A couple of weeks ago, I played around with a trial version of a VPN (Proton) just to see and learn about it. After a few days I got disgusted that every time I tried using it, I almost always was assigned to either Netherlands or Japan, in fact once I tried switching servers 10 times, including waits because it made you wait 90 seconds between each change, and ALL TEN were out of my country, which meant I got "different" versions of websites (like shopping I would get Amazon in Europe instead of USA). I'm 100% convinced this was intentional as a way to push one towards paying for the premium version, which, in my case, absolutely ensured that if I do pay for a VPN some day, it will NEVER be with Proton.

However, what's been happening since I uninstalled it may be connected, or it may be a coincidence, I dunno. But for a day or so, even after uninstalling Proton, I saw the icon in my tray (which would disappear the second I moved my mouse cursor over the icon). I was trying to figure out what to do to ensure everything was uninstalled correctly, but after a day or so, the icon stopped completely (haven't seen it since), so I though okay, it's okay now.

But ever since then, I have been having an issue that is MASSIVELY above anything I've ever seen here. WiFi can get flaky for anyone, anywhere at times. I get that. But I'm on the same computer, in the same location, with the same router in the same spot and all the same software and settings since I set up this laptop about a year and a half ago.

Whereas before, when streaming or surfing the web, I might see my wifi go out temporarily 3 to 5 times a week. Don't know if that's high or low but that's a good estimate of what I've experience before. Ever since uninstalling Proton, this is happening 3 to 5 times PER HOUR. (see screenshot). It is unbelievable and massively different, but I have no clue whether it's related to installing and using and uninstalling a VPN, or if it's some brand new problem that just coincidentally started after uninstalling Proton.

I am not exaggerating. When I watch an hour long news show on one of the news channels (I look at about five of them) it is happening every few MINUTES. And it's been this way for a couple of weeks now. I went through the process of resetting my modem/router twice now. Nothing helps. I'm watching TV (or a movie), suddenly it freezes, the cursor spins, and I look down at the bottom right corner of the screen and see that big assed globe sitting there, once again disconnected. In fact, the screen shot was taken just now when it happened again while hear at gog. (It happens everywhere, so no, it's not gog.

There seems to be insufficient evidence to suspect your (partially?) uninstalled Proton VPN service.

Do you live near other dwellings that may have routers over-crowding certain wi-fi channels? In some cases, switching to a less-used channel (through router configuration) may yield positive results. In other circumstances, I have had to replace the entire router of a client, simply due to the device becoming over-burdened by a large amount of connected devices.

Also, as impractical as it may seem, would it be possible to use an ethernet cable?

Edit: Earlier this year, I had moved into my current apartment. I had immediately noticed that my brand-new (yet poorly-shielded) inverter microwave oven had practically disabled my wireless network for the duration of its cooking cycle. Previously, I did not have any issues with microwave ovens, even though I was aware that they can interfere with devices operating on the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

So, however unlikely, might something similar to that be related to your issue?

Keep in mind that it is quite possible to have difficulty with WAN/internet connectivity due to problems with your ISP, while the wi-fi is functioning properly. If/when there is a recurrence, consider visiting the configuration page of your router (many routers, by default, use something similar to https://192.168.0.1 or https://192.168.1.1). If the aforementioned page can be reached while you are simultaneously having issues with visiting remote sites, this would suggest an issue with your WAN, rather than your LAN.

Personally i'm using PIA for a VPN, and it (like VirtualBox) will install a virtual ethernet internet driver to which all packets go through and are handled as the VPN transparently.

I bring this up since maybe you should check your devices listing and finding said virtual ethernet port and disable it, if it wasn't properly removed.

Something is very wrong. And again, NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING has changed. Same house. Same computer sitting on the same table. Same modem/router sitting in the same place. No new appliances. And I am the ONLY one that uses the wi-fi. No other devices whatsoever. And that's the way it's been for the past couple of years, since my nephew moved out just before Covid struck the planet..

But now it's getting to be near inoperable now it's dropping off so frequently now. And it's happening on both the 2.4 and 5 frequencies (modem/router offers both with different passwords and everything). I had one of those for "everybody else" in the household and 1 for me only. But that was when others lived here that used their phones and in one case a PS4. They are all gone for years now.

And yes the network is "locked' (password protected) and under the router info page shows no other devices in either network. The only things that have changed in these last couple of weeks was 1) I played around with the Proton software, and 2) there was a Windows Update a week or so ago.

That's it. Yet it is literally night and day difference. Something has changed, somewhere. And I am bed bound and cannot do a whole lot of troubleshooting. I am able to remotely reset my modem/router from my bed, and I have done that now three times.

No new neighbors, no new equipment, no new software (I checked the programs and features page and the only software added in the past month was when I installed Growth, a game recently released here that i got.

But something is absolutely out of whack. I can't help but wonder about whether the Proton VPN install and uninstall or the realization recently that posting jpg images here shows some personal info has something do with it. But this isn't even remotely close to normal. Something has changed.

Proton has nowt to do with it mate if you've uninstalled.

Have you considered reinstalling Proton, and then uninstalling it? If the uninstallation has borked, it should kind of take you back to pre-uninstallation state. Try uninstalling it then and see if it makes any difference. During the uninstall make sure your machine is doing as little as possible. I've had un/install errors when I've been doing something intensive in the background, and it makes the uninstall quicker as well.

Failing that have you tried Windows network troubleshooter? It's useless for the large part, but I can usually get an idea where something is failing.

Good luck.

If you (or a friend, helper, etc.) could unplug the modem for a minimum of 60 seconds, it might reset itself. However, it may be in need of replacement. Having a tech out could potentially cost you a service call fee, especially if the modem is not, in fact, malfunctioning. If you cannot put your hands on it, calling your provider or getting some other assistance would be a solution, sir.

I've been there in all three scenarios, things working fine before trying something, having no explanation or complete solution looking like the crazy man from Mars and finally unable to do trivial things for reasons. I vote against Proton without any solid evidence, I don't need it to express my support to you. Speaking of solutions, I propose,
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/batch-file-to-release-tcp-ip-flush-dns-reset-winsock-reset-proxy
Basically, you will run from a command prompt window,
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
arp -d *
nbtstat -R
nbtstat -RR
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
And reboot your PC. Will it solve the problem? I hope so, but there is no guarantee. Again, I've been there when the Wifi goes crazy with too many passive suspects in addition to the few active ones, like loose cables, poorly pointed antennas, device failures like the router or wifi card, some neighbor disturbing the harmony by changing some settings, some windows update, weather, whatever. It would be very useful to have another device on hand to test, such as a smartphone, a tablet, a USB wifi card. I assume you don't have those. Good luck #OldFatGuy.

Forgot to say: My proposal is a flush of some windows internal network operative information accumulated with your normal use. After the flush is like the first day you started using the internet on your fresh windows install. You are not deleting something important. VPNs, proxies, firewalls and similar apps play with those internal network operative information like routing and creating virtual devices as far as I know. The day you uninstall those apps, they may leave behind their crap. It is internal, who is going to notice it, right?

Okay, I made the batch file (that's one thing I actually have a lot of experience with dating back to my early days on a Wang computer system). I then ran it as administrator.

A couple of lines popped up saying (not sure of exact words as it didn't last long on screen) could not perform any operation due to ethernet being unplugged (or something like that). Which is true, I don't have an ethernet cable hooked up. So I don't know if that is some indicator that it didn't do anything or not, but I'm going to keep an eye on it all day and see how it goes.

Thank you for the suggestion. It's worth a try.

ADDED: And it's now 2:00 PM. Gonna turn on a new program and watch to 3. I haven't been able to watch an hour long show without it dropping out at least once in at least a week, likely two.

Nope. Didn't even make it halfway.

The Reddit post below might (or not...) be helpful. The first reply there seems to be from Proton staff, and contains some instructions that may be related to your case. Also, one user there mentioned solving his issue by resetting the network using the Windows menus. The link below has instructions on how to do it. And, in case you want to try that batch file again, but would like to read the output, you can add the "pause" command (without quotes) to the end of the batch file. With the "pause" command, the prompt will not disappear immediately. Instead, you will be requested to press any key to exit.

You can try to use Linux to check if the problem is on your PC or not.
Flash a Linux live-CD/DVD iso to USB flash drive using a tool like BalenaEtcher or Rufus. Then load your PC from that flash drive (change boot drive in BIOS/UEFI).

Just don't install it to your HDD/SSD. Those distros are capable of running from RAM, without installation to HDD/SSD.
Which Linux? Linux Mint or Ubuntu are popular choices.

That should be enough to test your speed on speedtest.net or to check if you'll have wifi disconnects during watching online videoservices. If there will be no problems, you have a borked Windows installation, which needs to be fixed or reinstalled.

Wow, maybe something is fixed???? I dunno, but for the first time since this started happening a couple of weeks ago, I woke up this morning and it was still on. It's now after 1:PM here on Saturday afternoon and it's not gone off once today.

I don't know what did it, but if it was that batch file, then wouldn't that be an indicator that it was indeed something to do with the VPN? Asking only because I may not want to try any VPN's again. Or it's all one big coincidence and after installing and uninstalling Proton VPN things went wrong and then another coincidence after running that batch file it fixed. Sounds like a lot of coincidences to me, but what do I know?

The only coincidence may have been yesterday's first "test" after running the batch file and having it go out again after 30 minutes. Maybe THAT was the coincidence, in that a "normal" run of the mill drop off happened just then making me believe the batch file didn't work. As I stated in OP, normally (as in forever since I've been here) it will drop out a time or two per week. I've always assumed this was normal in that wi-fi can be a cranky SOB.

But I can absolutely say with 100% certainty that waking up still connected and not losing it not only all night but into the afternoon today is completely different from the past two or so weeks.

I'll keep an eye on it, but man I think this might be it.

ADDED: Oh, and I just realized (lol didn't even think about last night), I watched a good Jason Statham flick last night, and thinking about it, I didn't experience a single drop off in that movie last night. Mmm... okay, I'm getting my hopes up now that this is indeed no longer an issue. *crosses fingers*

ADDED2: Probably not going to matter either way moving forward, as I had been planning on leaving Xfinity after baseball season was over (we buy an annual package called Major League Baseball Extra Innings that costs about $150 for the season so that you get access to watch every MLB game, not just those broadcast in your area). Baseball season just ended, so I'm looking at calling Verizon and checking out FIOS. I hate Xfinity with a passion. In all of my years dealing with governments (as an accountant) and corporations Xfinity has, by far and away, the absolute WORST customer service of anyone I've ever dealt with. And that's saying something considering all of them are a PITA.