When your broadband goes down, your life could be affected in multiple ways. You may not be able to complete tasks if you’re working from home, you may not be able to complete university work if you are a student, or you may simply not be able to take part in planned social activities like e-meetups with friends. When this happens, you may find yourself thinking about whether you should have spent more time researching the best broadband deals. You could also be thinking about quick fixes that could get you back online fast…
Check social media and the news
Major broadband providers typically garner much commentary across social media and news outlets. If you have noticed that your access to the internet has been denied, it’s always worth checking the social media accounts run by your provider, or searching your provider’s name for any message board comments or mentions in the local or national news. This will take seconds, and could save you the wasted time and effort of further investigation where you discover that the problem is being dealt with and your service should be back up soon.
Hardware and software checks (to isolate the issue)
If your phone and laptop can connect to your wireless broadband, but your tablet cannot, the issue is likely down to either a hardware or software fault with the tablet – for example, perhaps the tablet is damaged in some way, or perhaps you have installed new security software that could be blocking access to broadband.
Likewise, if all of your devices are reporting the same issue, you can be more or less certain of ruling out issues with your devices and instead you should focus on the router…
Check all connections and reboot your router
Checking to see if any cables have come loose and turning your router off and on again may sound like basic advice but you’d be surprised how often a simple fix like this can resolve the situation. Be sure to leave your router unplugged for at least 30 seconds before attempting to re-establish a connection.
Connect via ethernet (if you can)
If you still cannot connect to your router wirelessly, connect your laptop (or any other device with an ethernet connection) to the router via an ethernet cable. If your device is now able to access the internet, the issue may be with the wireless abilities of the router – you should contact your provider to discuss the issue.
Your provider will be able to assist you further
Broadband providers are used to calls about denied access. There are many reasons that could be affecting your device’s ability to connect to a particular router (e.g. certain software updates may be causing issues for many customers, which is likely to be known to the provider). Where the issue appears to be a poor service with little information as to when you could expect normal service to return, you may wish to ask about a refund. This could also be a good time to consider switching to a different provider.