What Are the Most Common Wi-Fi Problems?

It’s a perfectly normal thing if you need help to setup your Internet connection. Exactly how the Internet generally, and specifically or Wi-Fi works remains something of a mystery to many of us, at least on a detailed and technical level. Problems seem to occur with our Wi-Fi on a regular basis, with most issues being fairly straightforward to fix without professional help.

What are these most common problems? Are all of them as easy to fix as simply switching the Wi-Fi on and off again? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Your Devices Aren’t Connecting to It

First and most obviously, a very common problem occurs when your smartphone, laptop, tablet and other devices can’t connect to the Wi-Fi network at all. You might get a long connecting cycle, with twirling symbols indicating that something is working, only then to be told that you can’t connect, or that there has been an error, or something else has gone wrong.

In this situation, the most common solution is a series of switching on and off measures designed to kick-start the network connections on devices and at the source. For example, turning Wi-Fi off and back on again on the device, forgetting the connection and re-establishing it, and restarting the router. All of these can work, but it’s advisable to start with the simplest idea and work through the rest in sequence if the previous one fails.

2. Slow Speeds in Certain Spots in the House/Office

Let’s say you’ve come across a delicious new recipe that you want to try out for your lunch one day. You have an instructional video on how to make the dish saved on YouTube, so all you now need to do is go into the kitchen with your tablet or phone, plonk it somewhere safe but visible, and get to work. There’s just one snag, the video keeps stopping to buffer every 5 seconds.

It seems that your Wi-Fi signal strength is diminished in the kitchen. Perhaps it’s the farthest point from your router and you struggle to cover the entire area with reliable connectivity. It’s a frustrating problem that’s also common, especially for those who move from a smaller living space to a larger one without upgrading their router. The best solutions are to move closer to the router, or upgrade to a more powerful router that will give stronger coverage.

3. Wi-Fi Drops or Cuts Out Randomly

If your Wi-Fi is cutting out randomly or sporadically, then the most likely cause of that is interference from other Wi-Fi networks, or even from passing vehicles and old microwaves in your living space. It’s a problem that’s most common among those who are holding onto older wireless routers. If you upgrade to new devices, you can usually eliminate this problem.

4. Can’t Find the Network at All

Another frustrating and common issue is when you can see that your Wi-Fi is turned on and the lights are blinking as normal, but for some reason you can’t find the network when you search on your device. It’s no longer showing up in the network list. This can happen if your router resets itself. You might have to login to the administrator account of your Wi-Fi/router and reset the settings and passwords to reestablish the connection. Alternatively, try resetting the devices yourself to see if it reappears.

5. You’re Connected, but There’s No Internet

This one is perhaps the most frustrating of them all. Surely “connected” but with no Internet is a contradiction in terms, isn’t it? This one can get a bit complex, and can mean a number of things. The first thing to do is the usual switching on and off of Wi-Fi to see if it comes back. Next, check your Wi-Fi account to make sure it’s all paid up. If those are all in order, you might have to call for tech support on this one!