How to fix Windows 10 Ethernet connection that keeps dropping [Troubleshooting Guide]

The internet has become one of our essential tools to help us gather information. For example for students, answering assignments is easy, getting ideas about school projects is abundant and many more. In short, internet is an unlimited source of information. But many of windows 10 users are having issues connecting to the internet and some are experiencing frequent connectivity drops. This issue happens when you are connected to a network but getting no internet connection or the signal keeps dropping. There are several causes of this issue and it might be because of a bad Ethernet cable, modem issue, service provider problem, hardware issue, etc.

This is the topic that I will tackle in this post to give answers to all troubled users. We recommend to keep reading the post to have an idea about the issue and how to resolve it. The Ethernet connection issue is one complicated problem and you need to perform some troubleshooting procedure to narrow it down before you can determine the culprit. For newbies, the procedures that we will recommend here are simplified and easy to follow to avoid getting additional problems.

For Windows 10 PC owners, if you are looking for some assistance, don’t hesitate to visit our Windows 10 Troubleshooting page for we already addressed some other issues. You can try and find similar issues that your PC has and perform the steps provided. For further assistance, you can contact us by filling up our Windows 10 questionnaire and provide us the detailed information about the issue and we will get back to you.

Troubleshooting Windows 10 Ethernet connection issue

Like I said earlier, we need to perform some procedures to narrow down the issue to determine the culprit. We need to start from the very basic and go all the way to slightly difficult procedures.

Step 1: Check everything from the outside

This is the most basic procedure that we need to perform. Sometimes, a lot of PC owners already jumping to conclusion without checking all connections with problems and end up paying high repair cost for a simple connection issue. Since the issue is internet, we recommend to check the Ethernet cable right away if was connected firmly from the back of your PC to your modem. If it’s loosen, try to perform a simple unplug/plug procedure to confirm it was connected correctly. Do this to your modem as well. Remember, the Ethernet cable is mostly colored grey or blue connected from modem to your PC.

Step 2: Change Ports and Restart Modem

After checking the cable and the connection issue still present, then you try and insert the Ethernet cable to other port of your modem. The change of IP address might be able to fix the issue, there is no solid explanation about this procedure but most of the time when I have issues with my connection I just reinsert it to other ports and the issue resolved. Hopefully, we have the same issue and it should be fixed after performing it and then restart your modem. In restarting your modem, just simply unplug its power cord and reinsert it back after 30 seconds.

Step 3: Temporarily disable Antivirus or Firewall

Now, since security programs are important tool in keeping our PC safe from virus or malwares and disabling it will be critical. There are cases that this program will stop you from accessing the internet even how much effort you put into and still didn’t resolve the issue. An example antivirus is Avast, this software is quite ‘strict’ in terms of securing your PC from harm but sometimes it’s way too much ‘strict’ that it ends up to minimizing your access and your work. Even some program can be tag as harmful for this program and you can no longer access them, it includes the browsers like chrome or IE.

It doesn’t matter what antivirus you have, we will recommend to temporarily disable it and turn it back on if the issue still occurs. The antivirus program mostly has an icon on taskbar, you can simply double-click it and navigate through settings and turn it off temporarily.

To turn off firewall, follow these steps:

1. Click Start menu on taskbar
2. Type Windows Firewall on the search box
3. Click Turn Windows Firewall on or off
4. Put a bullet on Turn off Windows Firewall
5. Click OK to confirm
6. Go back to the desktop and try using the internet

Step 4: Clear Browsing History

If you are regularly using your browser and never clear the browsing history, this might be the cause of the issue.  It doesn’t matter if what browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.) you are using, you can simply access it’s settings and clear the history. Here’s how:

1. For Google Chrome

• Open Chrome Browser
• Click More (Three dots on upper-right corner beside URL box).
• Click Settings
• Click Show advanced settings
• Click Clear Browsing data
• Put a check to all information you wanted to remove. Choose carefully and understand each functions.
• Under Obliterate the following items from, click the drop down arrow to choose from the past hour, the past day, the past week, the last 4 weeks and the beginning of time. Here we recommend to choose the beginning of time to clear all history data.
• Click Clear browsing data
• Close chrome browser.

2. For Internet Explorer

• Open Internet Explorer
• Click Tools on the upper-right side between Safety and Help icon
• Make sure that you are under the General tab. If not, then simply click it.
• Under Browsing History, you have two choices Delete and Settings. If you want to delete all the history data directly, then click Delete. If you wanted to have your own settings, then click Settings to set up. Here, you can choose either to delete the history every time you close the browser, set the capacity of history storage (e.g. 100MB) or choose how many days it will be stored and delete it when it expired.
• Click OK to confirm
• Go back to desktop and try if the issue is resolved.

3. For Opera Browser

• Open Opera Browser
• Click Settings
• Click Privacy & Security on the left sidebar
• Make sure you are under Privacy tab, then click Clear browsing history
• Choose any of the options to delete and how far back time to delete (e. g. the past hour, past week, etc.).
• Go back to desktop and see if the issue was resolved.

4. For Firefox Browser

• Open Firefox browser
• Click Settings (three horizontal lines on the top-right side)
• Click History
• Click Recent History to show all the list of visited websites
• You can choose to delete one at a time or choose to delete them all
• Click the dropdown arrow to set how far back in time to delete
• Click Clear Now to start the process
• Go back to desktop and try surfing the web it fixed the issue.

Step 5: Check if the Ethernet was enabled or Update adapter

For some reasons, there are cases that after an update, it won’t automatically turn on the Ethernet adapter and it won’t allow you to connect to the internet. This is rarely to happen but, just in case then it’s worth a try to check if it was enabled. To check, follow the steps below:

1. Click Start menu on the taskbar
2. Right-click This PC on the left panel
3. Click Manage
4. Click Device Manager
5. Click Network Adapters drop down arrow
6. Right-click the name of your Network adapter, if the Enable  option is present, click it to turn it on.
7. Go back to Desktop and see any progress.

If the issue still occurs, then you can try and update the driver. Mostly an out of date driver can cause an issue or connectivity is unstable, updating it can resolve this issue.

1. From the Device Manager
2. Click the drop down arrow to expand Network adapters
3. Click Update device software to let it search for the newest version. If it’s not possible, then use another working PC to download the same Network adapter and use USB to save it and run it to your PC to manually install the update.
4. Go back to desktop to see any progress.

Step 6: Call your Service Provider

If your PC Ethernet cable connection to your modem has no issues but no internet, then we recommend to call your service provider. It doesn’t matter which provider you’re under with, as long as there is something wrong with their service you have to let them know. There are cases that they will interrupt the internet connection if their system is updating or upgrading and mostly all the time they intend to do  it without prior notice. It is best to ask them personally.

However, for those who has limited monthly plan, we recommend to check your data allocation to determine if your service is not throttled. If so, then your connection is OK but your service is slowed or limited. In case you have enough credits, then you might want to ask for disputes about the service.

Step 7: Call a tech service or visit service center

If all procedures didn’t resolve the issue, then you can call a tech to check your PC or bring it to the nearest service center. In any case that the issue is on the hardware, then all these procedure are useless because the possible solution for it is to change the broken parts.

You’ve pretty much perform all necessary procedures to narrow down the issue, hopefully it was useful to you.

Connect with us

We understand that for many computer users, troubleshooting is really difficult that’s why we’re here to help you find a solution…for free. All we need is information about your computer and the problem. Just fill up our Computer issues questionnaire here and give us the information we need. Also include your own observation on how and when the problem started or what you were doing when the problem emerged. We will help you find a solution to fix your problem or advise you what to do.