If your broadband connection keeps cutting out, there are a few things you can do to try and fix the problem.
Broadband connection issues can be caused by any number of reasons, so before you start it is worth identifying where the potential issue lies. At a glance, your broadband router will help you identify these issues,
A broadband router is a device that helps connect your home or office network to the internet and will typically be provided to you by your service provider.
Most broadband routers will have a series of lights which indicate your current connection:
| Green or Blue | If the light is solid, it means that the router is connected to a network and is working properly. |
| Orange | An orange light on your broadband router is that the device is not getting a proper internet connection. |
| Red | If you are seeing a red light it means that there router cannot establish a connection. |
Check Your Broadband Router For Issues
First, check to see if there is an issue with your router. If your router is not functioning properly, it could be the cause of your connection issues.
What to try
Try restarting your router and see if that solves the problem. For most connection issues, this will fix the problem. To give your router a restart you router you will need to do the following:
- Unplug or turn off the power to your router
- Wait around 60 seconds
- Plug back in or turn on your router and wait around 5 minutes for the connection to resettle itself
- Test your connection again to see if things have improved.
If after trying this, things don’t improve – it may be worth contacting your broadband provider, who will be able to investigate further.
Check Your Cables
Make sure that all the cables connecting your router are securely plugged in. Sometimes, a loose or damaged cable can cause intermittent connection issues.
What to try
- Unplug and replug any cables to and from your router (remembering where you unplugged them from)
- Test your connection
Check For Interference
Check for any interference that might be causing the problem. Interference can be from other electronic devices or even the position of the router itself can sometimes cause broadband connections to drop.
What to try
- If you think interference might be the case, try moving your router to a different location in your home.
- Moving your router may not possible. if so, may be worth investing in a range extender to improve your wifi connection in areas of your home with poor signal. Our guide to boosting your home wifi signal covers the other options.
If you’re still having trouble with your broadband connection, contact your broadband provider for help. Connections can drop out for various reasons and they should be able to help you identify the problem.
When the fault is the line, not the router
If the drops continue after all of this and your provider cannot find a fault, the cause is often the line into the property rather than anything inside it. Older copper connections are far more prone to dropping out than full fibre, which runs the whole way to the building and has no exchange distance to contend with. It is worth checking what is available at your address before you spend any more time troubleshooting. If a better connection is available, our page on switching provider explains how to move across without losing service.
Is it dropping out, or is it just the wifi?
This is the first thing to establish, because the two problems have nothing in common and the fixes are completely different.
If devices lose connection in one part of the house but a device sitting next to the router stays online, the broadband is not dropping at all. That is a wifi coverage problem, and our guide to boosting your home wifi signal deals with it.
If everything loses connection at the same moment, including something plugged into the router with a cable, then the line genuinely is dropping. The router lights will usually confirm it.
Keep a record before you call
Intermittent faults are difficult to prove and easy for a provider to close as no fault found, because the line often tests perfectly at the moment an engineer looks at it. A short written log changes that conversation entirely.
Note the date and time of each dropout, roughly how long it lasted, and whether anything coincided with it such as heavy rain, a phone call, or someone using a particular appliance. A pattern is the single most useful thing you can hand over, and patterns are exactly what a one off test cannot detect.
Causes that depend on your connection type
What is likely to be wrong depends on what kind of line you have.
On copper connections, meaning ADSL and fibre to the cabinet, most intermittent faults come from the copper itself. Water in a joint is a classic cause, which is why faults that appear after heavy rain and clear up in dry weather are so common. Corroded connections, damaged drop wires and old internal wiring all produce the same symptom. Electrical interference from appliances and light fittings can also disturb the line.
On full fibre, dropouts are much rarer, because there is no copper to corrode and no exchange distance to contend with. When they do happen the cause is more often the router, the small box on your wall where the fibre terminates, or physical damage to the cable. A fibre connection that drops repeatedly is usually a genuine fault worth pursuing rather than something to live with.
Try the master socket
On a copper line, your internal wiring is your responsibility and the provider’s network stops at the master socket. If yours has a removable faceplate, taking it off reveals a test socket behind it. Plugging the router directly into that bypasses all the extension wiring in the house.
If the connection is stable there and unstable everywhere else, the fault is your own wiring rather than the provider’s line, which is worth knowing before an engineer visit you might be charged for.
You may be owed compensation
If the connection is not merely unreliable but genuinely down, Ofcom automatic compensation may apply. Most large providers have signed up to it, and it covers total loss of service that is not fixed within a set period, delayed repairs, missed engineer appointments and installations that start late.
Payments are meant to be applied automatically as bill credit without you having to ask, though it is worth checking that they have been. Note that the scheme covers loss of service rather than speeds that are simply disappointing, which is dealt with separately under the code of practice on speeds.
When to stop troubleshooting
If you have restarted the router, checked the cables, tested at the master socket and kept a log, and the provider still cannot resolve it, you have done everything reasonable. At that point the question is whether to escalate or to leave.
You can take a complaint to an independent ombudsman once you have a deadlock letter or eight weeks have passed. It is also worth checking what else is available at your address, because moving from an ageing copper line to full fibre removes the cause of most dropouts outright. Our guide to speeding up slow broadband covers the related problem of a connection that stays up but underperforms.