AlexChurchill/NetworkProblems

I've been having severe internet connection problems in 2021. No other device in the house is having the same problems - neither Rachael's computer, nor any of our Android phones - so it doesn't seem likely to be an issue with our router or home network.

Hardware:
My Windows 10 computer, bought in September 2020.

Originally connected via a Dynamode Nano 802.11n 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter Dongle (in a USB3 socket at the back of the desktop)
When I suspected that might be the problem, I replaced that with a [Realtek 8812BU Wireless adapter with integrated aerial].

In both cases connecting to our Virgin Media Home Hub 3.

Symptoms:
It's sporadic: I'll often have no problems for days at a time. But occasionally the connection will drop, either briefly for 5-30 seconds, or for a period of several minutes. Sometimes it gets into a state where I'll get network traffic for a second, then nothing for several seconds; 1 second connected, 5 seconds nothing; and so on. This is extremely frustrating for trying to e.g. work via VNC/RDP.
In the Windows 10 task manager Performance tab, I can see on the network throughput graph the times when the wireless connection drops to zero. Sometimes the entire WiFi? graph disappears completely, usually reappearing about 10 seconds later.

Workarounds:
What often works is for me to click the Windows networking icon and disconnect from the wireless network then reconnect immediately. Usually this will get me back connected. Sometimes it doesn't. At that point, it occasionally works to do any of: disable the Wifi adapter then re-enable it; reboot my machine; powercycle the Virgin router. Sometimes none of these work.

What I've tried:
Doing a factory reset on the router. Doing a full malware scan with Microsoft Defender. Not yet reinstalling Windows, but I might try that.
Most interestingly, I tried replacing the Wifi adapter: after I replaced the Dynamode dongle with the Realtek dongle-with-antenna, for several days things seemed to be completely fixed. It's very frustrating that before long the same problems emerged with the new Realtek adapter.

We also tried connecting my PC to the router via a 10 metre ethernet cable (trailed across our living room), both with and without also disabling the wireless adapter. It didn't help. The network traffic got really strange when both connections to the router were present, and the wifi would continually disappear from Task Manager's performance graphs then reappear a few seconds later, then disappear again. But just running entirely wired the connection would still flake out and drop out frequently.

Anyone have any thoughts?

It might be worth checking out the MTU settings. I experienced random drop-outs connecting to my Ubuntu machine at work, and that was one of the suggestions I came across while troubleshooting/googling. In the end my issue was to do (I think) with having two operational network connections - I clobbered one of them and have not had issues since - but I presume you don't have that setup. -- SunKitten

Thanks for the pointer! But sadly I checked the router MTU settings and they are exactly accurate. Good thought, though! --AC

: Ah well, it was worth a try. I was thinking of the settings on your machine, though, since the router clearly isn't the issue. One other thing you could try - although it might be more fuss than it's worth given the intermittent nature of the problem - is to boot your computer off a Linux live CD and see if it still has the same issue. It might help you narrow down where the problem occurs. -- SunKitten