[Fred Garvin]

When you're unable to connect to a particular website, open a command prompt and ping that site address. Ex: ping google.com then post the results.
You may have cached info from your VPN that's conflicting with your network connection when you aren't using the VPN.
If you can't reach a site, open a command prompt and type: ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter then reload the website

 

[Fred Garvin]

When you have a disconnection, try pinging your router at 192.168.1.1. If you get a response then you're connected wirelessly to your router and the problem may be on your ISP or modem side.
If you get a time out pinging your router then the connection problem is between your computer and your router. You can check to make sure you still have an IP address assigned by your router by running IPconfig /all again then look under "Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi 4" and make sure you still have a 192.168.1.100 range address.

Try running an ethernet cable between your PC and your router as a test. That will narrow down whether it's just a wifi issue or something more. If you're familiar with Event Viewer, go through the System & App. logs to look for network related errors.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Clear out all your cookies and cache in your web browsers. Are you able to connect to other websites when your connection appears to go down? If yes, the problem is more likely with that website or a DNS issue.

• If you are Not able to connect to any websites at all, switch to a hard wired ethernet connection.
• If you still can't connect to any websites with a wired ethernet conection, then your problem may lie somewhere from your router back to your ISP. Update router firmware, call ISP, have them check your modem logs for disconnects.
• Don't forget to check your connection while in Safe Mode with Networking.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Sounds more like a DNS issue or a problem with that website, assuming you don't have any other security or antivirus type apps interfering. Temporarily change your DNS server to Google's public servers - 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4.

 

[Fred Garvin]

• Keep using Google's DNS
• Unplug the power cords for your modem and router for about 5 mins then turn them back on and let them boot up
• Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns and press enter, then type netsh winsock reset and press enter
• Reboot the computer and use it for an hour like that and see if anything changes.

 

[Fred Garvin]

I just followed everything to the tee. My problem still persists.

Try running a trace route command to the problem website when you can connect to it and when the connection breaks. That may show where the path fails. At a command prompt> tracert website.com

I still think it's a DNS issue or a problem with that website, or some other program running on your PC. I'd temporarily uninstall your VPN or run Windows in Safe Mode.

 

[Fred Garvin]

I couldn't get anything useful out of that. Some of the time outs may be servers that are configured to not respond and some are AWS hosting servers.
Safe mode w/Networking shouldn't disable your NIC drivers...W/O sitting in front of your computer to see what else is running and verify things are configured correctly, my only other suggestions are to go through error logs in Event Viewer and run a wired connection.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Thanks for the suggestions
Yeah, it's quite odd that my WiFi drivers aren't enabled in Safe Mode with Networking.
Is there anything that I can do to fix that so I can troubleshoot?

When you get to the Windows splash screen with your username, don't log in yet. Click the network icon in the lower right corner and manually connect to your wireless network.
But, even better if you can test your connection while hard wired.

 

[Fred Garvin]

I'm glad you're able to narrow down the range of where the problem is, but I don't think it's a hardware failure issue. A bad network card isn't going to allow you to connect to one website and prevent you from connecting to a different address. Address resolution is a product of DNS. Drill down on the properties of your wireless NIC TCP/IP settings and make sure they're set for defaults to obtain everything automatically. Always use Windows for your wifi connection software, not a 3rd party program.

Other programs and remnants of previous installations of antivirus software and paid VPN proxies can also cause the problems you're having.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Good job! I should have had you do that after resetting your Winsock.
The command you want to use is: netsh int ip reset then press enter and restart.