intermittent internet connection only on laptops, phone OK

July 26, 2018 1:18 PM

I bought a new Windows 10 laptop last week. I've been using it with no problems on home wifi and at a friend's (secured). Today I went to a coffee shop and used public wifi. When I got home all was well at first and then the internet slowed to a crawl. My iPhone had normal speeds the entire time and had also been connected to the coffee shop wifi. Here are things I tried.

Rebooting laptop
Scanning with Windows Defender (nothing found)
Rebooting router (which worked for awhile)
Downloading Malwarebytes and scanning (nothing found)
Checking my old laptop (Windows 7) - same issue. Ran Malwarebytes and it found problems in some registry keys.
Both were fine for an hour and then slowed to a crawl again. (Usual speed 15 Mbps down; slowed to under 1 Mbps.)

I have an ethernet cable but not the adapter needed for an Acer Aspire E15.

At the coffee shop, the only program I used was Chrome, I didn't go to any sketchy sites, and nothing seemed amiss. I use uBlock.

All my files are backed up to an external drive, the old laptop, and the cloud so I'm not worried about those.

Probably coincidentally, I got an email today from some scammer saying he was going to expose my porn usage if I didn't give him BTC. Obviously I ignored that.

posted by AFABulous to Technology (10 answers total)

Response by poster: I also tried using a different browser, no luck
posted by AFABulous at 1:19 PM on July 26, 2018

Try Ctrl-Alt-Del and then Task Manager / More Detail. Click on the CPU column. Is there something like Windows Update taking up a lot of CPU?
posted by exogenous at 1:29 PM on July 26, 2018

I wouldn't be surprised if it's an issue with your router or modem. Your phone might be fast enough to know to switch to cell when wifi is down, also phones tend to buffer/preload more than you'd think to keep things going faster. Nothing like trying to load a page on your laptop then it coming up immediately on your phone. But, another thing, images, videos and websites are tons more compact on mobile versions usually.

My solving steps:

Try ethernet cable on old laptop if it has the port. How's speeds? (If slow, problem is wifi router. Reset to factory settings, then buy a new one. Routers do tend to be worse after a few years.) (Most likely).

Try a different browser. How's speeds? (If faster, problem is chrome. Reinstall.)

Try your laptop somewhere new. How's speeds? (If faster, it's totally your router/modem/internet)

Try someone new's laptop at your house. How's speeds? (If still slow, it's totally your router/modem/internet) (If it's fast, it still could be your router/modem/internet.)

Make sure you are close to your router when doing tests. I've found that at the edge of the connectivity radius internet can slow to a crawl - but once I get close enough to the modem, that goes away. But, some apartments I've been at, I can be plugged in to the modem with a cable, and internet will still be super slow.
posted by bbqturtle at 1:39 PM on July 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Try opening a CMD window (in Cortana's search box, type in "CMD"and select "Command Prompt")

A box with a (usually) black background will open and in it will be a text prompt, which will look something like "C:\Users\AFAbulous>" type in:

ipconfig /release (this tells your DHCP server in your home router to release and discard the IP configuration)

... and then, after it responds, type in:

ipconfig /renew (This will tell the DHCP server to renew the configuration with a new, fresh IP configuration and "lease.")

No panacea but this very often will cure a slow connection, especially one that seems to have come out of nowhere.
posted by bz at 2:32 PM on July 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Adding:

The whole command will look like:

C:\Users\AFAbulous>ipconfig /release

[response]

C:\Users\AFAbulous>ipconfig /renew
posted by bz at 2:33 PM on July 26, 2018

It might be pulling down updates. I've had this happen once or twice with Windows 10. (I'm kind of ignoring the Windows 7 laptop with this answer, I guess.)

I was able to temporarily mitigate the issue by telling Windows that my WiFi connection was metered.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 5:51 PM on July 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I went out for a few hours, came home, started up the new laptop, and it was normal for about 20 minutes. Then the internet slowed again. I had done nothing except check my email and some social media.

To answer the Windows update question, task manager was the first thing I checked, and nothing was amiss there. Dropbox uses a ton of memory relative to other programs, but the problem persisted even after I stopped the service.

When I test on my phone, I turn cell data off so I know it's only on the wifi, and I use the speedtest app. Every test on the phone has been normal.

ipconfig /release looks normal - I've used that in the past, but /renew gives me this:

C:\Users\afabulous>ipconfig /renew

Windows IP Configuration

No operation can be performed on Ethernet while it has its media disconnected.
No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection* 2 while it has its media disconnected.
No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection* 1 while it has its media disconnected.
posted by AFABulous at 6:44 PM on July 26, 2018

If you go to device manager does it indicate a problem with the network adapters?
posted by bz at 8:03 PM on July 26, 2018

Try resetting the IP stack.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/299357/how-to-reset-tcp-ip-by-using-the-netshell-utility
posted by bz at 8:15 PM on July 26, 2018

Response by poster: I went in there proactively. Here's what I've done since my last post.

1. updated driver for network adapter - intel dual band wireless ac 3168
2 ran wireless adapter troubleshooter - it found a problem and fixed it
3. rebooted

**no change in shitty speed **

4. set IPv4 dns to google servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
5. flushed dns with ipconfig /flushdns

*no change*

6. went into router config 192.168.1.254
7. poked around, afraid to touch anything
8. did the speed test between the network and gateway, which was normal speeds

??? prayed ????

9. ran ATT's browser speedtest - normal
10. ran speedtest.net - normal

Web pages look normal. However they were fine earlier in the evening and then went down again so who knows if this will last.
posted by AFABulous at 8:18 PM on July 26, 2018