Wi-Fi keeps dropping out
Work out whether it's one device or the whole house before you change anything — that single check tells you whether to fix the laptop, the router, or call the ISP.
Find out what's actually dropping
When it next cuts out, check a phone on the same Wi-Fi.
- Phone still works → the problem is the one device. Skip to the adapter steps.
- Everything drops → the problem is the router or the line coming into the house.
Don't guess at this. It splits the job in half.
Rule out overheating and power saving
If it's one laptop, two settings cause most of it.
Windows: Device Manager → Network adapters → your Wi-Fi adapter → Properties → Power Management → uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
Mac: far less common, but check that Wi-Fi isn't disconnecting on sleep in System Settings → Network → Wi-Fi → Advanced.
Change the Wi-Fi channel
In an apartment or a dense street you're competing with every neighbour's router. On 2.4 GHz there are only three channels that don't overlap: 1, 6 and 11.
Log into your router and set 2.4 GHz to one of those three rather than Auto. Auto tends to pick once at boot and never reconsider.
Check for a heat or hardware problem in the router
Routers that drop everything at roughly the same time each evening are usually running hot.
Put a hand on it. If it's warm enough to be uncomfortable, move it off the shelf it's crammed onto, clear space around the vents, and get it out of direct sun. Routers throttle and reset when they cook.
Update the router firmware
Log into the router and look for a firmware or software update. ISP-supplied routers often sit years behind, and dropped-connection bugs are among the most common things these updates fix.
It takes a few minutes and the router will reboot, so don't do it mid-call.
Log the drops before you call the ISP
If the whole house drops, write down the date and time of each outage for a few days.
ISPs will try to close the ticket with a generic reboot instruction. A list of timestamps gets you past that to someone who can actually check line quality — and if the drops cluster at the same time daily, that's a strong signal of a line or upstream fault, not your equipment.