Smart homes are meant to make life easier, right up until the internet connection drops and Alexa suddenly stops listening. The good news is that an internet outage does not necessarily bring the whole house to a halt. An internet outage is different from losing Wi-Fi altogether. In that situation, products with local controls or automations may carry on largely as normal. A router failure is more disruptive, as Wi-Fi devices can no longer talk to your phone or one another.