My router keeps dropping the connection every few hours - what is causing it and how do I fix it?

[Stu96]

About three months ago my home broadband started dropping out every few hours, sometimes more frequently. The router reconnects within a minute or two but it is very disruptive for work calls. I have tried restarting the router and my ISP says the line is fine. The router is about four years old. What should I check first and is this a router problem or a line problem?

[Finley]

Four-year-old router is the first suspect. The capacitors in consumer routers degrade over time and thermal cycling from years of being on 24/7 causes intermittent connection drops that look exactly like line problems. A cheap replacement router is the first thing to try before blaming the ISP

[Depot76]

Download a connection monitoring app like PingPlotter or run a continuous ping to 8.8.8.8 from a laptop and leave it running. The data will tell you whether you are losing the internet connection or just the local WiFi. That distinction changes everything about where to look

[Tracey99]

Check the connection between the router and the wall socket first. The microfilter or the physical cable from the wall plate to the router is often the culprit and costs nothing to replace. A worn cable can cause intermittent drops that register as fine on an ISP line test because the problem is physical not signal

[RadekVítek]

Log into your router admin page and check the error log or the uptime counter. If it shows the router itself is rebooting versus losing the WAN connection those are two different problems with different causes. Router rebooting suggests hardware failure. WAN drops suggest line or ISP issue

[Drifter]

Heat is a common cause of intermittent router failures that people miss. If the router is in a cupboard, on a carpet or next to other electronics it may be overheating after a few hours of use and rebooting itself. Move it somewhere with ventilation and see if the drops reduce

[Its_Jackson62]

Ask your ISP to run a full line test during a drop if possible, not just a static line test when everything is working. Intermittent faults are notoriously hard to catch because the line looks healthy most of the time. Requesting an engineer visit with logs of the drop times is often more productive than phone support