flaky ethernet connection

[Asp]

WinXP SP3

For several years I used a router with DD-WRT to connect to our home Wi-Fi, my PC connected to the router by ethernet.

And that was pretty stable. But the router died and I didn't have a usable one to hand to replace it with so I installed a TP-Link USB Wi-Fi dongle, That worked mostly OK, but sometimes just lost connection for no obvious reason, while the signal was strong with mobile devices. Maybe inactivity time out somewhere?

So I laid some cable and went to a direct ethernet connection to our main router which is connected to a fibre modem.

This should have been faster and more reliable, but has some issues.

Sometimes loading a web page was extremely, extremely slow, though not dead. But then I could do an Oookla Speedtest and get 50 MBps.

And checking email (using Eudora via POP) would keep timing out. i.e., not just a browser issue.

And if I rebooted into Mint,, speed was normal.

Back in XP, I found that if I just rebooted, usually speed and connectivity was normal the next time.

I suspected a loose connection, crawled around and reseated the plugs. No obvious changes,

So, not a hardware or cabling problem I am pretty sure.

When I had a bad connection, I noticed that the LAN icon on the toolbar had taken several seconds to appear after booting.

Any idea how to fix this, short of reboot and pray?

Could there be some TP-Link code screwing up the ethernet driver? Though I have had the drivers for that installed for years as well, but reinstalled recently.  

I just uninstalled it, though it's useful to have at hand in case home ethernet goes offline and I use my phone as a hotspot.

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by Asp

[NotHereToPlayGames]

In Task Manager, are there any processes running over 80% or so during your slow connectivity?