New with no Internet

[sbjdteam]

Hi. My name is Sue and this is my first time to be on such a site. I don’t know my way around and I don’t have time to find the mannerly way of things because I’m losing Internet every 30 seconds. It can take me half an hour to post a one-sentence tweet on Twitter because the Internet drops off every 30 or less second after I “diagnose” it to get it back on. Over and over and over. That’s how I found your site. I searched “my Internet keeps turning off…” Thirty seconds is not a lot of time to peruse a new place and adapt to the culture enough to make friends and ask for help so… Actually - It looks like this bout is over. I’ve had Internet long enough to type this far.
So! I came to ask for help with my computer that regularly goes through hours’ long spells of dropping Internet every 30 seconds and that quit playing videos a couple of months ago. All this happened without me doing anything to cause it. I really don’t do much at all anymore. Mostly I just play Zoo Tycoon but I also visit Fox News, Twitter and Proton Mail daily. I do all this with Frasier playing on Hulu for white noise. I’m 64 and live in PA.
I have a cheap 6-year-old PC that has been nothing but a series of problems since I bought it. I’ve never owned a laptop. My previous computer, which I used 24/7 and dug around in for almost twenty years was much more reliable. I still use the printer I bought with it although the scan function mysteriously stopped working after I bought this computer. I think I use Windows 10 but I’m not sure. Whatever they’ve forced me to use - that’s what I’m using because they refuse to allow Windows 7 to work any longer.
Since my Internet has stayed this long, I’m going to go do a few things that need doing and then I’ll come back and look around to see if I can find something that will help me out and if I can’t, I’ll find out how to ask for help.
Thank you so much for your very welcoming site!

[Bruce]

g’day Sue and welcome to the forum.

let’s get your PC specs for starters.

get Speccy from here; Speccy - Download Builds
in Speccy, click File > Publish Snapshot > Copy to Clipboard > Close.
now you can paste (Ctrl+V) that link into a post.
One component Speccy doesn’t cover is the Power Supply Unit, so please also include the make/model of the PSU.

[sbjdteam]

Thank you, Bruce! Hi!
The hardest part of this was finding my way back here! lol

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/VrbEeNnQejGuqPIuaYRMnEn

[sbjdteam]

Oh. What’s a PSU?

[PeterOz]

Hi Sue
PSU = Power Supply Unit.
Because you have a Dell I do not think you can find the PSU details
Is your computer a Dell Insprion 3847 ?
Are you able to connect your computer to your modem/router with a cable.
Depending on your modem router you should have a port on the modem router and one on the computer - pic attached.
Normally modem/routers come with a cable in the box - pic attached ( cable could be any colour).
If you do not have a place on your modem/router to plug in a cable
Please supply the make and model of your modem/router

If you can make this connection it should help untill we can sort things out.

Speccy report is showing you are connected via Bluetooth which is most unusual.

You are running Windows 8.1.

If you do not have a cable or do not have a place on your modem/router to plug one in
We will go through the steps to connect via wifi.

[sbjdteam]

Hi Peter! I forgot to put in my ‘About Me’ post that I work overnights (1:30 AM - noon) and sleep during the day so it’s not that I’m not gratefully paying attention - it’s that I’m sleeping when the rest of you are being productive. I’m awake now, though, and it’s my day off so I’m headed for a flashlight and I’m crawling under my desk to peek behind my tower.
I should tell you that I rent a decrepit, dark basement and do not have cable. I use my landlord’s cable (with his knowledge & permission) through my WiFi, which from what you said about my Bluetooth, appears to not be working? I have two WiFi things plugged into my tower. My computer is always turtle-slow but this dropping the Internet every 30 seconds is new for the last three weeks.

[sbjdteam]

Okay:
Yes - my computer is a Dell Insprion 3847. Well, my tower is. My monitor is HP and my keyboard is the cheapest one they had at Best Buy.
The router is upstairs in landlord’s living quarters. I can only get Internet through WiFi. I keep computer on a desk almost directly below where his router sits beside his TV up there. I have thought about drilling a little hole in my ceiling/his baseboard and hooking directly into modem but he cleans house regularly and I think he’d discover it pretty quickly. I understand not being plugged in to the router is a huge problem but I don’t understand why.
My daughter does not have any problems using the Internet with her laptop or her phone. My PC is sturdier and has more components so I think it should be more stable with WiFi.

[PeterOz]

Ok down near the clock is a wifi signal - Pic attached
Can you see if you are connected to his wifi.
It should show a ssid like the pic

[sbjdteam]

Yep. It hovers on two bars 90% of the time. It’ll light-up all the bars for a few seconds after (re)connecting or diagnosing but then it drops as soon as I open a tab on Internet. The other 10% of time it’s either one bar or three bars. Right now it’s 2.

[sbjdteam]

Computer also has built-in WiFi but it’s never worked as far as I know. That’s why I got the ASUS usb-ac53 Nano usb Wi-Fi Adapter.
Then a co-worker’s kid who helped some problems last year bought another one because he didn’t know there was already one plugged so I have two of them now.

[sbjdteam]

Well. This is embarrassing. I was looking through my drawer for the name of the other Wi-Fi usb adapter (TP-Link, btw) and I found Both adapters in the drawer. I checked back of tower and there is No adapter plugged into it. I cannot conceive of when or why I would remove them. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Oh… Maybe Dell told me to remove them when I paid them to remote access computer about a year ago because running Windows 7 made it go bonkers and I couldn’t do anything with it. Maybe they had me remove them so Dell could get the built-in Dell Wi-Fi to work? Want me to plug one of them in now?

[Bruce]

this is all moot if the landlord hasn’t given you the wifi password - so I’ll assume he has.

does your daughter surf his wifi network or has she hot-spotted her laptop to her phone and is using the phones data plan to surf the web?

but yes - plug in any of the USB wireless adapters that work.
they should auto install their necessary driver, especially if you had them install previously.
once installed, clicking on the wifi icon in the bottom right corner should bring up a list of available wireless networks within range.

hopefully you’ll see your landlords, if so, click on it and enter the password.

can it be that easy??? - we’ll see. (y)

[PeterOz]

As Bruce says once you are off Bluetooth and on Wifi it should be back to normal.
Scan will most likley work also
If not
Part 2 fix scanner

[sbjdteam]

My daughter gets on Internet with phone and laptop like I do - automatically. No hot spot or data usage. Yes - we have the password.
I’m going to put the Wi-Fi usb in its slot now except…
Which slot? One time someone said I had something plugged into one slot and it should have been plugged into a different slot. Might have been Wi-Fi. Whatever it was, it was working regardless.
I have 3 slots open right now. One has HDMI above it and the other 2 both have ss with a diagram above them.

[sbjdteam]

Oh. There’s blue lining the two ss/diagram slots.