TalkTalk broadband down – what customers can do
UK broadband provider TalkTalk experienced a broadband outage on Wednesday 25 March, with thousands of customers reporting connection issues.
At the same time, its website also went down, which halted many customers from reporting their network issues.
Find out about this TalkTalk outage and what you can do if your internet connection goes down.
TalkTalk internet outage explained
Thousands of UK customers reported a loss of their TalkTalk connection on the website Downdetector early in the morning on Wednesday 25 March.
Customers in various parts of the country, including Bolton, Glasgow and St. Albans, went to social media to report their connection outages. And as more reports emerged, it was revealed to be a potential issue with TalkTalk customers' DNS servers, indicating a nationwide service-side issue on the provider's end rather than a local failure with its physical cable network.
Some customers found a workaround for this issue by manually changing their DNS server to 'Google 8.8.8.8', which bypassed the default TalkTalk server and got their connection back up and running.
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TalkTalk's website also failed to load properly during this outage, which caused further frustration for users as they were not able to report their network outage.
What to do during a broadband outage
If your internet isn't working, it's always worth checking whether the issue lies with your home equipment first.
Ensure your Wi-Fi router is in a clear, central part of your home, and turn it off and on again to see if resetting it improves your connection.
If this doesn't work, you should get in touch with your provider to see if it can diagnose the issue on their end. You might see on its 'network status' page a specific outage affecting homes in your area, or, if nothing has been reported, its team can investigate your problem further.
If you need to get back online immediately, you could try 'tethering' your device to your phone. This way, you can connect to the internet using your phone's mobile data signal – but it only usually works for one device at a time, and you will need to be mindful of your mobile data allowance.
Look for 'Personal Hotspot' in your phone's settings to turn your smartphone into a temporary Wi-Fi router, or learn even more about handling a broadband outage with our more detailed guide.