PC Keeps Dropping Internet Connection?

[Condi]

There are 3 PCs in one room, but one of them has a habit of momentarily losing connection to the internet, then 60/90s later will reconnect. It doesn't matter if the connection is via ethernet (power line adapter) or Wifi. One of the other PCs which doesn't have the same issue is about 2ft, maybe less, from the machine with problems and the router is in the room below, so I see no reason it should be Wifi strength or ethernet dropping out. Computer is running W11 and is fully up to date with all drivers/software updates/BIOS updates.

The error message suggests a DNS server problem;


This site can’t be reached www.xxxxxxxxxxx.com’s DNS address could not be found. Diagnosing the problem.
Try running Windows Network Diagnostics.
DNS_PROBE_STARTED

---

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET


I'm quite stuck for ideas!

[xeny]

Leave a continuous ping to the router(ping -t 192.168.0.1 presuming a typical home router address) running to check if it is really a DNS failure (seems unlikely if the other 2 PCs are OK) or the entire network connection for that PC is failing for some reason.

[Griffith4ever]

If it were ethernet only then I'd say it was poor speed negotiation and recommend fixing the adapter speed at 1Gb (assuming thats the speed of your router ports) - I've had this happen and as it renegotiates the link you get DNS issues, - or, I'd suspect the Powerline adapter, but, you've chucked wifi into the equation which blows it all out the water.

Your wifi isn't reliant on the powerline adapter is it? Can't imagine it is unless you are running a "remote" mesh off it.

[Condi]

Apologies for the slow response, I've not been on my PC much and so was waiting for the issue to reappear to check.

xeny said:

Leave a continuous ping to the router(ping -t 192.168.0.1 presuming a typical home router address) running to check if it is really a DNS failure (seems unlikely if the other 2 PCs are OK) or the entire network connection for that PC is failing for some reason.

I've checked with a ping to the router when it says DNS failure, and it appears the PC is dropping off the network - there is no response from the router for a few mins, despite the Chrome page saying DNS server.

Griffith4ever said:

If it were ethernet only then I'd say it was poor speed negotiation and recommend fixing the adapter speed at 1Gb (assuming thats the speed of your router ports) - I've had this happen and as it renegotiates the link you get DNS issues, - or, I'd suspect the Powerline adapter, but, you've chucked wifi into the equation which blows it all out the water.

Your wifi isn't reliant on the powerline adapter is it? Can't imagine it is unless you are running a "remote" mesh off it.

The wifi isn't on a powerline adapter, no, and the other PCs in the same room stay connected to the wifi even when this one falls off. I've been using the PC on the ethernet (via a powerline adapter) for a while so will try unplugging it and leaving it on the wifi connection to see if that is any better.

[xeny]

Just to confirm, the ethernet isn't via a USB adapter, and we're in fact looking at an USB issue?

For that matter, is the Wireless a USB device or a PCIe card?

[Condi]

xeny said:

Just to confirm, the ethernet isn't via a USB adapter, and we're in fact looking at an USB issue?

For that matter, is the Wireless a USB device or a PCIe card?

The ethernet port is just connected straight to the motherboard, but the wifi adapter is a PCIe card.

[xeny]

Straight to the motherboard means a PCIe device as well. You're certain the BIOS and OS chipset drivers are up to date? What is the PC?

[ozzuk]

I have same issue but only with the powerline adapter, happens 2-3 times a day.