Anyway To Tell Which Program Is Disconnecting My Internet?

Factual Questions
1

About a week ago, I noticed my Internet was disconnecting, then I noticed something odd, it was disconnecting once per hour at exactly the same time.

So I figured it was the ISP and called them. They could not find anything wrong with my line.

Then two days later I noticed whenever I restarted my main computer, the time it would restart would be the time the Internet disconnected.

For example my computer was originally disconnecting on the 0:21. At 11:21, 12:21, 1:21 and so on it would disconnect and then reconnect.

But when I restarted it at 2:45pm, then form that point it would disconnect at 3:45, 4:45, 5:45 and so on.

My first thought was a virus. I ran Bitdefender and Malwarebytes and two other trial antiviruses and they all came up clean. (both in safe mode and regular)

When I turn my main computer off, the other devices, my tablet, my laptop and my phone do not disconnect at all.

So I am assuming it is a program on my main computer that is telling the Internet to disconnect. I use revo-uninstaller to install and uninstall on my computers and I checked that, but I haven’t installed a new program to any of my devices in over six months.

Sorry for the long details, but I wanted to be thorough. I guess I could reinstall my O/S on the main computer, since I was thinking of getting a larger SSD for it anyway, (it is Win7 btw), but I must admit I am curious to see if it would be possible to find out what on this computer is making my Internet disconnect every hour on the hour.

I check the event log in the computer and the log on my router, but I can’t see anything at those times.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

2

Keep updating those scanners and using them, there may just be a relevant update soon based on this. Could be something else, of course, but in the meantime, you should also follow all the recommendations and precautions detailed there. Couldn’t hurt, even if it doesn’t fix your problem.

One thing - what are you using to determine that your “internet” is being disconnected, and what specifically do you mean by that?

3

Not sure to what level you mean the internet is turning off.
But maybe a piece of software is trying to automatically check for and download updates for itself. I have found this to sometimes slow down the internet speed and responsiveness. You may have a worse version of that.
Maybe check some of the software update settings. If possible set them to notify instead of automatic.

4

If you know that it will happen one hour in. Open task manager and watch which program or service pops up or begins taking more CPU time on the hour.

5

What is your computer’s operating system?

Windows 7 has a long and documented history of dropping its Internet connection.

6

When it disconnects, I mean that it would be the same as if I unplugged the router, disconnected the Ethernet cord or simply told the computer to disconnect manually.

The Internet goes out but the network is OK. In other-words, if I am on my laptop the Internet goes out but I can still access the files on the main computer.

Since I have had Win7 for years on this system and it’s never dropped it before, I would think that it can’t be likely to cause the problem.

I too am thinking it must be some kind of software that is trying to update, but which one is the problem. Like most people I have a good deal of software.

I tried looking at the task manager while running process but no success.

I was hoping there would be some kind of logical log that would tell me basically what the computer is doing. I know that would probably be a ton of information, but I was wondering.

Thanks for those who looked this over. I will probably devote next weekend to reinstall the O/S from scratch on the new SSD I just bought (I needed a bigger one anyway. Then take it one thing at time. I am thinking if this is a virus that is not being detected by any antimalware I’ve used, the safest thing is to start over.

Thanks.

7

The computer is somehow making the router stop working?

The only way I can think of that this would happen directly is for some specific management software to be installed on the computer - either specific to the brand of the router itself, or specific to your ISP (if the router was provided by the ISP).

Failing that, the only thing I can think of is something that’s either inviting or creating significant volumes of network traffic (or maybe malformed packets or something). It would most likely be malware or some kind, if that’s what is happening.