I'm having a frustrating problem with the internet connection lately. My connection is hardwired to my computer, no problems with the modem (works fine on other devices/connection types), but since last week, any time I watch a live stream on twitch or youtube, it plays for around 30 seconds and then stutters indefinitely, forcing me to reload. I've tried clearing my cookies, resetting my modem, etc but to no avail.

It's not specific to any browser, and it also occurs when I'm using game clients (e.g. when online in League I'll randomly get disconnected from the chat and champ select will bug out for ~20 seconds at a time, which has caused me to dodge unintentionally) and Discord (I'll just disconnect at random and then reconnect when the outage stops), but not while I'm in the actual game (no ping jumps or problems in League or SC2). I'm assuming this is related to the relationship between p2p and client server architectures but that could also have nothing to do with it.

As far as I can tell, nothing changed last week to bring on these problems, but I do know it's specifically my computer having them (other computer doesn't suffer from it, other wireless devices function fine). Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

THINGS TO TRY:
New CAT5 cable?
Different port on router?
Updated LAN driver?
PCI-E/USB LAN adapter? (to eliminate integrated LAN as a suspect.)
See if router has QoS?
Malware scan PC? / Disabling all non-essential software/services?

Cable was never a problem before, seems perfectly functional. Either way I don't have another one long enough to replace it currently.

No router, just the Xfinity modem which Comcast troubleshooted and gave a clean bill of health (for whatever that's worth).


The Gigabit Ethernet adapter is what I'm using. None of them require any updates.


This is what the adapter looks like in network connections.

It's integrated LAN, I don't have another adapter.

Don't know if Xfinity's modem has QoS. Even if it did, I doubt it changed last week when it's been running fine since before then.

I've been malware scanning nonstop for the past few weeks, nothing of note so far.

To add to Ex's approach:
Don't rule out the LAN cable until you've replaced it. And since you're using gigabit you'd need CAT.6 or at least 5e. There might be EM disturbance that affects the inappropriate shielding of CAT.5's.

Tether the WiFi of your mobile phone to your computer via USB.

Boot with a live CD to rule out OS problems. Maybe a system restore to before it happened will help.

Could also be a firewall issue. Make sure your antivirus doesn't have firewalling or you installed some 3rd party tool by mistake. Make you keep one firewall up at all times, or you'll likely be infected almost instantly since you only got a modem, not a router.

See if you get stable pings to other devices in your network (wait, so you do have a router or you couldn't have wired + wifi at the same time!) and to google, for example. See how actual downloads behave or maybe even change the behavior.

check your event viewer for related bugs.

Try switching to IPv4, IPv6, or dual stack, depending on what you're using.

Xfinity's modem is wireless. There is nothing between the modem and my computer besides the cable connecting them.

What do you mean, tether the wifi of my mobile phone to my computer? My phone doesn't use wifi, I have unlimited data.

As stated in the OP I do get stable ping on every other device, wireless or otherwise.

I just have the default windows firewall, already researched ports/programmes and no solution there was of use.

I'll try event viewer.

Since you connect to your modem via wireless AND cable it's at least a switch (unlikely) or a router (99% of the cases), in addition to a modem. Modems are just devices that change an analog signal to a digital one. One input, one output. Like an adapter.

So this means both devices (wireless and wired) should be able to communicate through it, meaning you should be able to send a ping from one to the other. This is to find out if the problem is locally in your net or somewhere on the way into the Internet.

I assumed you have a smartphone which should be able to connect to your home net via wifi and get the internet connection that way. In your smartphone's network settings should be a setting to activate USB tethering, which means your phone relays its Internetconnection to your PC via USB. USB datacable to connect to the PC mandatory, ofc.
This also gives you information where exactly the problem is located.

Getting pings on another device to a server is not the same as sending pings (Start -> cmd -> ping [IP]) from one device to the other. And sending these same pings to a stable server (e.g. google) at the same time will narrow down the problem.

You only need Cat6 for 10 gig over copper. Cat5E is perfectly fine for 1 gig. Even plain old Cat5 will work for 1 gig, but you won't get the full 100m length, probably only like 30-35m, but in most residential installations you're unlikely to need anything greater than 20m anyway.

Anyway, for problem solving like this, you need to narrow down what component (or if you're unlucky, components) are causing the problem. This isn't any different than what Nude or Ex have been saying, but it puts in context what they're saying.

If it's your ISP or router with the problem, all other devices that connect in your house should be suffering similar problems. If they're not, then it makes it highly unlikely to be an ISP or router problem.

Next, is the connection between your PC and the router. You're currently using a particular network cable; replacing that cable is a good idea. You say you don't have another long one - so unplug your computer and move it closer and use whatever short cable you have available. Once you've ruled out the cable, you can put your PC back where it normally goes. If you confirm that on the short cable the problem goes away, then you just need to buy a new long cable. Anyway I think it's highly unlikely to be the cable.

Another option is to put your PC on a different internet connection. This could mean taking your computer to a friends house or your work or something, or more easy is by setting your smartphone up as a mobile hotspot (sending a wifi signal out), and then get your PC to connect to your smartphone and use the internet over that. Nude has suggested a similar approach but with connecting your PC to the phone via USB rather than wifi. If this works, then it has identified some sort of problem on your computer specific to your standard home connection, most likely a software problem (although hardware is possible, but again unlikely). If the problem persists when you connect to this other internet connection, it suggests that you've got a generic problem on your computer that is affecting all networking.

Since you've already looked at the obvious software solutions and you're not aware of any recent change to the PC that would likely have caused this, I think there's not a lot of point going further down that path until you've undertaken the above diagnostic steps.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 21 2016, 5:08 am by Lanthanide.

Another thing you could check if all else fails is the lines running outside. I've had to get the lines outside my house replaced twice due to squirrels chewing on the line, causing a ton of interference.

Wow.

Weirdest situation I've seen is lightning strikes killing one of my customer's routers, so I fixed it with a $20 UPS with a RJ45 surge protector, but that won't help this one, since it's cable and not PPPoE.

I started having these issues when Comcast became "xfinity internet" or whatever they call themselves now. So what I end up having to do every time my internet starts stuttering, is call them and tell them to remotely reset my shit. No idea why this works better than simply disabling my modem/router for 30s+ but it seems to do the trick.

Yes this seems to only affect some devices, not sure why, but I am being serious about calling them every couple months for this issue.