Wi-Fi is not the internet
Work out which link in the chain has gone wrong — the single most useful thing anybody can know when nothing will load.
Four bars of Wi-Fi sitting above a page that will not load is the most maddening situation in home computing. It has one explanation, and once you have it you will never be caught by it again.
Wi-Fi is the radio hop between your device and your own router, across a few meters of your own home. The internet is everything beyond that router: the line into your street, your provider, and the rest of the world.
“Slow” is not one problem. It is four, and from the sofa they feel identical.
Key points
- Wi-Fi is the last few meters. The internet is everything past your router
- Full bars only prove your device can reach the router
- One device broken means that device; everything broken means the router or the line
- Slow has four separate causes, and mobile data will tell you which end to blame
What to remember
- Bars measure the hop to your own router and nothing further. The words underneath them are the part that matters.
- One device failing means that device. Every device failing means the router or the line.
- Compare what is working with what is not. Whatever they share is where the fault lives.
- The thirty-second wait matters. The router needs that long to notice it has been switched off and start cleanly.
- When the internet stops working, what usually goes through your mind first?
Try this
Find the plug for your router and make sure you can reach it without moving furniture. Knowing where it is, before you need it, turns a bad evening into a two‑minute errand.
Practice: Wi-Fi is not the internet. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.