly chokes past a couple dozen.
• Restart it once, the proper way: unplug the modem and the router, wait a full minute, plug the modem in first, let it settle, then the router. If that fixes it for a week and it comes back, the hardware is tired.
• Firmware updates fix real bugs. Most newer routers update themselves; older ones have a button in their settings page.

Extenders, and why they disappoint

A plug-in repeater takes a weak signal and repeats it, weakly, at half speed. It is a bandage. What fixes a big house, a brick house, or a house with the router stuck in a bad spot is a second access point connected back to the router by a wire, or a decent mesh system placed properly. Which one you need depends on the house, and that is where measuring beats guessing.

When to call someone in

When the router is in a good spot, the restart did not stick, the cable test says the internet itself is fine, and the Wi-Fi still dies in parts of the house or drops under load. At that point the fix is a proper look: we come out, measure where the signal actually dies, find what is fighting it, and place wired access points or a mesh so the whole house gets real signal, not a repeated echo of it. We do that as part of our network and Wi-Fi work, for homes as well as offices.

An on-site visit is a flat $149, quoted in the booking flow before you commit, and a next-day or weekend slot adds $49. Most everyday Wi-Fi problems are sorted on the spot; if the house needs hardware, you hear what and why before anything is bought. Book it from the on-site page, or call or text (574) 444-9910 and tell us what keeps dropping. Every price we charge is on our prices page.