Weird Connectivity Issues

Requirement · December 13, 2023

I'm at my wits end. I'm reasonably tech savvy and can't figure this out. (I've also posted on the discord but, no one responded)

For about a year, my desktop was plugged directly into the gateway (A Centurylink provided C4000XG) via ethernet cable. Then it just stopped working. No internet. That's fine, I can use wifi, I'm used to being a garbage person. I got horrible speeds, despite being a couple feet from the gateway. Then it stopped working. It's over a year and neither wifi or ethernet work connecting to my this Centurylink gateway. I plugged in my personal wifi router and my desktop works just fine connected to both 5ghz and 2.4ghz on that. Every other device in my house will connect to my Centurylink gateway just fine. Now, I notice that my desktop will connect to the gateway but there is no internet. I can see other devices on the network, transfer files, print to a network printer, etc but I can not access the outside world. No internet. I've done everything I can think of. I've cycled the router a million times (including once while moving across the country). I've run through every guide on how to fix "connected, no internet" problems (flush dns, assign dns, network troubleshooter, update drivers, whatever else is on every list). I bought a new WiFi card. Boom! Internet! Days later though, no internet. *insert gif of guy angry at computer* Ok, back to the daisy-chained wifi router. Works fine, but slower and needlessly complex. Fine, I'll do the deed, I'll perform a full, clean install of Windows. Done. Boom! (wifi) Internet! Then spotty (wifi) internet. Within a couple days, no internet. I'm lost, I'm scared, I want to just connect to the gateway. What else can I try? Do I just give up on things and run two (four?!) wifi networks in my house? Why is it only one device that struggles?!

I'm happy to provide any information I can to help diagnose the issue.

Sawa Takahashi · December 13, 2023

Hard to tell without further info. What is the brand and model of your problematic laptop ?

Some cheap computers have flaky internet access but firewall rules, anti-viruses and dodgy software can certainly disrupt internet connectivity.

Requirement · December 14, 2023

On 12/12/2023 at 6:32 PM, Sawa Takahashi said:

problematic laptop ?

So, it's a desktop that I built. I've swapped out wifi cards on it, uninstalled anything that could have been messing about software-wise, and even did a clean re-install of windows, which should have taken care of software.

Sawa Takahashi · December 14, 2023

5 hours ago, Requirement said:

So, it's a desktop that I built.

That makes it simpler to fix at least.

Did you install all your chipset drivers, LAN drivers from the maker of your motherboard ?

One more test you can do is boot on a Linux USB installer (Ubuntu would do fine) and play around to see if connectivity is good with Linux. It may be a Windows issue where they pushed an update that broke a few computers but no enough to make them realize they broke something. Just a guess but it happened.