Very strange internet connection issue

[Moglet]

I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure this out and figured I'd ask in case someone has had the same issue as me.

I'm currently working from home and mostly use my PC connected wired, via powerline adapters, to my router which is connecting to "BT Broadband" and has been for the last 3 years without issue. One day last month I was getting disconnected from the internet on all devices every 5-10 mins but only when using my PC, so they sent me a new router which seemed to solve the problem. Today, however, that problem is back.

I decided to pull the network cable out of my PC and connect the PC wirelessly to a 4G mobile dongle from the network provider "EE". I noticed the same problem; disconnections every 5-10 minutes. Since then I've been keeping an eye on both connections and they are both disconnecting at the exact same time. How is that even possible?! I initially thought it was a power issue so I pulled the power cable out of the 4G dongle and it's now running on battery but the issue is still occurring.

To be clear, my PC is now completely disconnected from my home network. There is no network cable plugged in and the wi-fi is set to connect to the 4G dongle only.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this? I'm completely stumped!

 

[TheCracker]

Looks like you've exhausted all the variables with it being the network or networks. Sounds to me more like a PC issue.

I occasionally get a similar issue with my Macs. As i'm now working from home i'm running two of them at the moment, an older Mac Pro from work and a more recent iMac which is mine. They both sit next to each other on my desk and both connect wirelessly to the same network and i have them both on whilst i'm working. Frequently the Mac Pro will drop from the network and occasionally i just can't get it to reconnect and have to leave it for an hour or two. The iMac never has this problem. So it has to be a software issue of some description. It's the same with my wife's iPhone. We both have the same phones running the same OS. Mine will always connect to the house's wifi where as hers often drops off. No rhyme or reason.

 

[Moglet]

Looks like you've exhausted all the variables with it being the network or networks. Sounds to me more like a PC issue.

I occasionally get a similar issue with my Macs. As i'm now working from home i'm running two of them at the moment, an older Mac Pro from work and a more recent iMac which is mine. They both sit next to each other on my desk and both connect wirelessly to the same network and i have them both on whilst i'm working. Frequently the Mac Pro will drop from the network and occasionally i just can't get it to reconnect and have to leave it for an hour or two. The iMac never has this problem. So it has to be a software issue of some description. It's the same with my wife's iPhone. We both have the same phones running the same OS. Mine will always connect to the house's wifi where as hers often drops off. No rhyme or reason.

Every device disconnects when my issue occurs, including 2 different Android phones, a PS4, a smart TV and a Nintendo Switch. That said, since it seems to calm down when the PC is off it feels like it must be something there that is causing a problem.

 

[daan]

Every device disconnects when my issue occurs, including 2 different Android phones, a PS4, a smart TV and a Nintendo Switch. That said, since it seems to calm down when the PC is off it feels like it must be something there that is causing a problem.

Is your next door neighbour using a really old TV?

 

[Moglet]

Is your next door neighbour using a really old TV?

This was one of the first things I thought about, there are lots of elderly people in really old houses around here. I just shut down my PC to see if it still occurred and it does, so we can rule out the PC at least.

Using a wifi signal strength app it appears that when my connections drop so do my neighbours' but I don't know if that is just a symptom of momentarily losing wifi signal on my device.

EDIT: So I'm an idiot who didn't set up the dongle correctly, and because of this my PC was still trying to connect to the old network. The dongle is now stable and my ISP have found an issue with the line. An engineer is coming to take a look on Saturday morning.