My Computer Keeps Thinking I'm Offline

Factual Questions
1

I’m usually pretty good at figuring stuff like this out, but I am stumped (and frustrated)!

I have Verizon FiOS for cable and internet, and three weeks ago both services went down for ~36 hours. A tech had to fix something at the pole, but I wasn’t told/have no idea what the problem was. Ever since then*, my PC – a 2018 Dell all-in-one running Windows 10 – keeps thinking that I’m intermittently offline. It’s mildly annoying when I’m doing things like composing a SDMB post (and I have to keep dismissing the “Draft is being edited in another window” dialog box), but it’s super annoying when I can’t upload/download files. Or see new emails in a timely manner. Or change a web app’s settings. Or open new links easily. You know, stuff I used to take for granted.

(*The timing could definitely be coincidental. The only setting I touched during the service outage was switching from ethernet to wifi so I could tether my cell phone, but when I reconnected via ethernet I turned the wifi off.)

Here’s what I know:

  • As mentioned, the PC is connected to the internet via ethernet and the wifi is disabled. It isn’t an ethernet problem, though, because my two work laptops are also connected via ethernet but don’t have this problem.

  • It isn’t a Verizon/bandwith/connectivity problem: I don’t have the same issue with my iPad, TiVo, or Apple TV (via wifi), or the aforementioned work laptops.

  • My OS updates are current.

  • It isn’t an antivirus or firewall problem: I tried turning off both TrendMicro and Windows Defender.

  • It isn’t a browser problem: I primarily use Chrome, but I have the same issue when I use Edge. Just to be safe, though, I’ve tried clearing the cache/cookies/etc. on both browsers.

  • I use Google for almost everything (Gmail, Drive, etc.) but it isn’t a Google problem: when I use those apps/sites on my iPad or one of my work laptops, they work perfectly.

Whatever the trouble is it seems to be computer-specific, but I’ve done several internet searches and can’t seem to find any applicable ideas/suggestions (that I haven’t already tried). :frowning:

2

If you haven’t already done so, I suggest powering off every device on your home network and leaving them powered off for several minutes. Then power up your router and let it boot until it connects to your provider. Finally, power up the other devices individually.

3

Thanks, Petek! I can’t take my work laptops offline until the end of the day so I won’t be able to try that for another 5-6 hours, but I’ll definitely give that suggestion a go.

4

In the mean time, have you tested changing which Ethernet port the computer is using on your router?

And, if you do have wifi on your computer, have you tried turning wifi on (on both the computer and router) and seeing if you can connect to that?

5

This may not be it, but how is your response time? When I start up after some time off, things are slow, and Yahoo often accuses me of being offline just because it is not getting a response quickly enough. Nothing else does, though.

6

I just finished working, so I haven’t tried Petek’s suggestion yet; I thought I’d start with some of the “easier” suggestions…

Just tried that; no difference.

OMG THAT WORKED!! I unplugged the ethernet cable and turned the wifi on, and suddenly I can upload email attachments again! I can’t believe I didn’t think to try that! :woman_facepalming:

But, what does that mean?? There must be something screwy with this computer’s ethernet settings…right?

I don’t mind using wifi – I upgraded my internet speed and router a little while ago and the wifi is plenty fast – but theoretically the ethernet is faster and I’d like to figure out why that was suddenly struggling. I will still try Petek’s idea, but maybe not until the weekend now that I have a workaround. I’m also still open to idea/suggestions.

Thank you!!! :tada:

It varies. Wildly.

7

It could have something to do with settings. It could also be a hardware issue, like the ethernet cable is bad, or the port on your computer is bad. or the built-in Ethernet controller is bad inside either the computer or the router.

The simplest one to eliminate would be the cable. Do you have another ethernet cable you can test with? And can you make sure that both plug ends still snap in properly?

I can think of fixable software issues that would result in non-working Ethernet, but none of them would be intermittent.

8

Yet another thing that didn’t occur to me! :woman_facepalming:

I’m fairly certain that I have another ethernet cable – a new-ish one, at that – in my Colossal Container O’ Cords & Cables. I’ll try that out this evening. (I did check that the plug ends were connected snugly…at least I thought of something!)

Thank you, again! :smiley:

Yeah, that’s what kept making my head hurt: I couldn’t think of how any software/setting issue would result in the problem being only intermittent.