Broadband Troubleshooting

Having problems with your broadband service? Your connection to the Internet might drop, or you may experience problems with slow download speeds. This guide will show you where to go to get the help you need.

Broadband Fault Checker

Our online checker will help you quickly find the cause of your broadband problems.



Starting the Broadband Fault Checker will begin a number of automated tests, it will then ask you some questions about your problems. These questions often lead to an instant fix. If not, they will help our support team investigate your problem further. You can start the Broadband Fault Checker through our Help Assistant tool, or going directly to faults.plus.net. Start the Broadband Fault Checker Now.

How We'll Keep In Touch

When running through the questions in the fault check, you'll be asked for some contact details.

We will take an email address, a contact phone number and a mobile phone number.

We will automatically email you when there is an update to your reported fault.

If you leave us a mobile phone number, we'll use this to send you an SMS update if required. You can reply to the SMS message received if we need a response from you. For instance, we sometimes need to verify that your broadband equipment has been left switched on, or we may need to ask you when would be a convenient time for us to arrange an engineer's visit to look into your problem further.

SMS messages will be sent out between the hours of 7am and 10pm. If we should have an update for you outside of these hours, then the SMS will be sent at 7am.

Emails will be sent as notification only. If you need to update us, you will need to use our Help Assistant to do so.

Please note that any details you enter into the fault checker for contacting you will be used for that particular fault only. If you need to update your details more permanently, you'll need to go and edit your account details.

Help with connection problems

You can watch our Connection Troubleshooter Video for tips on how to handle broadband connection problems.

You've just signed up for broadband, your service has been activated, but you have not been able to get connected.

Checking your cables and microfilters

A common cause of broadband faults is the incorrect placement of microfilters, the little box should connect your broadband hardware to your telephone line. Another cause of problems is faulty internal wiring. Read our Guide to Fitting Microfilters for more help.

It is always important to test your hardware by connecting it to your master telephone socket, avoiding internal wiring.

Checking your hardware setup

Make sure that you have set up your broadband hardware properly. You can find help in getting set up in our General Broadband Setup Guide.

Check your username and password are correct

You can check the email that we sent you when your broadband service was activated - this will contain your username and password. You can also check on your Connection Details page.

Poor weather conditions

Heavy rain and other extreme weather conditions can affect the speed of your broadband connection. In some cases this may also cause connection problems. You should bear this in mind before reporting a broadband fault.

Help with speed problems

If you are having problems with slow connection speeds, there is an online tool that you can use, if your service is provided through the BT network, which lets you measure your service speed. You can learn more about it on our guide to using the BT Broadband Speed Test .

For more information about what causes speed problems, and what you can do about them, read our Broadband Speed Faults Guide.

This page last updated 11th March 2008

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