Internet, Wi-Fi or tills dropped out — what to check
When the tills stop mid-service, the instinct is to start unplugging things. Please don't — that's how a ten-minute fault becomes an evening. This is what's genuinely safe and useful to check, what to write down, and why the times you note are the difference between us finding the cause and never finding it.
On this page
On this page
A venue network has a lot of layers — the internet service, the equipment that shares it, the cabling, the wireless, and then everything hanging off it: tills, EFTPOS, kitchen printers, bingo systems, paging, signage, cameras, the phones. "The internet's down" can mean any one of those, and the useful thing you can do is narrow down which, not try to fix it.
If you only read one thing
- Don't unplug network equipment. Not the cabinet, not the switches, not cables between devices. That's the single fastest way to turn one fault into several.
- Work out how big it is. One device, one area, or the whole venue? That answer decides everything.
- Write down the time. To the nearest five minutes. It's what lets us look at exactly what the equipment saw.
- If you can't take money, ring — don't email. 1300 755 242.
- Note what else was happening. Storm, blackout, busy service, a function on, a tradesperson on site. That sentence solves more faults than anything else you can tell us.
01 — ImportantWhat not to touch
The rack or cabinet with the switches, patch panels and blinking lights runs everything at once — tills, EFTPOS, phones, cameras, screens and the internet. Restarting or unplugging something in there doesn't just risk the thing you're trying to fix; it takes down services that were working fine, at the worst possible moment, and it can leave equipment in a state that needs someone on site to recover.
The same goes for pulling network cables to "test" them, swapping cables between devices, and unplugging something to free up a power point. If a cable looks loose, tell us — don't push it in.
Safe to do
- Restart one computer or one till
- Check a device is powered on
- Check a screen for an error message
- Test whether other devices work
- Note times and what's affected
- Photograph an error message
- Ring us
Leave to us
- Anything in the network cabinet or rack
- Restarting the modem, router or switches
- Unplugging or moving network cables
- Swapping cables between devices
- Changing Wi-Fi settings or passwords
- Ringing the internet provider yourself
- Factory-resetting anything
One exception worth knowing: if we've previously shown someone at your venue how to power-cycle a specific piece of equipment and told them it's fine to do, that still applies. This is about not improvising.
02 — Narrow itHow big is it?
Two minutes of checking here tells us more than anything else. Walk around and find out what still works.
| What you find | Usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| One device, everything else fine | That device or its cable | Restart just that device. If it stays out, log it with the device name. |
| One area — say both bistro tills | Something serving that area | Don't touch anything. Note exactly which devices, and ring or log it with the list. |
| All tills, phones still fine | The POS system or its server | Ring us. Mention that phones and internet still work — it narrows it a lot. |
| Everything, including phones | Internet service, power, or the core equipment | Ring us. Check whether there's been a power blip and whether other businesses nearby are affected. |
| Wi-Fi out, wired things fine | Wireless side only | Note whether it's guest Wi-Fi, staff Wi-Fi, or both, and which parts of the building. |
| Internet out but tills still working | The service, not your network | Ring us. Local systems often keep running for a while — tell us what's still going. |
| Just one staff member affected | Their computer or their login | Have them try another machine. That answer tells us which it is. |
03 — ChecksWhat's safe and useful to check
Has there been a power interruption?
A flicker, a storm, an electrician on site, a breaker tripped. Equipment often comes back in the wrong order after a blip and needs a hand. This is the most common single cause and it's the first thing we'll ask.
Is the affected device actually powered on?
Obvious, and worth thirty seconds. Look for lights. Something switched off at a power point by a cleaner or a delivery driver charging a phone is a real and frequent cause.
Read the error message and photograph it
"Cannot connect to server", "no network", "offline", "check connection" — these all point different directions. Don't paraphrase, and photograph the whole screen.
Restart the one affected device
A till, a computer, a tablet — a proper restart, once. Not the network gear, and not everything in the room.
Test something else in the same spot
Can a phone connect to the staff Wi-Fi there? Does the till next to it work? Two data points beat one.
Write down the time and what you found
Then ring or log it. This is the step people skip and the one that matters most.
04 — TradingIf you can't take money
Ring immediately on 1300 755 242. Don't email, don't work through this page first. While you're waiting:
- Find out exactly what's failed. Card payments only, or everything? All terminals or some? Is the POS itself up but EFTPOS down, or the other way round? We can often route around one of those.
- Know your fallback before you need it. Every venue should have one agreed way to keep trading — a mobile EFTPOS unit, a manual process, cash only with signage. Decide that in a management meeting, not at 6pm on a Friday with a queue.
- Tell your staff what to say. "Our card system is down, we're working on it, cash or we can hold your table" beats staff improvising differently at each register.
- Note the time it stopped. Genuinely important for reconciling later, as well as for us.
- Don't let anyone start unplugging terminals. Payment equipment doesn't always come back cleanly, and some of it needs re-pairing by the provider.
Ask us to write down, on one page, what your venue does if payments stop. Who rings whom, what the fallback is, where the mobile terminal lives, and what staff say to members. It takes us half an hour and it's the difference between a manageable twenty minutes and a genuinely bad night.
05 — The hard onesDropouts that come and go
Intermittent dropouts are the most common network complaint we get and the hardest to solve — because by the time anyone looks, everything is working perfectly. The equipment does keep a record of what happened, but only if we know when to look.
Keep a note by the affected area for a fortnight. Each time it drops:
Write this down every time it happens
- Date and time
- To the nearest five minutes. "Fri 18th, 6:15pm"
- How long it was out
- "About three minutes, came back by itself"
- Exactly what was affected
- "Both bistro tills. Front bar tills and the office were fine."
- How busy it was
- "Middle of Friday service, function room also in use"
- Weather and power
- "Heavy rain. No blackout that we noticed."
- Anything new
- "New TV installed in that corner last week"
Three of these is usually enough to find a pattern — the same time of day, the same area, always when a particular room is in use. Send them all in one request rather than one at a time.
Report the second occurrence, not the twentieth. Recurring dropouts are often an early sign of a cable, a power problem, or equipment beginning to fail — all cheaper to sort before they become permanent.
06 — WirelessGuest Wi-Fi is not your Wi-Fi
Worth understanding, because it's behind a lot of confusion:
- Guest and staff wireless are deliberately separate. Members and visitors shouldn't be on the same network as your tills and back-office systems. So "the Wi-Fi's down" needs a follow-up question: whose?
- Guest Wi-Fi being slow at capacity is normal, not broken. Two hundred phones in a function room is a lot of demand. If it matters for an event, tell us beforehand and we can plan for it.
- Coverage is about the building, not the signal strength number. Brick, tiled roofs, cool rooms, plant rooms and big steel structures all block wireless. If there's a dead spot that matters, tell us where and what it stops you doing — that's a solvable job, and it usually needs an access point rather than a "booster".
- Please don't buy a consumer Wi-Fi extender. They're cheap, they seem sensible, and on a managed venue network they cause hard-to-diagnose problems for everyone — including the tills. Ask us first; it's often a smaller job than you'd think.
- Never put venue systems on guest Wi-Fi to get them working, and don't share the staff password with a visiting contractor. Ask us for a proper arrangement instead.
07 — PlanningWhat to sort before an install or a change
The most expensive network problems are the ones designed in. If you're putting in a new screen, a new till point, a coffee cart, an outdoor area or a function space, tell us at the planning stage — not the week it opens.
- "We need a network point" means a cable run, which means access above ceilings or through walls, which means a trade window. It's rarely same-week.
- Power and data go in together. If an electrician is already coming, that's the cheap moment to add data. Once the wall is closed, it's a much bigger job.
- Tell us about renovations early. Walls coming down and going up affects cabling, wireless coverage and where equipment can live. We'd much rather look at a plan than a finished room.
- New systems from other suppliers need a conversation — gaming, membership, booking, delivery platforms, security. They all want network access, and how that's done matters. Put us in touch with their installer before the day.
- Outdoor areas are harder than indoor ones. Weather, distance and line of sight all matter. Worth planning properly rather than hoping the inside wireless reaches.
08 — QuestionsQuick answers
Should we ring the internet provider ourselves?
Please don't — ring us first. We can usually tell within minutes whether it's the service or something inside the building, and if it is the provider we'll deal with them. Two parties raising separate faults on the same service tends to slow everything down, and providers will often ask you to do things that make our diagnosis harder.
Everything's down. Is it the internet or the power?
Check whether lights and other equipment in the same area are on. Also worth asking a neighbouring business. If it's a power issue, that's an electrician or your energy provider — but tell us either way, because equipment often needs a hand coming back afterwards.
Can we get a backup internet connection?
Yes, and for a venue that can't afford to stop taking payments it's usually worth it — a second service that takes over automatically. Ask us and we'll set out the options and the cost.
It always drops out on Friday nights. Is that a coincidence?
Almost never. A fault that tracks with how busy you are, or with a particular room being used, is a strong clue and often points at capacity, power, or a specific piece of equipment under load. Log the times and we'll find it.
Our contractor needs internet access for the day. What do we do?
Ask us rather than handing over the staff password. There's usually a clean way to give a contractor what they need without putting them on the same network as your tills, and it takes us a few minutes to arrange.
09 — Print thisKeep it in the office
Print it and put it where the duty manager will find it at 6pm on a Friday.
Internet, Wi-Fi or tills down? — what to do
Cyberry Know-How · cyberry.com.au/know-how
1 · Can you take money?
- No → RING 1300 755 242 now, don't email
- Start your agreed trading fallback
- Note the time it stopped
2 · Work out how big it is
- One device / one area / whole venue?
- Do the phones still work?
- Are the tills up but EFTPOS down?
- Wi-Fi only, or wired too?
- Guest Wi-Fi or staff Wi-Fi?
3 · Safe to check
- Any power blip, storm or breaker?
- Is the device actually switched on?
- Photograph the exact error message
- Restart that ONE device, once
- Test another device in the same spot
NEVER
- Don't touch the network cabinet or rack
- Don't restart the modem, router or switches
- Don't unplug or swap network cables
- Don't ring the internet provider yourself
Last reviewed 25 July 2026. Written for venues on a network we manage. If your club has systems supplied and supported by someone else — gaming, TAB, keno, delivery platforms — their support may need to be involved too; tell us which system and we'll sort out who does what.
Can't take money right now?
Ring us. Don't wait on an email.
Most of your venue's systems can be reached remotely, so there's a good chance we're looking at it while you're still on the phone.