Internet Keeps Dropping

Your search to find a solution to the problem that your Internet keeps dropping, has made you go through various forums and finally led you into this page. Well don't worry, we do not have a page of unanswered questions out here. The problem is precisely clear and so there is not point in concentrating more on the question. Let us rather try to find out the root cause of why the Internet connection keeps dropping and a probable solution to the same.

Reasons for an Intermittent Internet Connection

First of all, the most common cause of this problem definitely lies with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If it's a problem with your ISP, then there is no point that you keep searching over for a particular cause or try to troubleshoot the problem yourself. Simply give a call to the customer care service of your ISP provider and let them solve the problem. Internet dropping once in a while is a quite common problem that lies with the settings at the ISP. However, if you are not able to connect to the Internet every time you turn on your machine, or if the signal strength keeps dropping every now and then, well you need to take some steps yourself. To figure out, if the problem lies with your settings, simply go to the command prompt of your computer, and type ping (website), where (website) should be replaced by the url of a website, or even better if it is the IP address of another machine in the same network. If you see that the computer can receive and transfer bytes or packets, then the chances of your ISP having some problem is minimal. You will get a message that some amount of packets have been received or some number of packets have been transferred if everything is functioning well.

However, if you do not get the desired output, then it's still not necessary that the problem lies with your ISP, there can be various other reasons too. Just check if you see something at the right hand corner of your Start menu toolbar, if the connection is disconnected. If so, then you should rather be glad, as it is not a very serious problem. Simply unplug and plug back the cables going into your router and modem. This is one of the most common reasons as to why a cable Internet keeps dropping. Of course, the step stated above, most of the time fixes the problem, but in certain cases you may have to change the cables or the connectors. The next reason that may be causing the problem is that the drivers in your computer are not updated. But, I could never find out the reason as to why that should cause a problem. If initially when you connected your computer to the Internet and it was working properly then this should not be a reason now. But surprisingly, updating drivers solves this problem many times. Best of luck with that.

When you have a single Internet connection at your home and have connected a good number of computers to the same, through a default gateway, chances of your Internet connection dropping is very high. Though this may not always happen, but you may face problems like Internet keeps freezing or Internet keeps timing out, if you have a slow Internet connection. I don't think I need to provide an explanation as to why is this one of the reasons. If your wireless Internet connection keeps dropping, it may happen that the signal strength at the place where your router is placed may not be good. So, you can of course try shifting over your router to different places and figure out, if that is one of the cause of your problem.

Troubleshooting Tips

• As already mentioned, plug out and plug all the wires into your modem and router.
• If it is a wireless Internet connection, try using a wireless signal booster.
• If your Internet connection is slow and your Internet keeps freezing, disconnect one or more computers from the router and find out if the signal strength improves.
• Check if your router settings are correct and if you need a WEP key, then have you entered it properly in the configuration.
• If you find the error 'Server Not Found' for some of the websites, then try removing or adjusting one or more of the firewalls that you are using.
• Last but not the least, if nothing works out, call up your Internet Service Provider and ask him to resolve the issue.

If your Internet keeps crashing then of course, besides giving a call to the ISP, you can also try running a virus scan on your computer with a good antivirus software.