Home Internet and WiFi - Troubleshooting Your Connection

Why won't my computer connect to the Internet?

Can you access a different website?

If you can't connect to a particular website, try a few others to see if any of them load. If one website loads and another doesn't, the problem is probably with that website and not your network.

Is your device's WiFi On?

You may not realize it, but your computer may have a mechanical switch to turn WiFi on and off. You may have unknowingly bumped the switch or accidentally turned off WiFi via another keyboard method. Not even rebooting your computer will fix the problem if you’ve accidentally shut off your WiFi access. So be sure to double check that your WiFi is indeed on.

Are you connected to the correct WiFi network?

On your device, navigate to the area where you can view all WiFi networks that are in range.
Select your active WiFi from the list of available networks, and enter the correct WiFi password.
Try again to connect to a particular website in your web browser. 

Have you restarted your computer and/or modem and router lately?

You can try restarting your devices.

  1. Restart your computer
    Sometimes, when a device needs to run updates, other basic functions will not work properly. Restart your computer, and go through any updates as prompted on your device. Once everything is back up to date, try reconnecting to your WiFi again. Windows does not always actually restart the computer and instead puts it into a deep sleep. You need to make sure that you actually rebooted by checking your uptime.
     
  2. Is your modem and router working properly?  Restart your network
    1. Unplug the cable and power cord on your modem for 30 seconds and plug it back in.
    2. Unplug the cable and power cord on your router for 30 seconds and plug it back in.
    3. The lights on your modem and router should start blinking.
    4. When the light comes on that you have an Internet connection, restart your computer.

Have you tried to remove the WiFi network and then re-add it?

This guide will help you to forget (remove) your WiFi network and re-add the network on your device. Forgetting a network is often a helpful step when you are having problems connecting to WiFi. If you have changed your password recently, you may need to complete this step in order to get the network to prompt you for your credentials again. Once you have completed the steps for your device, you can attempt to reconnect to your active WiFi network. Your personal device may not use the exact terminology to "forget" a network. You may need to search for your specific device's instructions for forgetting or deleting a network connection that had previously been used.

Windows 10:
Click the Network icon on the lower right corner of your screen.
Choose Network settings.
Click on Manage Wi-Fi settings.
Under Manage known networks, select your WiFi.
Then click Forget
Then reconnect to your active WiFi network and enter the correct WiFi password.

Mac OS (Apple):
Click the WiFi symbol at the top of your screen, and select Open Network Preferences.
In the lower-right corner, choose Advanced.
Under Preferred Networks select your WiFi.
Click the minus (-) button to forget.
Click OK.
Then reconnect to your active WiFi network and enter the correct WiFi password.

iOS (iPhone):
From the home screen, choose Settings.
In the settings menu, choose Wi-Fi.
Locate the active WiFi network and click the blue symbol next to the name.
If the option to forget the network is available, tap Forget this Network and attempt to reconnect to your WiFi. If you do not see the option to forget the network:

From the home screen, choose Settings.
In the settings menu, choose General.
Locate Profile and tap on it.
Select the profile for the active WiFi network.
Tap on delete profile.
Then reconnect to your active WiFi network and enter the correct WiFi password.

Android:
From the home screen, choose Settings.
In the settings menu, choose Wi-Fi.
Locate the active WiFi network and tap or press and hold it.
Choose Forget. Then reconnect to your active WiFi network and enter the correct WiFi password.

Do you have bandwidth-hungry applications running in the background? Shut down video program and file sharing tools.

Video chatting, video streaming and file-sharing tools like Skype, NetFlix, Facetime and BitTorrent can slow WiFi connections, even when they are just open in the background of a device. Applications like these will use as much available bandwidth as possible. Shut down any video program and file-sharing tools (often referred to as “peer-to-peer” file-sharing applications) running in the background of your computer, phone or other mobile device. 

Contact your Service Provider

If you were not able to reconnect to the Internet, you might have to call your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to make sure there is not a service outage or a change to your service plan that you weren't aware of.

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