Why Does Your Internet Connection Randomly Stop Working?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2018-05-06
·
993 words · ~4 min read
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It's happened to all of us. You're in the middle of a raid trying to submit an
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assignment five minutes before it's due or about to watch an important penalty
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kick when everything just freezes and that little yellow icon says no internet
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connection. Frustrating as it may be unless there's been an infrastructure
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failure outside of your house at least you know a relatively easy fix. Go over
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to your router which probably has some indicator lights bleep blooping that
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there's a problem. Unplug it, wait a few excruciating seconds and plug it back in.
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Although you've probably missed something critical in the interim you're
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at least back online now. But why does this seem to happen so often seemingly
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out of nowhere? Well here's the deal although we think of a router as a
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simple little box that
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sends your internet connection to your devices there is a lot going on under
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the hood. Just like a full-blown desktop PC routers have their own CPU, memory,
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mainboard, IO, and even operating system. All of which help it manage data traffic
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deciding what needs to be sent where. And these components of a router can get
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overloaded. Similarly to how having 40 browser tabs
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multiple HD video streams and a game running at the same time might bring
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your laptop to its knees, pushing tons of data through your router to lots of
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different devices can also slow it down sometimes to a screeching halt. Further
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complicating matters is the fact that most home internet connections use what
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are called dynamic IP addresses. You see internet service providers typically
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assign IP addresses which are likely to be a little bit more complicated than the
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normal IP addresses. But if your router is very busy it might not latch on to the new
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IP address and continue trying to use the old one. Which is kind of like trying to receive
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mail at your old apartment. Your router might be yelling as loudly as it can for Google
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to deliver that darn
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Chinese food order. But no one down at the city walk can hear it scream. And while we're
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on the subject of chicken fried rice, your router also might be cutting out because it's
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as hot as a wok. Many of us are guilty of this, but shoving your router in a corner
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somewhere where its ventilation holes might get blocked by cables or dust can cause it
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to overheat. So be sure to check that if your router is crammed behind a piece of wood,
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a piece of furniture, it can actually breathe.
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But there are other problems that aren't necessarily caused by a router malfunction. If you're
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on a Wi-Fi connection, sometimes the airwaves just get very crowded. Especially if you're
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on the common 2.4 gigahertz band, where noise from common household devices like microwave
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ovens and baby monitors, and even signals from other nearby routers on the same frequency
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can overlap.
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This can make it difficult for your receiving device to hear what your router is trying
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to say.
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If this is the case, which you can actually find out by downloading a mobile app to look
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at nearby networks, try going into your router settings and changing the channel or switching
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to the 5 gigahertz band if your router and your devices support it. It not only delivers
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data more quickly, but it also offers many more channels and is less crowded overall.
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And if changing channels,
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making sure your router has cooled off, and the time-honored tactic of turning it off
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and on again, doesn't help, we'll see if your router's manufacturer has a firmware
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update available. Sometimes intermittent connectivity problems are a result of buggy
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software that can be solved with an easy download and a quick round of everybody's
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favorite game, RTFM Funtime.
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And finally, while remembering this handful of tips, we'll usually ensure your router's
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never out of commission for a long period of time. So if you're on a Wi-Fi connection,
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and you've been out of commission for too long, if it does happen, we've got a great
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tip to help you feel better. Keep a stress ball nearby, so you can route your frustrations
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into that.
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So FreshBooks is offering a 30-day unrestricted free trial to our viewers. To claim it, just
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go to freshbooks.com slash techquickie linked below, and enter techquickie in the how did
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you hear about us section.
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So thanks for watching, guys.
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