WIFI Triage

Who this is for: anyone whose internet "isn't working." Five minutes here often saves a service call.

The short answer

Work outward from yourself. Is it just your device, or everyone? Just Wi-Fi, or wired too? Just one website, or everything? Each answer eliminates a whole layer, and the answers tell us exactly where to look if you do need to call.

Step 1: Is it just you?

Ask one other person, or check your phone with Wi-Fi on.

• Only your computer is affected → the problem is on that device. Skip to Step 4.
• Everyone is affected → keep going.

Step 2: Is it just one site or service?

Try two unrelated sites — a search engine and a news site, say. If everything loads except one service, the outage is at that service, not with you. Most vendors publish a status page; search for "[vendor name] status."

Step 3: Wi-Fi, or the whole network?

Find a desktop computer or a printer that's plugged in with an ethernet cable.

• Wired devices work, wireless doesn't → the access points are the problem. Note whether people near a particular access point are the ones affected.
• Nothing works, wired or wireless → the problem is at the router, the modem, or the internet provider.

Step 4: The reboot, done in the right order

Order matters. Each device needs its upstream connection alive before it starts.

1. Unplug the modem (the box with the coax or fiber line from outside) and the router or firewall.
2. Wait 30 seconds.
3. Plug in the modem only. Wait until its lights settle — usually two to five minutes.
4. Plug in the router. Wait two more minutes.
5. Test a wired device first, then wireless.

Do not reboot anything more than once. If one clean cycle doesn't fix it, the reboot isn't the answer and you're just adding downtime.

Step 5: Fixing a single device

• Turn Wi-Fi off and on. On a phone, also try airplane mode on and off.
• Forget the network and rejoin it. On a Mac: System Settings → Wi-Fi → Details → Forget This Network. On Windows: Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi → Manage known networks.
• Restart the computer. Genuinely — a sleep/wake cycle isn't the same thing.
• If you're on a VPN, disconnect it and test again.

Signs it's a coverage problem, not an outage

These point to access point placement rather than anything broken:

• It's slow in one room and fine in another.
• Video calls drop when you walk between rooms.
• It degrades in the afternoon when the building is full.
• Your device shows full bars but pages still hang — a strong signal with heavy interference or a saturated access point.

These don't get better on their own. They need a site survey.

What to tell us when you call

You'll get to a fix much faster with: what time it started, whether wired devices work, how many people are affected, whether it's one location or all of them, and what changed recently — new equipment, a power outage, a construction crew.