Tips and tricks

Work through it in order. Most outages end at the second or third step.

1. Try another device. If the internet works on your phone but not on your laptop, the connection is fine and the problem is with that one device.
2. Look at the lights on the modem. Power and the network connection must be lit; the latter is usually labelled Internet, DSL, WAN or LTE.
3. Restart the modem, the steps are in the next tip.
4. Check the cables between the socket, the modem and the router. The connector has to click into place; a loose cable looks exactly like a connected one.
5. Check whether your neighbour has the outage too. If so, get in touch with us straight away.

• If nothing helps even after a restart, call 606 027 727. Tell us which lights are on and in what colour, it saves half the searching.

A restart means unplugging it from the socket. The reset button on the back is something else — it returns the modem to factory settings and you lose both the configuration and your own Wi-Fi password.

1. Pull the power adapter out of the socket.
2. Wait half a minute. A quick flick is not enough, the modem really has to switch off.
3. Plug it back in and let it start up. With a connection over the air it takes up to two minutes, with xDSL it can easily be five.
4. Only try the internet once the lights have stopped flashing and are steady.

• If your modem and router are separate, switch both off and turn them on from the bottom up: the modem first, then the router once the modem has started.
• If you have to restart the modem every week, that is not normal. Call us — either it is faulty or there is something wrong with the line.

Every manufacturer labels them their own way, but the colours are nearly always the same.

• Green or blue and steady: everything is running as it should.
• Flashing: the modem is logging on to the network. Give it two minutes and leave it alone.
• Red or orange: the modem has no signal or no line. Try a restart, then call support.
• Nothing lit at all: check the adapter and try a different socket. Adapters fail more often than modems.
• The Wi-Fi light is off and the others are on: someone pressed the Wi-Fi button on the modem. Press it again.

• Switch its Wi-Fi off and on again. On a phone, ten seconds of aeroplane mode works too.
• Forget the network and connect again with the password. A saved connection sometimes breaks.
• Restart the device itself, not the modem.
• With a laptop, try a cable. If the internet works over the cable, it is the Wi-Fi: either a weak signal or the wireless card driver.
• Check whether a VPN or a work proxy is running. Those can cut off the internet all by themselves.

• Write down when the outages happen and how long they last. A pattern tells you more than anything else.
• A slowdown every evening is usually network load. Random one-second dropouts are more likely a faulty cable or connector.
• With a connection over the air, even a grown tree or scaffolding on the building opposite can get in the way of the signal.
• Test the connection over a cable. If it holds over the cable but not over Wi-Fi, the problem is in the router, not on the line.
• Then call 606 027 727 with your notes. From them the technician can tell what to bring along.

A measurement over Wi-Fi on a phone while an update downloads in the background tells you nothing about the line.

1. Connect the computer to the router with a cable. Over Wi-Fi you are measuring the Wi-Fi, not the connection.
2. Stop downloads, cloud backups and streaming on every other device in the household.
3. Close the other browser tabs and run the test, for example at speedtest.net or netmetr.cz.
4. Measure three times in a row and go by the middle result. A single measurement can happen to hit a busy server.

• Speed in your plan is a maximum, not a guarantee. A certain amount of variation is part of any connection.
• Wi-Fi always takes a cut. Through two walls it can easily be half.
• Older devices cannot handle a faster line. A laptop with 2012 Wi-Fi will not do 250 Mb/s whatever you try.
• A test server abroad shows a lower number than a Czech one. Pick a server in Prague.
• If the difference is really large, say a third of what you pay for, get in touch with us with the result of a measurement over a cable.

• Between seven and eleven in the evening there are the most people on the network. A slight slowdown is normal.
• Count how many devices you have connected at home. A television, two consoles and a phone doing a backup take their share regardless of the time of day.
• Set automatic updates to run at night, especially on games consoles. They can download hundreds of gigabytes.
• If the speed drops below a tenth in the evening, that is not load. At that point give us a call.

• To a television and a games console, if you watch in 4K or play online. A cable has no dropouts and the latency is lower.
• To the computer you work from home on and make video calls from.
• To a room the Wi-Fi does not reach. A cable to a repeater is always better than a repeater picking up a weak signal.
• An ordinary category 5e network cable is enough; at normal speeds there is no reason to buy a more expensive one.

• As close to the middle of the flat as possible. A router in the corner behind a wardrobe sends half its signal to the neighbours.
• Up high, ideally on a shelf or a cabinet. The signal spreads sideways and downwards rather than upwards.
• Away from the microwave, the cordless phone and the Bluetooth speaker, which work on the same band.
• Not behind an aquarium, a mirror or a fridge. Water and metal absorb the signal reliably.
• Do not point all the antennas upwards. Leave one vertical and lay the other horizontally.

• First try moving the router. Two metres can do more than new hardware.
• A signal repeater is the cheapest solution, but it roughly halves the speed around it. Put it halfway there, not where the signal is already missing.
• For a larger flat or a house, a mesh suits better — two or three units under a single network name. Devices move between them on their own.
• A prefab building has load-bearing walls and reinforced concrete ceilings. Wi-Fi will not get through two of those ceilings and no setting will help.
• Ask us which equipment suits your connection. Modems are supplied new and with a warranty.

• 2.4 GHz reaches further and gets through walls better, but it is slower and crowded with neighbouring networks.
• 5 GHz is faster and cleaner, but walls are a problem for it. Ideal for the room with the router.
• Most routers broadcast both under one name and the device chooses for itself. Sometimes it sticks to the slower band for far too long, and then splitting the networks into two names helps.
• Put the television and the games console on 5 GHz. Smart sockets and sensors on 2.4 GHz — they often cannot do any other band.

1. Turn the router over and find the admin address on the label, usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.
2. Type it into the browser on a device connected to that Wi-Fi and log in with the username and password from the label.
3. Find the Wireless or Wireless network item and the password inside it, usually labelled Key or Password.
4. Leave the security on WPA2 or WPA3 and choose a password of at least twelve characters.
5. Save. The router will restart and you connect all the devices to it again with the new password.

• Feel free to keep the password from the label if it is long and random. A surname with a year is not a password.
• Write the new password down somewhere. If you forget it, all that is left is a factory reset and setting everything up from scratch.

• Find out whether it happens on all channels or only some. A single channel can have trouble at its own end.
• A set-top box connected over Wi-Fi is the most common cause. Try a cable — with a 4K picture it is usually the only solution.
• Stop downloads on the other devices and see whether the picture settles down.
• Restart the set-top box, the steps are in the next tip.
• Try a different HDMI cable. A faulty cable causes blocky picture even when there is nothing wrong with the internet.

1. Pull the power out of the socket, not out of the box.
2. Wait half a minute.
3. Plug it back in and let the box start up, which takes up to two minutes.
4. If the picture does not come up, switch the television to the HDMI input the box is plugged into.

• Switching off with the remote is not a restart. The box only goes into standby and keeps running.

• Check that you are logged in under your own account, not under someone else's in the family.
• The number of devices you can watch on at once is limited. Log out where you are not watching right now.
• Update the app. Older versions stop working when the player changes.
• On mobile data abroad a channel can be blocked for licensing reasons. No setting will fix that.
• If none of that helps, get in touch and we will check the account.

• We will never ask you for a password or a payment card number by e-mail or text message. Never.
• Scam messages push you for time: your account will supposedly be cancelled tomorrow, pay another 49 Kč.
• Look at the sender's full address, not just the displayed name. A fraudster can set that to anything.
• Hover the mouse over the link and read at the bottom of the window where it leads. On a phone, press and hold the link.
• If you are not sure, call 606 027 727 and ask. It costs you nothing.

• Change the router admin password straight away. Everyone knows the factory admin/admin, and through it your whole network can be reconfigured.
• Change the Wi-Fi password when someone knows it who you no longer want to know it. Regular changes on their own serve no purpose.
• Switch off remote access to the router from the internet if you do not use it yourself. It is usually in the settings as Remote Management.
• Check now and then whether the manufacturer has released a firmware update. That is exactly what patches such holes.
• Offer visitors the guest network. From it they cannot get at your computers, drives and printer.

• Most routers can do parental controls. You pick a device and set the hours when it has access.
• A per-device limit can be got around with mobile data. For control on a phone, the settings in the system itself work better.
• Wi-Fi switched off overnight also upsets smart sockets and cameras. Limit specific devices, not the whole network.
• A guest network with its own password comes in handy here too. It can be switched off with one click and the rest of the household keeps running.