The instability of a focused liquid jet is studied by semi-analytical methods and by methods of computational fluid dynamics. The semi-analytical approach relies on earlier work on the instability of an extending liquid thread and is based on the Stokes flow regime and small-amplitude perturbations. The evolution of different excitation modes is evaluated and compared. Through hydrodynamic focusing and the corresponding extensional flow an initially stable mode may become unstable and it depends on the position away from the inlet which mode is to be regarded as the most unstable one. When plotting a hypothetical jet decay length against the excitation wave number, a comparatively broad minimum is exhibited. The CFD simulations based on the volume-of-fluid method show that the jet may break up either in the conical focusing zone or in the attached capillary, depending on the flow velocity. When the deformation of the jet surface reaches a certain amplitude, the jet assumes a "beads-on-a-string" structure instead of a shape derived from a harmonic perturbation. A jet decay within the capillary produces elongated droplets with cusped ends. When comparing the results of the CFD and the semi-analytical model, it turns out that the CFD simulations predict more stable jets with a larger decay length. An analysis of the flow velocity field shows that the increased stability might be due to the interaction of the jet with the channel walls. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.