Wi-fi that keeps dropping out is the single most common thing people bring to the Friday clinic, and about half the time we fix it in the room in under five minutes.
So before you ring anybody, including me, here is the order to try things in. It goes cheapest and easiest first.
Start by working out what is actually wrong
Three quite different problems get described the same way, and they have different fixes.
Everything drops at once. The television, the tablet and the phone all lose it together. That points at the broadband itself or the router.
One room is bad, the rest is fine. That is coverage. The signal is not reaching properly.
One device is bad, everything else is fine. That is the device, not your wi-fi, and no amount of fiddling with the router will help.
Spend two minutes deciding which of the three you have. It saves you an hour.
The five minute fixes
Turn the router off properly. Not the reset button. Switch it off at the wall, count to thirty, switch it back on, and wait a full five minutes before deciding whether it worked. Yes, everyone says this. It works often enough that it is still the first thing to try.
Look at where the router actually is. Most routers in this country live on the floor, behind a piece of furniture, next to the television, because that is where the phone socket is. That is close to the worst place for it.
Wi-fi hates water and metal, and it travels downward better than upward. Get it up off the floor, out from behind things, and away from the television, the microwave and any large mirror. Moving a router from the floor to a shelf can transform a house, and it costs nothing.
Restart the device that is struggling. If it is only the tablet, turn the tablet off and on. Genuinely off, not just the screen.
Forget the network and rejoin it. On the troublesome device, go into wi-fi settings, choose your network, and pick Forget. Then join it again with the password. This clears out a surprising amount of confusion, especially on devices that have been carried between houses.
The two networks question
Most routers put out two networks, and they often have almost the same name, with one ending in 5G or 5GHz.
They are not better and worse. They are different trades.
The 5GHz one is faster but does not travel as far or through walls as well. The other one is slower but reaches further. So if you are sat next to the router, use 5GHz. If you are upstairs at the far end of the house, the other one will often be steadier even though it looks worse on paper.
If a device in a far room keeps dropping, try deliberately joining the non-5G network and see whether it settles.
When it is genuinely the coverage
If one part of the house is always bad and the router cannot move, you need to extend the signal rather than fight it.
The thing to buy is usually a mesh system, which is two or three small units that spread the same network through the house. They cost somewhere between eighty and two hundred pounds and they are the real fix.
The thing people usually buy instead is a cheap plug-in extender, which creates a second network with a different name that your phone clings to long after it should have let go. They are twenty pounds and they are the reason a lot of houses have worse wi-fi than they did before.
If your broadband provider offers their own mesh units on your existing package, ask about those first. Sometimes they are free and nobody mentions it.
When to stop and ring somebody
Ring your broadband provider, not a computer person, if the little lights on the router are not the colours they normally are, or if everything drops repeatedly at the same time each day, or if the speed is far below what you pay for even sitting next to the router. Those are line faults and only they can fix them.
Ring me if you have tried the above and it is still wrong, or if you would simply rather someone else did it. I will come and sort it, and if it turns out to be one of the five minute fixes above, there is no charge. If it takes me five minutes, it is on me.
Or bring it to the Friday clinic if you are at Wadswick Green. Bring the device, and if you can, a photograph of the router and its lights.