My wife and I both work remotely, and we recently moved into a new home. Since the move, we’ve noticed problems with our connection: slow-loading web pages, apps repeatedly going offline, and Zoom calls freezing or dropping altogether. As you can imagine, it has been disruptive—and frustrating.

The most puzzling part is that the connection usually seems fast. Then, at seemingly random times, it slows to a crawl or stops working altogether.

I’m currently on paternity leave, so I decided to investigate. I’m new to troubleshooting network and internet connectivity issues, which makes this a good learning opportunity—and a way to keep my brain active while I’m away from work.

In this multi-part series, I’ll chronicle how I investigate the problem, what I try, and what I learn along the way. This isn’t intended to be a definitive how-to guide; I’m learning as I go, and writing about the process helps me understand it more clearly. If it helps someone else too, that’s a bonus.

Here is what I knew at the outset:

  • The connection wasn’t consistently bad. Most of the time, it was quite fast, but there were periods when it became slow or stopped working entirely.
  • The problems occurred most often on the upper two floors of our home, although we sometimes noticed them elsewhere.
  • I didn’t yet understand enough about the home’s physical network setup to know where to begin troubleshooting.
  • I didn’t know whether the problem was our internet service, our Wi-Fi, or something else inside the network.

Ultimately, my goal is simple: reliable, consistent performance throughout the entire home. Follow along if this is something you’re interested in!

Next: Understanding the system →