# How often does your home internet service provider kick you off the internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603 "2023-01-03T20:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cincinnatus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cincinnatus/32/7990_2.png) [@cincinnatus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cincinnatus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/21 "2023-01-04T01:27:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > If there’s a better way to say it, tell me. I call it “disconnected.” “Kicked off” carries a connotation of some sort of violation you committed. I suggest calling the service provider and explaining the disconnections. Service people may find a reason and fix it. It worked for me. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/22 "2023-01-04T01:44:44Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > @ParallelLines Is the Gateway correctly called a router? I’m guessing it is. I couldn’t have this conversation without inviting you to join it. 🥰 Always happy to contribute! The 5G gateway is, per my understanding both a modem (although 5g rather than fiber optic) and a wireless router in one. In the common household terms, the modem connects to the internet, the router provides certain gatekeeping functions and allows multiple devices to access the internet whether wired or wirelessly. So sometimes, you’ll see the idiot lights on the modem are apparently fine, but the lights on the router (when they’re distinct devices which isn’t a given) don’t show a connection, and you restart the router, and boom everything works. Although most tech flows will tell you to power cycle both in sequence rather than just doing one of them. It -sounds- like the Gateway may be more sensitive to signal strength, or unhappy with short bursts of higher latency which can be common on over-the-air connections. There are times where when I’m using cellular data that a website will time out, because of traffic, tower issues, weather, etc. But a moment later it will go through. In terms of comparisons, my Xfinity cable internet (200Mbps down) will have an issue on average once a month or so, to the level of requiring a modem and router reset. Every other month, an outage will occur where it’ll be down for a few hours (or rarely days) but it’s normally for an area outage at that point. My cellular connection on my phone and tablets will have issues with connectivity or latency as frequently as once a day to once a week. It is inherently subject to a lot more issues than a wired connection, so it’s within my expectations. But at 4x a day, no, that’s something I’d call / online chat a rep about. Something is abnormal, which could be anything from weather conditions, variability if your area is having any sort of power fluctuations, or other local issues at the tower. A third party resource that can help - [https://downdetector.com/status/t-mobile/map/](https://downdetector.com/status/t-mobile/map/) If a bunch of people in your area are reporting outages, you’ll often see it here first, before the carrier recognizes the issue. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/23 "2023-01-04T02:09:06Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > It -sounds- like the Gateway may be more sensitive to signal strength, or unhappy with short bursts of higher latency which can be common on over-the-air connections. This makes sense to me. > [@ParallelLines](#): > > Something is **abnormal** , which could be anything from weather conditions, variability if your area is having any sort of power fluctuations, or other local issues at the tower. (My bold) Some people have said that I’m not quite normal… Thanks for the link. I’ll call T-Mobile tomorrow. Glad to see ya. 👋🏽 ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/24 "2023-01-04T02:15:41Z")
Do notify your provider. They may have a solution. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/25 "2023-01-04T02:32:43Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I have T-Mobile and rarely lose connection. Same here. Wonder if the OP has a bad Gateway. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/26 "2023-01-04T02:34:12Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Wonder if the OP has a bad Gateway. Or, just sketchy T-Mobile coverage at her house. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/27 "2023-01-04T02:38:11Z")
I have Comcast, and I can’t remember the last time I had to power cycle the modem. If I had to guess, it probably happens 4 times a year max, counting actual local cable outages. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/28 "2023-01-04T03:37:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Or, just sketchy T-Mobile coverage at her house. I think it’s this. The most I ever get on the Gateway is three bars. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/29 "2023-01-04T13:11:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It varies. I have Comcast/Xfinity; there have been periods where our internet connection has been glitchy, and we might lose connection (for anywhere from a few moments to a few minutes) several times a day. That hasn’t happened for months, now (and now I’m jinxing myself, and it’ll start happening again). We have Comcast/Xfinity as well, and it’s been very glitchy. Occasional outages that last several hours. Fairly frequent micro-outages, lasting several minutes at a time-- a few of those a week, give or take. Slow periods where an internet speed test will show our download speed is greatly reduced and our upload is practically 0, which can last for minutes or hours. Very frustrating since I work at home and depend on the internet. But we grit our teeth and bear it because out only other option for internet, AT&T, has quite a bit slower internet speeds. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/30 "2023-01-04T15:08:47Z")
I’ve got AT&T DSL (VDSL if you want to get into it), and for the most part, it runs non-stop. Every now and then it loses its mind, and we’ll have a week or so where it drops connection randomly during daytime. Every now and then the router will randomly reboot. I assume that the first is due to them working on something in our neighborhood and having to restart something at the head end, and the second is probably some sort of remote update/adjustment to my router. As far as actual outages go, I can’t recall it being out for any longer than the router takes to reboot in a LONG time- years in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/31 "2023-01-04T15:12:58Z")
Unless there is a wider outage, never. And outages generally occur less than once per year (Spectrum). ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/32 "2023-01-04T16:59:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’ll call T-Mobile tomorrow. I called and the CSR said I’m in the path of three towers (Isn’t that a book or something?) and they’re doing some work on one of them (I’ll bet they say that to all the customers) and when that’s done I shouldn’t have the connectivity issues. I’m satisfied. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/33 "2023-01-04T17:25:58Z")
I have Spectrum and rarely lose connectivity. Maybe once a year? Oddly enough Spectrum internet/cable/phone went out in our neighborhood from 12/23 to 12/25 (last weekend) because of the winter storm. It was very odd to exist at home for nearly 3 days without streaming content. Even more odd was my parents who didn’t have their cable tv, which is their main source of entertainment. Luckilly they still have a working DVD player. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/34 "2023-01-04T18:17:28Z")
> [@cincinnatus](#): > > I call it “disconnected.” “Kicked off” carries a connotation of some sort of violation you committed. I’ve been disconnected sometimes when my wife hits something on the router or modem (they’re by her desk) but kicked off from AT&T Fiber? Never. I vaguely remember a few disruptions back when we had DSL, but over the last 25 years our service has been great. ---
**Author:** ![ArtBeforeScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@ArtBeforeScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArtBeforeScience)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/35 "2023-01-04T20:51:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I have Comcast/Xfinity; there have been periods where our internet connection has been glitchy, and we might lose connection (for anywhere from a few moments to a few minutes) several times a day. This happens to me too, sometimes it means the internet is about to go down for hours. A lot of little timeouts especially in heavy rain. Not nice, I can’t work and I’ve lost work calls. Then I call Comcast and get a bot. Followed by a survey about how likely I am to recommend Biz Comcast to others and needless to say I’m not rating them well. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/36 "2023-01-04T21:33:21Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Unless there is a wider outage, never. And outages generally occur less than once per year (Spectrum). Same for us. We switched to Spectrum from Verizon, because we had a lot of outages (whatever you want to call them). ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/37 "2023-01-04T23:24:42Z")
Since my current ISP took over management of the local utility’s broadband I’ve only experienced one outage, and that was for a fiber upgrade which took me from 50Mbps to 250. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/38 "2023-01-04T23:59:17Z")
I’d go with about once every three months where the internet doesn’t work for no apparent reason for a few minutes, and then starts back up. And of course every two years or so something similar happens but the service never resumes, and then we realize we need to reset the router or modem, and that’s generally the issue. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/39 "2023-01-05T00:27:22Z")
Another Comcast customer that rarely loses their connection. Last time was on Christmas eve and someone called to tell us. We had gotten a new router a few weeks earlier and the tech forgot to have our software updated. The update took about 10 minutes which meant no internet or phone. My internet has been faster since the update too. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603/40 "2023-01-05T18:55:16Z")
Ours comes with our cable. I think it’s called Xtream. In the 20+ years we’ve had it (I’m sure it’s changed names numerous times) I can count on one hand how many times it went out. It was always weather related. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-your-home-internet-service-provider-kick-you-off-the-internet/977603.md?page=3)