Broadband help

Broadband not working? How to fix it, and check if it is an outage

Work through the fixes in the right order, tell an area outage from a fault at home, and claim the compensation you are owed if it stays down.

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The 30-second answer

If your broadband has stopped working, do three things in order. First, check whether it is an area outage on your provider's official service status page, using your mobile data. Second, if no outage is reported, check your cables and restart your router, leaving it off for at least 30 seconds. Third, if it is still down, report the fault to your provider the same day, because Ofcom's automatic compensation clock only starts once you report it. Most home dropouts are fixed by a proper restart, or clear on their own once an area fault is repaired. If yours keeps happening, the problem may be your line or your provider, and it could be time to compare deals at your postcode.

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Losing your broadband is stressful, especially when you are working, streaming or trying to get the kids settled. The good news is that most faults fall into a small number of causes, and you can work through them calmly in a few minutes.

This guide takes you from the fastest checks to your full rights, in the order a UK engineer would actually follow. Nothing here needs any technical skill, and every figure is from a named source.

Is broadband down in my area, or is it just me?

Before you touch a single cable, find out whether it is a wider outage. There is no point restarting your router for twenty minutes if the fault is a cut fibre three streets away. The quickest way to tell is your provider's own service status page, checked on your phone using mobile data, since your home connection is down.

Each of the major UK providers has an official status checker that looks at your line and your area. BT's checker, for example, scans your broadband and tells you whether there is an outage in your area or something to fix in your home, and it will let you book an engineer if needed. Use the official page for your provider first, then use a crowd-sourced tracker only as a second opinion.

On a different provider? You will find its status page and full contact details on its page in our provider directory.

Crowd-sourced outage trackers such as Downdetector can hint at a wider problem, but treat them with care. They rely on user reports rather than a direct read of the network, and providers have publicly pushed back on their accuracy.

Virgin Media, for instance, has said that Downdetector does not accurately reflect its network because it counts reports using an automated algorithm rather than testing the service itself. So use a tracker to answer "is anyone else seeing this", and use your provider's status page as the real answer.

It is also worth knowing whether the break is planned. Providers occasionally carry out maintenance that causes a short, scheduled interruption, and if you were given reasonable notice, that is not a fault and does not qualify for compensation. Your provider's status page will usually flag planned work, so a quick check tells you whether to simply wait it out or to start troubleshooting in earnest.

One more point that catches people out: if your provider has not yet logged the fault, it will not appear on the status page, and you might be the first to report it. That is exactly why reporting matters, even when the page looks clear. If there is a confirmed outage, skip ahead to your rights and compensation. If there is not, work through the fixes next.

How to fix broadband that is not working: the steps in order

Work through these in order and stop as soon as your connection returns. They run from the fastest, most common fixes to the last resort, and they mirror what a support agent will ask you to do anyway, so doing them first saves you time on the phone.

1. Rule out an area outage. Check your provider's status page as above. If there is a fault in your area, the fastest fix is patience plus a claim if it drags on.
2. Check your account is not suspended. A missed payment can cut your service without much warning. A quick look at your account or a recent bill rules this out.
3. Check the physical connections. Make sure the router has power, and that the cable from the master socket or the fibre box to the router is pushed firmly home at both ends. Reseat anything loose. A surprising share of "dead" connections are a cable half out of its socket.
4. Read the router lights. A steady power light plus a steady broadband or internet light usually means the line is up. A red, orange or flashing broadband light usually means the line or the connection is the problem. Exact colours differ by model, so see the light guide below and your provider's own hub page.
5. Restart the router properly. Turn it off at the wall, wait at least 30 seconds so the line has time to drop and resync, then switch it back on and give it a few minutes to settle. On cable, the hub can take up to five minutes to reconnect, so do not give up too soon. A proper restart clears a large proportion of home faults.
6. On full fibre, check the ONT. This is the small box the fibre plugs into, usually near your router. A steady power light and a steady optical light are healthy. A red LOS light, which stands for loss of signal, means a fibre fault, and that is a job for your provider or the network, not something you can fix at home.
7. Test with a cable. Plug a laptop straight into the router with an Ethernet cable. If the wired connection works but Wi-Fi does not, your line is fine and the issue is your Wi-Fi, which we cover below. If neither works, the fault is the line or the router.
8. Factory reset only as a last resort. A full reset wipes any settings you have changed, and on some providers you then need your broadband username and password to get back online. Only do this if nothing above has worked and you have those details to hand.

What the lights on your router and ONT mean

The lights on your router are the quickest read on where a fault sits. As a rule, steady and green or white is healthy, while red, orange or flashing points to a problem. The exact labels and colours vary between hub models, so treat the guide below as the general pattern and check your provider's own hub page for the specifics of your box.

On a typical broadband router, the power light confirms the unit is on. The broadband or DSL light shows whether the router has a working line to the exchange or cabinet: steady is good, flashing or red usually means it is trying and failing to sync, which a restart often fixes. The internet light shows that data is actually flowing to your devices. A router that shows power and broadband but no internet often points to an account or authentication issue, which is worth a call to your provider.

On full fibre, the box to watch is the ONT. Its power and optical or PON lights being steady means the fibre signal is fine. The one to know is LOS, loss of signal, usually a red light: it means the fibre itself has a fault, and no amount of restarting will fix it, so report it and quote the red LOS light when you do. That single detail can save you a wasted engineer visit.

Wi-Fi says connected, but there is no internet

If your device shows it is connected to Wi-Fi but nothing loads, the problem is usually your line or the link between your router and your provider, not the Wi-Fi itself. The giveaway is that the wireless part is clearly working, since your device found and joined the network, so the break is further upstream.

The fastest way to confirm this is the wired test above. Plug a laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable. If the wired connection loads pages, your line and provider are fine and the fault is your Wi-Fi coverage or a glitch on the wireless side. In that case a router restart usually helps, and if it is a coverage problem in a larger home, the fix is better wireless rather than a new deal. Our guide on avoiding broadband downtime when you work from home covers keeping the wireless side solid.

The opposite case, where your device cannot even see or join the network, usually means the router is off, mid-restart or in fault. Give it the few minutes it needs after a restart, and if it never comes back with a healthy set of lights, treat it as a line or hardware fault and report it.

Full fibre, part fibre or cable: what "no internet" looks like

What a dropout looks like, and who fixes it, depends on the type of connection you have. Knowing which you are on helps you read the signs and set the right expectation when you call.

Full fibre (FTTP) runs a fibre line all the way to a small box in your home, the ONT, and your router plugs into that. If the ONT shows a red LOS light, the fibre has a fault, and that sits with your provider and the network operator, whether that is Openreach, CityFibre or an altnet. There is nothing to fix at your end beyond reporting it.

Part fibre (FTTC or VDSL) uses fibre to the green street cabinet and copper for the last stretch to your home, into a DSL router. Here a dropped or flashing DSL light points to a line sync problem. A restart clears many of these, and a persistent one is a line fault to report.

Cable, which in the UK means Virgin Media, brings the signal over coaxial cable to the Virgin Hub. For cable, the most reliable check is Virgin's own status page and the Hub lights. If you want to understand how the different technologies compare, our explainer on full fibre versus FTTC versus cable lays it out.

The key point across all three: if the outage is on the underlying network, your provider raises it with the network operator on your behalf, but you still report it to your provider, because your provider owns your fix and any compensation you are owed.

How to report a broadband fault, and what to ask

An outage you never report earns you nothing, however long it lasts.

Report the fault to your provider the same day, by phone, app or web, because that is when the clock on any compensation starts. An outage you never report earns you nothing, however long it lasts, so this step is worth doing even if you are fairly sure it will fix itself.

You will find the right contact route and number for your provider on its page in our directory, linked in the table above and in the full provider directory. When you get through, it helps to ask a few specific questions:

• Is there a known fault or outage in my area, and if so, what is the estimated fix time?
• Can you run a remote test on my line right now?
• If this is a total loss of service, will I get automatic compensation if it is not fixed within two working days?
• If an engineer is needed, when is the appointment, and what happens if it is missed?

Asking about compensation up front does no harm and signals that you know your rights. If a line or ONT fault needs an engineer, note that missed appointments carry their own compensation, so keep a record of the date and time you were given. If a visit is booked, our engineer visit checklist covers what to expect and how to prepare, and our guide to broadband installation and repair times gives a sense of typical timescales.

Your rights when broadband is down: Ofcom compensation

If you suffer a total loss of service, you are very likely owed automatic compensation, with no need to ask for it. Under Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme, a total loss means no internet access at all, or a phone line that cannot make or receive calls, rather than a slow or flaky connection. You are owed £10.34 for every day the fault stays unfixed once it passes the two-working-day trigger, and the repair clock only starts when you report it. So report it the day it happens.

It helps to be clear on what counts. A total loss of service means your broadband is completely down, with no internet access at all, or your phone line cannot make or receive calls. A connection that is merely slow, or that drops in and out but keeps coming back, is not a total loss, even though it can be just as frustrating, so it does not trigger the automatic payment. If you are unsure which you have, the wired test above tells you whether there is any connection at all.

To put that in a worked example: if your broadband dies and you report it on a Monday, your provider has until 11.59pm on the Wednesday, two full working days, to fix it. From then on, each further day it stays down is another £10.34 owed to you, applied automatically to your account. A fortnight of downtime becomes real money.

The scheme is not universal, but it covers the vast majority of homes. Ofcom currently lists ten signatories: BT, EE, Hyperoptic, Plusnet, Sky including NOW Broadband, TalkTalk, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Zen Internet. A few things sit outside it: slow speeds, Wi-Fi and other in-home issues, planned maintenance you were given notice of, and partial or intermittent faults. You can still complain about those and ask for a goodwill gesture, but they do not trigger the automatic payment.

What if the fault keeps coming back, or drags on unresolved? A persistent or repeated fault can give you the right to leave your contract without paying an exit fee, and you can escalate an unresolved complaint to the Communications Ombudsman or CISAS once you reach deadlock. Our guide on whether poor speeds or faults let you leave early without penalty walks through when that applies, and the wider complaints and your rights guide covers the escalation route.

If your landline and alarm rely on broadband too

On most UK lines the home phone now runs over your broadband, so when broadband goes down, the landline usually goes down with it. This is the result of the switch from the old copper phone network to digital voice, and it changes what an outage means for your household. A broadband fault, or a power cut that takes out your router, can leave you without a working home phone as well as the internet.

That matters most if someone in the home relies on the landline, or on a telecare pendant or care alarm that uses the phone line or the broadband. In a power cut your router has no power unless you have a battery backup, and providers can supply one for customers who need it. If this applies to you, plan for it before it happens: keep a charged mobile to hand, and make sure any care alarm has a backup route. Our guides on Digital Voice and what happens to your landline and on care alarm and telecare compatibility set out the safeguards in full.

How to stay online while your broadband is down

If you need to keep working or keep the household going while the fault is fixed, mobile data is your bridge. The simplest option is to tether a laptop or tablet to your phone over 4G or 5G, which is fine for email, calls and light browsing. For a whole household, or a longer wait, a mobile broadband router gives you steadier coverage across several devices. To tether quickly, turn on the personal hotspot in your phone's settings, then connect your laptop to it like any other Wi-Fi network, and keep the phone charging, since tethering drains the battery fast.

This is a stopgap, not a permanent answer, so keep an eye on your mobile data allowance if you are streaming or on video calls. If you think you may face more than a short gap, for example while a line fault is repaired or an engineer is scheduled, our guide to using mobile broadband as a temporary backup covers the kit and the costs. Many people keep a cheap data SIM in a drawer purely as outage insurance, and after an episode like this you may decide to do the same.

It is slow or dropping, not fully dead

If your broadband is technically working but crawling or dropping in and out, that is a different problem from a total loss, and the automatic compensation scheme does not apply. Slow is not the same as down, and the fixes are different.

Start by measuring what you are actually getting. Our free broadband speed test shows your real speed on the device you are using, and running it wired versus over Wi-Fi tells you whether the bottleneck is your line or your wireless. If you are not sure what speed your household actually needs in the first place, our broadband speed calculator turns how you use the internet into a sensible target. When the line is up but feels laggy on calls or games, the live quality monitor watches latency, jitter and bufferbloat in real time.

From there, our guide on why your speeds are lower than advertised covers the usual suspects and your fix-or-exit rights, and if the slowdown only bites in the evening, peak-time congestion is often the cause. If the numbers are well below what you are paying for and it does not improve, that is a strong signal to look at a better connection.

How to stop your broadband dropping out again

Once you are back online, a few simple habits cut the chance of the next dropout and soften the blow if one does come. Most reliability problems are either a tired setup or an ageing line, and both are fixable.

• Give the router room to breathe. Keep it upright, out in the open and away from other electronics, rather than boxed in behind the TV. Heat and interference cause avoidable dropouts.
• Wire up the things that matter. A desktop, games console or work laptop on an Ethernet cable is far steadier than Wi-Fi, and it keeps working even when the wireless has a wobble.
• Restart it now and then. A quick restart every few weeks lets firmware updates apply and clears the small glitches that build up over time.
• Keep outage insurance. A cheap data SIM or a spare 4G router in a drawer turns the next total loss from a crisis into a minor inconvenience. See our guide on avoiding downtime when you work from home.
• Consider the line itself. If you are on an older copper connection that keeps failing, moving to full fibre where it is available often solves reliability problems for good. Our speed calculator helps you pick the right tier, and you can check what is available at your postcode.

When to stop fixing and switch

If your broadband keeps failing despite everything above, the honest answer is that the fix may be a new provider or a better connection, not another restart. Occasional faults happen on any network, but repeated total losses, a line that will not hold a stable sync, or a provider that cannot resolve a fault are all reasons to move on.

Two things make switching far easier than it used to be. A persistent or unresolved fault can let you leave without an exit fee, as covered above, and the One Touch Switch system means you arrange the move with your new provider only, with far less that can go wrong. Before you decide, it is worth seeing what is genuinely available at your address, including full fibre if it has reached your street, since a move from an ageing copper line to full fibre often solves reliability problems outright.

If you do decide to move, check the provider's track record on faults first. Our provider comparisons and the full provider directory show how the major names stack up, so you can avoid swapping one flaky connection for another. When you compare at your postcode you will see the full fibre and cable options at your exact address, not just national averages.

Keeping the family safe and settled while you sort it

When the connection drops and everyone switches to mobile data, it is easy for the usual home safeguards, such as router-level content filters, to stop applying. If your children are online on phones or a stopgap connection while the broadband is down, it is a good moment to check the controls on their devices. Our free, practical online safety hub covers device controls, filtering and how to talk to children about staying safe, and it is written for UK families. When your broadband is back, the hub's router controls guide helps you get your home filters working again.

Broadband not working: frequently asked questions

Sources and method

This guide is written for UK households and reviewed by our named editors. The compensation figures and signatory list come from Ofcom's automatic compensation guidance, last updated 2 July 2026. The service status links are each provider's own official page. Router and ONT light meanings follow the common pattern across UK hubs; because exact colours vary by model, we point you to your provider's own hub guide for the specifics. We do not guess: where a detail cannot be verified against a named source, we say so or leave it out. Rates and provider pages are reviewed regularly, and this page is updated at least every 90 days.