How to Fix Wi-Fi That Keeps Dropping

The connection works, stalls for 20 or 30 seconds, then comes back, several times a day. The instinct is to buy a new router, but a drop that hits one laptop is a completely different fault from one that takes down the whole house, and the fix depends on which it is. Narrowing that down first saves replacing hardware that was never the problem.

Narrow down what is actually dropping

Note three things during the next drop: whether it hits one device or all of them, one room or everywhere, and whether it clusters at certain times. One device means a client-side fault. Every device at once points at the router or the provider line. One room points at coverage.

Restart both boxes, then move the router

Unplug the modem and the router, wait 30 seconds, power the modem first, then the router. Once it is back, move the router up off the floor, closer to the center of the house, and away from metal shelving, mirrors, cordless phone bases, and the microwave. Enclosed cabinets are a common cause.

Change the channel and update the firmware

In the wireless settings section, set the 2.4 GHz band to channel 1, 6, or 11, since those three do not overlap, and leave 5 GHz on Auto. Then check the administration or system section for a firmware update and install it. Dropouts caused by neighboring networks and by known router bugs both live here.

Turn off power saving on the laptop adapter

On Windows, open Device Manager, expand Network adapters, right click the Wi-Fi adapter, choose Properties, and under Power Management clear the box that lets Windows turn the device off. Then forget the network and rejoin it, which clears a stale saved profile.

Test the line with a wired computer

Plug a computer straight into the router with Ethernet and leave a continuous ping running while you use the connection.

ping -t 8.8.8.8    (Windows)
ping 8.8.8.8       (macOS and Linux)

Lost replies on a wired connection mean the fault is the modem or the provider line, not Wi-Fi. Log each outage with its time in the provider's app so the record exists when you call.

If the drops arrive on a schedule. A router baking in a closed cupboard overheats and resets at predictable times of day. Move it into open air and watch for a week.

If the router is more than about five years old. Older hardware runs out of memory with 30 or more connected devices, and the symptom is exactly this kind of daily drop.