I have been struggling with my wi-fi going in and out CONSTANTLY since getting a new modem/router and it was happening on both of my laptops so I assumed it was Comcast's fault, either with the new modem or their overall internet delivery. I was wrong. Since getting the new modem, I was very happy with my speeds (everywhere but HERE, that is most definitely a GOG issue) but while the speeds were great, it was literally going in and out a few times per HOUR. Seriously. Day in and day out, always going in and out. Only lasts a few seconds, but constantly going in and out.

I found a "solution" and it involved some settings under Services in Windows. And it turns out both laptops had the same settings. So I'm thinking.. well that must be the default Windows setting and there must be a reason for it... so now that I've made the changes I'm worried that maybe the reason those settings were the way they were was because of security reasons, stopping nefarious actors from accessing one's network or computers.

So I'm wondering what some of you smart guys think. Should I be worried?

I will link the solution I used if that helps in determining the answer.

Here is the link. To view the steps taken, you must click on the "Continue reading" button.

And in posting this, when I copied the address to make the link I noticed for the first time (I guess it's always been there and I never noticed) but there were two copy options: 1)COPY and 2)COPY WITHOUT SITE TRACKING. What does that mean? Should one always select the latter?

Thanks for any info.

OldFatGuy

PS: I drove on Monday for the first time in five years. I had previously made it out to the car for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Monday I drove. For the first time in FIVE YEARS. Can't tell you how good that felt.

EDIT: I should have noted, this absolutely fixed the problem. My Wi-Fi hasn't gone out ONCE. Not a single time since I did this early this morning. And I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was a few times every HOUR. It was constant. It has now been several hours and it hasn't happened a single, solitary time.

If your problems started with a new router I would check its settings first. If it is a decent model it should also have an event log that might provide some info. Also It isn't really clear from your description if your local wifi or your internet connection is affected. This should be easily distinguishable as you are still able to access your router from your laptop even when you're not connected to the internet. If you click links from the results page of certain search engines (e.g. google, product pages on amazon) your URL will contain additional characters that are not necessary for loading the page but contain information from where you visited it. The second option removes those characters if they are present.

Absolutely not (operating under the assumption that you are referring to the entry made by 'Aso Shanglai' (Quora includes related posts; so, it can be a bit awkward to navigate)).

With regard to 'Network Setup Service', changing the startup type to [Automatic], and altering its failure recovery options would in no way impact security. If this has, as you had stated, rectified the issue, continue onward. Congratulations to you. : ) You have indeed made strides that you previously had not believed were likely. The quality of life improvement must feel quite substantial.

I gave up on Wi-Fi and just switched to a powerline Ethernet adaptor. :p

They have their own issues, especially their dependence on the physical electrical set-up/wiring and its quality in your house/flat. One might easily lose like 33% of their top speed due to unfavorable wiring situation for example. Not to mention potential ping spiking when someone turns on a 2000 Watt vacuum for example. Not to mention things like pairing the adapters, which I had to redo seemingly every 2 or 3 days.

I tried them. While stability was notably higher than wi-fi (my modem is pretty far from my PC), it severely cut down the max speed from 300 Mbit to barely 200. So eventually just got a dedicated wi-fi card for my PC with its own antenna and came back to wi-fi.

Thank you for your kindness. Yeah, I doubted it a lot. I'm still not like all the way back. I'm limited in how far I can go. And I still can't, for example, hop into the car and go to a store or drive-through and buy something and bring it back because I'm still unable to walk and carry something up the steps. I can carry something on flat ground, but to get up the steps into my house I require both hands, one with my cane and the other holding the rail. But I now think I'll get there too one day. Just has been such a slow process because after nearly two years of literally never getting out of bed everything atrophied.. everything. I still have a long way to go.

And yes, those steps on that post in the link was what I did. I switched "Manual" to "Automatic" and on the recovery tab I switched "First Failure" from "Take No Action" to "Restart Service" and then restarted the computer and voila... it's been good. I was worried earlier when I saw that curved Wi-Fi symbol change to the round earth symbol briefly... but it hasn't happened again. I guess there will always be possible hiccups, but I'm not exaggerating when I said it was going on a few times every hour. Always. And it was like that for months.

I really was going to switch from Comcast to Verizon and they had an offer for a free Nintendo Switch at the time, and I was like I'm not interested in that I'll wait to see the next one and live with it a little longer. And the next one was even less appealing to me, it's some sort of free stuff or money card for Home Depot. lol, not for me. Then my son found out I had turned down the free Nintendo Switch and chewed my ass so I promised him if that came back I'd do it then. But now... wow. what a difference. I would constantly be posting stuff like I am right now and it wouldn't post because that would be one of those times it would go out. Some sites have indicators that come up when you're there and it goes out (Reddit is one) and I would be on one of those sites reading a lengthy article or thread and would see that notice pop up sometimes two or three times just while there. It was constant. Man this is better. Makes me wonder why those are the default settings because they must be because I don't think I ever changed them. In fact, I didn't even know such a screen with such options existed in Windows. lol

Anyway, thanks for your kindness and for making me feel better about the changes. That was the one thing bothering me was maybe those were the defaults for security reasons. Have a good one.

OldFatGuy

Well, that lasted about a week. Back. In all it's glory. And I just checked and the settings didn't revert back, they are still changed to Automatic and Restart Service. To give you and idea of the problem, I was listening to a song on Youtube Music that I like, it's listed at 5:26. Five minutes and twenty six second song. And from start to finish it went out and back in THREE TIMES. This is how it was. It was happening all the time.

Then I tried that fix (there were others I found to try... with no luck) above and I thought it was all good. Now it's back and no more fixes that I know of.

Man, I go to the forums there and see it complained about a lot. See screenshot from just now as an example. One of them I circled just says "Internet" in the title but s/he's complaining about losing internet too.

But I spoke to an online friend who uses Verizon FIOS (or whatever their optical internet is called) and he says it's a common complaint there too.

Is there something going on regarding the internet? Bad actors trying to subvert or interrupt it for, I dunno, political or economic reasons?

This is infuriating. It. Goes. Out. All. The. Time. Constantly. Day, night, week or weekend. And why would that "fix" appear to work only not to? Again, makes me wonder if there's some bad actors doing things and maybe they took a week off or something, I dunno. It just doesn't make sense. This was not always a problem. I've been with Comcast since 2008. Never saw it until this year.

WTF?

With a valid license I hope? ;)
That aside, I had similar issues years back. I forget how I fixed them but i'm glad you seem to have sorted yours as well.

- Making music AND dabbling in PC tech? Dude sure is talented ;)

Yeah, my physical therapist asked the same question lol. Yeah, it's good. As fate would have it, one of my last driving occasions was in 2019 when I renewed it and it's good till 2026. So... math is hard but I think that's seven years. Don't know how Virginia ranks among other states, but apparently in Virginia it's seven years.

It was quite literally like the third from the last time I drove. I was in very bad shape and could barely walk then and went into the DMV and bless them, it was full, there was a long line (there seems to always be at the DMV) but some woman behind the counter saw my condition and let me go right ahead and renew without the line. I apologized to everyone in line but all I heard in response was something along the lines of "it's all good, don't worry about it" so I guess that shows how bad I must have looked lol. I was bent over nearly in half, hanging on to the walker, sweating profusely from the effort because I had by then had been unable to do much, though still not completely bed bound until Sep 2020 when I suffered four fractured vertebrae.

It wasn't an all at once thing. I started felling numbness and weakness in my left arm and leg around 2017 or 2018. It got worse and I went from walking normally, to needing a cane, to needing a walker, to being bed bound for almost two years. So now I'm repeating the process in reverse. I was able to get in a wheelchair in 2022. Then in 2023 I was able to take my first steps on a walker... my wheel chair has been relegated to a closet. Now the walker has met the same fate as now I really only use it when I need to carry stuff, I mostly get around with just a cane now. And I'm hoping I can ditch that too one day, though I'm still a bit away from that. Still, I wondered if I'd ever get this far, so not complaining. lol

I'm glad to hear you fixed your issues as well. Mine likely won't be totally fixed unless I get the neck surgery that say is needed to fix the problem behind the numbness and weakness on my left side. They said my spinal cord is basically squeezed flat in one of the neck vertebrae as the hole the spinal cord passes through has closed. It's not a surgery I'm particularly looking forward to though because of the risks. Walking with a cane the rest of my life is better than being paralyzed if the surgery goes bad. Of course, if the hole keeps closing the result will be the same too I guess. I actually had the surgery scheduled for April of 2020... but yeah something strange happened in the world at that time that put all those plans to waste.