Summer heat – it wilts flowers, melts ice cream, and makes your internet stop working. Two of these statements are true, but the last one not so much. While summer heatwaves can affect your internet, it’s not a common issue and usually easily addressed. Here’s how heat can affect internet connectivity, and what to do if you suspect the heat’s wilting your online connection.
One common issue during heatwaves are blackouts or brownouts from overloaded electric grids. Electricity powers the towers that provide your internet signal. Electricity also powers the routers and computers you use to receive those signals. Unexpected power outages can negatively affect all of the above. High tech operating systems are complex and in normal conditions when they are shut off will go through a standard shutdown sequence to make sure all running processes have correctly terminated before powering off. A sudden loss of electricity can interrupt important signals and connections and cause systems to experience slow restarts or even leave them in an inoperable state that requires technical support.
Inside residential homes or small business offices, consumer grade routers used for home offices or family wi-fi signals can have issues with overheating if they are kept in a hot area. The most common fix for this issue is to move the router to a cooler location so it won’t have to powercycle down from overheating.
So you can see that extreme heat doesn’t really affect the internet signal, it affects the equipment that shares that signal. When equipment loses power or overheats and shuts down, the signal will be lost. And as the equipment starts back up, the signal may be weak or intermittent until all systems are running smoothly again.
Here at Softcom, though, all of our outdoor equipment is designed to handle a wide range of harsh temperatures so problems from heat are rare.
What do I need to do when my internet goes out from the heat?
First, check our Facebook page to see if it’s a problem we know about and are addressing. We are alerted immediately when there are issues and send our experts out right away.
If there are no reported issues, refer to this checklist to trouble-shoot potential issues from home, including checking your routers, cables, connections and more. If all else fails, give our technical support department at call at 1-800-982-7675, Opt. 1. As a valued Softcom customer, we’ve got your back, and we’ll work as quickly as possible to get you back online – no matter how hot it gets!