It’s a heart-wrenching moment when your web browser reports that it’s no longer connected to the internet. But there’s no reason to panic: We’ve distilled the troubleshooting process into five easy steps. Keep this list close by in case your internet suddenly breaks (or pass it on to friends and family the next time they call on your assistance).

Of course there are many different problems that could potentially affect your broadband, but the tips below should be enough to cover the most common issues—even if you can’t get everything sorted straight away, you can at least work out what’s going wrong and take steps to fix it.

1. Reset Your Router

It’s an IT troubleshooting cliché, but that’s because it often works: resetting your router (or cable box or modem or any other device that brings the internet into your home) should clear away any temporary bugs and issues, forcing the device to reconnect to the web from scratch with a clean slate.

Most routers have a reset button on them for this specific purpose but you can always unplug the hardware as well. Wait 30 seconds or so before restarting the device and then give it (and your computer) a few minutes to get up and running again. Internet fixed? Good, you can stop reading here.

2. Test Multiple Devices

If rebooting your router doesn’t work, the next step is to determine whether the problem’s inside or outside of your home. A quick way of doing this is to see if your smartphone, tablet, or any other computers can get online. If they can, plug a laptop directly into the router using a spare Ethernet cable.

If none of your devices can get online, there might be a problem at your Internet Service Provider’s end. Check your ISP’s official website and Twitter feed to see if there’s a problem currently being reported (using cellular data, of course) or call them to see if they can offer any estimate on when a fix will arrive.

3. Troubleshoot Wi-Fi Issues

Not everyone has a laptop and Ethernet cable at home, but if you do, you can check if the problem is with your internet as a whole (see previous section) or the Wi-Fi in particular. There are all kinds of ways to improve the Wi-Fi in your home, but they don’t necessarily apply to a sudden and unexplained drop.

If your Wi-Fi was working but isn’t anymore (and the problem persists across multiple devices) it’s going to be hard to pinpoint the problem. You should check your router’s settings (changing the Wi-Fi channel might help), reverse any recent modifications to the network, and make sure no one in the house has somehow changed the network password.

As we’ve indicated, there are no obvious solutions here, but if you’ve just decided to put a wireless device like a baby monitor or microwave next to your router then this could be one potential cause (you really need wireless devices like these as far apart as possible to avoid signal interference).

Heavy bandwidth use by one particular device might drag the internet connection speed down, but then you’d probably see the effect on a wired connection as well. Using a speed test site or app might give you some more clues as to what’s causing the wi-fi to slow down or drop completely.

4. Troubleshoot Issues With a Specific Device

If only one of your devices can’t get online, the focus of your troubleshooting can be much narrower, and it should be easier to find a fix. Resetting the device often works wonders, forcing a reconnection with the router and device that can iron out plenty of temporary problems.

You should make sure that the device is updated and running the latest available version of its operating system. On computers that applies to Wi-Fi adapter firmware as well. If necessary, uninstall and reinstall the drivers associated with your Wi-Fi hardware to make sure they’re functioning correctly.

If you’re troubleshooting a laptop or desktop, then a thorough virus scan is well worth your time, and both Windows and OS X include wireless diagnostic tools that can help you pinpoint exactly what’s gone wrong.

It’s also worth trying a different web browser. It’s possible that an extension, plugin or browser bug is the root cause of your internet hangups. If you do find your browser’s at fault, uninstall and then reinstall it to force a complete reset of the software.

Here we’re specifically concerned with a device that was getting online fine but now isn’t, so a recent change is most likely to blame: try uninstalling any recently added apps (particularly network-related ones such as VPN tools). As a last resort, you can try running a factory reset on the device.

5. Other tips

In terms of good practices and habits: keeping everything up-to-date and current is important, and that means the software and the firmware for your devices (hosted on manufacturer websites and support channels) can help you. Any bugs will be squashed along the way.

If you think you’ve got neighbors likely to hack into your network, then head to your router’s settings and change the wi-fi password (the manual should have pointers if you aren’t sure)—that means every device will have to reconnect to the router again from scratch, using the new password.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, a global nonprofit association of companies that determine the interoperability of Wi-Fi technology, recently certified the 802.11ac Wave 2 standard. The new standard brings a host of updates that could eventually affect the daily connectivity of consumers and businesses alike

Here are six performance changes that we will see with 802.11ac Wave 2.
1. It opens up gigabit Wi-Fi possibilities
With all the hype around products like Google Fiber, AT&T GigaPower, and Verizon Fios, it’s safe to say that gigabit internet is hot right now. However, it’s mostly constrained to a hardline connection. Using the Wave 1 standard, gigabit speeds have been achieved in lab settings, but not commonly in the real world.

The Wave 2 standard could open the door for gigabit Wi-Fi, though. The PHY (physical) rate, which in turn affects the throughput rate of data transfer, is much higher in Wave 2. Wave 1 PHY rate maxes out at 1.3 Gbps, while Wave 2 can be 2.34 Gbps. Even if the throughput was 50% lower than the theoretical PHY rate for Wave 2, in theory it would still be above 1 Gbps.

2. It supports more connected devices
Wave 2 offers offers greater density than Wave 1in that it supports multiuser multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO). This means that the spectrum is used more efficiently for multiple connected devices, and devices can more easily get on and off of the network.
Gartner research vice president Tim Zimmerman said it is: “The ability for the access point to communicate simultaneously with multiple mobile devices in a single coverage area.” The access point will be able to talk to up to four, single stream devices at one time going downstream.
The support of MU-MIMO is important for consumer users, as most people tend to have multiple connected devices in their home or on their person, but it’s also good new for businesses. The growing number of mobile devices and IoT-connected devices have created some frustrations for network admins, and the addition of MU-MIMO support could help alleviate some of those headaches.

3. It offers stronger performance
In addition to the stronger PHY rate, it also adds the option for 160 MHz channel width. Previously, in Wave 1, the only options were 20, 40, and 80 MHz. In theory this will make it easier to access and transfer large files.
The Wave 2 standard also adds a fourth spatial stream, up from the three streams offered in Wave 1. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, “Device speeds are proportional to the number of spatial streams.” So, more streams should mean better overall performance.

4. It brings more bandwidth and flexibility
One of the biggest updates that comes with 802.11ac Wave 2 is that it supports additional 5 GHz channels. If these channels are designated for Wi-Fi use, it could help support more users and devices overall. Most devices (65% according to the Wi-Fi Alliance) now are dual-band, meaning they can operate in both the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies.

5. It is certified for interoperability with five devices
With the certification of 802.11ac Wave 2, the Wi-Fi Alliance listed five products that it has certified for interoperability:
1) Broadcom BCM94709R4366AC
2) Marvell Avastar 88W8964
3) MediaTek MT7615 AP Reference Design and MT6632 STA Reference Design
4) Qualcomm IPQ8065 802.11ac 4-stream Dual-band, Dual-concurrent Router
5) Quantenna QSR1000 4×4 802.11ac Wave 2 Chipset Family

6. It won’t be widely available immediately
Wi-Fi.org lists 24 products that have compatibility with 802.11ac Wave 2 features. However, not many of them are hardware-related. As with most new technologies, it will take some time for adoption to ramp up and for supporting products to be released. We will likely see more Wave 2-enabled hardware hit the market by the end of the year.

“You’ll see them in the devices in a near time frame, but the roll into the end-user, whether it be in the consumer or whether it be in the enterprise, it’s going to be a little bit slower,” Zimmerman said.

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