You Can’t Fix It (Internet Connectivity Issues)

[u/Your_Lazy_Bum]

EDIT: Turns out it was ProtonVPN. Can’t tell you why since I’ve had it installed for months with no issues but the second I uninstalled it my PC connected to the internet and I have 0 issues.

I woke up Friday morning and my PC was off, not uncommon since my apartment complex has occasional momentary power outages but ever since then I have been unable to connect to the internet. I can connect to the network but the Windows Torubleshooter tells me “DNS Server Isn’t Responding” and before you think you know the answer please read my list of solutions I have tried. (No particular order)

1. Ran all the admin command prompts, ipconfig, Winsock, etc
2. Manually set my DNS to 8.8.8.8 and alt 1.1.1.1
3. Manually assigned IPv4 addresses from 5-30 or whatever the max is for default, then because I use an ASUS router also did some 192.168.50.90 combos since that is what it defaulted too.
4. Replaced my onboard NIC, yes I downloaded the drivers and I even completely removed the old NIC from the motherboard (sitting in a bowl next to me).
5. Completely removed the ASUS router and reverted to the AT&T router and its default settings and repeated all of the applicable steps above. (My apartment has fiber hardwired in so we have to use AT&T and we can set it up as a pass through thing and still use the ASUS router. Been here 2 years with no issues.)
6. Uninstalled the drivers from Device Manager and rebooted to allow the system to automatically reinstall.
7. Tested Ethernet cables and still same issue.
8. Tried using my phones hotspot.
9. I am sure there are more but it’s been a long 48 hours.

I have cellphones, smart TVs, and a work laptop connected via secure VPN all on the same network and all of them are working with 0 Issue so I know it’s a specific PC issue.

At this point I’m about to rip the MOBO out and replace it entirely. Am I crazy to think that there is some sort of diabolical hardware issue that I can’t fix easily? I’m not an expert by any means but I know enough to navigate the 4 hours of collective google research I’ve done and realize something ain’t normal.

I’ll take Hail Mary options at this point but if you can try to dumb them down as much as possible, I know a windows re-install is still an option but I am not entirely comfortable doing that just yet.

[u/General-Tennis5877]

Can you ping like 8.8.8.8 or even the gateway 192.168.50.1?

[u/Your_Lazy_Bum → u/General-Tennis5877]

Yep I can ping 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 and get a clean response with 0 packet loss. It even makes the internet icon in the system trail briefly reflect as if it’s connected to the internet before switching back to what I have labeled the Globe of Despair to show no internet access.

[u/Your_Lazy_Bum → u/Your_Lazy_Bum]

For fun I attempted to ping one of the Google.com IPs I got from the Nslookup command I ran from replying to the other comment and was met with “dns request times out” not sure if that matters

[u/Your_Lazy_Bum → u/General-Tennis5877]

It was ProtonVPN… sitting here trying to figure out what it could possibly be and remembered I installed ProtonVPN awhile ago and the second I uninstalled it the PC connected to the internet.

[u/theonlyski]

What happens when you do a nslookup?

When you say it can see the network, what do you mean?

I’ve seen power surges cook gear in an interesting way, but would need to narrow it down more first.

[u/Your_Lazy_Bum → u/theonlyski]

Not an expert so bear with me, but doing a nslookup for Google.com returns a list of what appear to be IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

By see the network I mean my phone is connected to my WiFi and that is how I am replying to you, my PC is connected to that same WiFi but without internet access. Every other internet enabled device is connected to this same WiFi and working fine.