People use the internet in many ways across the country, like streaming, communicating with friends, attending classes online, and gaming, among other uses. In fact, internet services have become a daily necessity for employees, students, and employers, among other people. As a result, having unstable internet that keeps dropping whenever you use can be very frustrating and irritating. This is because you are typically put into compromising situations because you cannot access the online service you want.
There are many factors like outages and obsolete router firmware that might lead to internet connecting and disconnecting. Therefore, you must identify and rectify the problem to avoid having problems. Is your internet disconnecting and reconnecting but don’t know what to do? Do not panic. In this tutorial, we are going to give some remedies on how you can stop your internet from disconnecting and reconnecting. However, before that, what is causing your internet to keep disconnecting and reconnecting? Let us find out in the next section. Be our guest!
Reasons Why My Internet Keeps Disconnecting And Reconnecting
The internet is slowly becoming a necessity for almost every person, from children to seniors. For example, students need the internet to attend online classes and children to play online games. These activities require you to have stable internet to enjoy them smoothly without internet buffering or disconnecting. However, there are occasions when you will experience internet buffering; for instance, it may be disconnecting and reconnecting.
Are you experiencing such problems with your internet? As mentioned earlier, you must identify the problem to resolve it easily. Here are some reasons why your internet keeps disconnecting and connecting.
- There are too many devices connected to the internet: The strength of your internet supply in your house will mostly be affected by the number of devices connected to it. If you have one connected device, you will likely have stable internet. However, the internet gets overwhelmed and sends small data if many devices are connected. This is mainly because of a chunk of data in the bandwidth.
- There are internet outages in your area. You will sometimes have internet disconnection for hours, which may emanate from your ISP. Mostly, it causes internet signals to flicker in and out, which results in disconnecting and reconnecting. This occurs when your ISP is experiencing outages from their server’s quarters.
- Your router firmware needs to be updated. In most cases, a router with obsolete firmware typically develops connection issues with the ISP network towers. This is because the technology being used in the router needs to be updated and compatible with new technology. The old firmware will always create bugs that cause your internet to disconnect and reconnect.
- Radio signal interference. Are you aware that electronic signals from devices such as TVs, Bluetooth devices, and microwaves can affect your internet signals? Placing your router near some electronics can affect the internet signals to all parts of your house. This is because the signals emanating from the router and the electronics interfere, leading to internet drops. Besides, if you are in an apartment where tenants have Wi-Fi routers near each other, you will likely experience that.
- Router configurations. During the installation, you or the technician can configure the router to drop the internet connection at some point. Such configurations happen mostly when the internet is not being used, which is mostly done to save power. However, the router can start disconnecting and reconnecting even when using the internet. Additionally, if viruses attack your router, they may create bugs that alter your configurations.
- Your internet cables are faulty. You will likely experience random internet disconnects if you use old, loose, or damaged cables. For instance, loose cables mostly will not send smooth signals because of the random disconnects. In such a scenario, your internet will be unreliable as it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting.
- Wrong router position. One of the reasons your internet keeps disconnecting and reconnecting is the spot the router is placed. For instance, if you have positioned the router where your device is blocked, the signals will not be consumed successfully. Additionally, placing the router far away weakens the internet signals reaching the devices. As a result, you will be experiencing your internet disconnecting and reconnecting.
Those are some of the reasons your internet keeps on disconnecting and reconnecting. Have you identified why your internet disconnects and randomly reconnects when browsing? In the next section, we will give the remedies to such problems to help you resolve your internet problem. Let us dive into it.
Ways to Stop My Internet From Disconnecting And to reconnect
As seen earlier, when your internet keeps on disconnecting and reconnecting is very disgusting, especially when you are actively using it. However, identifying the main cause of your problem helps you in the fast rectification of your problem. Below are some remedies you can use to resolve the internet connection problem.
1. Check outages
Are you experiencing intermitted internet connection? Before taking any other action to troubleshoot your problem technically, you must confirm with your ISP if there are outages. There are several methods through which you can identify whether there are internet outages. ISP offers several communication channels like websites, contact numbers, and social media platforms where such communication is updated.
To know if there are internet outages with your ISP, kindly visit the official website and check out any updates concerning the outages. Also, you can call them using the contact number provided on their website; fortunately, most are toll-free numbers. Finally, you can check for updates on their social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
2. Restart your router
One of the reasons why you may be experiencing intermitted internet connection is the wrong router configuration. Restarting the router will effectively resolve your internet connection problem. How do I restart my router?
Here is a simple step-by-step process to help you restart your router;
- The first step is to unplug the power supply cables of the router and then the ethernet cables from the router. Kindly note that there are routers with backup batteries that must be removed.
- Wait for the router to power off completely within 2-3 minutes. Kindly ensure that all the router lights have gone off before you proceed to the next step.
- After three minutes, reconnect all the cables (power and Ethernet) to the router.
- Power it on and wait for the Internet light signal to turn solid before confirming it is working properly.
If the router had the wrong configurations, your internet should be restored and working properly on your devices. However, if it is not restored, kindly proceed to the next step; hopefully, your internet issue will be resolved.
3. Check for interference
Most users usually place routers next to electronics like Bluetooth devices, Smart TVs, not knowing that different devices’ signals interfere with one another. The signal interaction between these devices and the router typically leads to the signal dropping. Have you noticed your phone has a weak internet signal when you are near a microwave? This is what we refer to as radio interference.
How do I resolve radio interference? One effective solution to fixing radio interference is changing your Wi-Fi channel. This can be done using an application such as Wi-Fi Analyzer that demonstrates the most used Wi-Fi channels. Once you identify, you can now change the least used channel. Most experts give you an alternative to switch over to the 5 GHz band, which effectively solves the problem. Most devices typically use the 2.4 GHz channel leaving out the 5 GHz channel.
You can also switch the position you had placed the router in and place it in a different place. Finally, unplug all the electronic devices that are not used to reduce the signal frequency crowding.
4. Check cables
Loose or damaged Ethernet cables running into your router cause internet signals to keep connecting and disconnecting. To resolve the problem, you must ensure that the damaged cables are replaced and the loose ones are set firmly. You must ensure no tears and kinks on the coaxial cables you have used.
To resolve the problem, for instance, the loose cables, unplug all the cables and plug them again into the router. If you have a damaged cable, you may be required to contact a professional to replace the damaged cables if you are not skilled. Several experts around the country can help you resolve the intermitted internet connection problem. However, kindly note that you must pay them for the services offered.
5. Update your router’s firmware
If your router uses old firmware, it will have compatibility issues with the latest ISP network technology. This will result in internet issues like disconnecting and reconnecting randomly. To function well, you must keep updating the router to the latest firmware compatible with the latest ISP technology.
Kindly note that your ISP will automatically update your router firmware, but you still need to check. Checking will help determine if the router is using the latest or the old firmware. How do I check out my router firmware updates? The only possible way to check your router firmware is by logging into its interface. Here is the way to go;
- Open your favorite browser.
- Enter the IP address written on the router or type the URL provided on the sticker attached to the device.
- Input the username and password on the IP address sticker at the back of the router.
- Once the page loads, you can see the firmware version number of your router on the dashboard. Mostly, you will locate the number in the upper-right corner of the dashboard.
- Open another tab and search if the latest firmware version number matches the one in the router’s dashboard. If not, you will see a button where you can click and update the router to the lasted version.
After running the above process, your internet should be working properly without disconnecting. If the procedure did not yield any fruits, kindly consider proceeding to the next step below for more help.
6. Contact internet service provider customer service
Not all problems will be resolved by using the above remedies. So, if no step among the ones discussed above has helped you, kindly contact your ISP customer service. Once you contact them, the customer service representative will conduct technical troubleshooting. The representative may request that you help them when they are unable to access to the router remotely.
You can get in touch with your ISP customer service by calling them via their toll-free number provided. Besides, you can chat with a representative by texting on social media platforms, if they allow, or via the website through the chatbot. Kindly note that not all ISP allows chatting, making calling one of the effective methods of communication.
Those are some of the remedies through which you can rectify your internet if you are experiencing intermitted connection. Kindly ensure that you try the troubleshooting methods which you know so that you can revert if you get stuck. Otherwise, always contact the customer service representative or an internet expert to guide you on the way forward professionally.
Conclusion
As seen above, your internet will be unreliable if it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting when browsing. However, the remedies this tutorial has discussed are the best for resolving your internet connectivity problem. For instance, you need to confirm if your ISP has outages before you can take any action. You can confirm this by calling customer service. If there are no outages, you need to update your router’s firmware and confirm if the cables are loose or if there are radio interferences. Kindly follow the step-by-step process of resolving your intermitted internet connection as discussed above.
