Pc "connected to internet" but programs randomly freeze with "no internet" error codes

[DButcha]

Hi all!
I've got nowhere else to turn now, google has failed me and so has my brain. My desktop rig keeps having this issue where i'll be on chrome, steam, spotify, or anything that uses internet connection and suddenly the program with freeze/not respond or give me a generic program specific error code saying there is no internet connection. Other devices are fine, router obviously has internet connection, the windows wireless icon has bars and says internet connected but alas something is wrong. Google chrome either doesn't respond or says dns probe no internet. I set my pc settings to use 8.8.8.8 dns and not anything else. When chrome doesn't respond i either have to kill it or use the windows troubleshoot wifi until it resets my wifi card. That solves the issue. So, it appears after reinstalling programs that they are not the issue. It's either windows 8, my wifi card, or my mobo. I've got a tp-link n600 TL-WDN3800 in my pci express of my Asus M5A78L-M LX mobo. I don't know what to do from here! Everything is < 2 years old and the issue started happening about a month ago randomly. Help!

 

[skitszo]

could be your modem and something near your house down the line. we just had to get our modem replaced and there was some other item near the house the ISP had to fix. It may not be your computer.. so get the ISP on the phone see if they need to come out and look at it.

 

[DButcha]

@skitszo That is a good point. I should've mentioned this in the post though. I have recently moved from one apartment to another. Both have comcast internet but different physical modems and routers. I have/had the issue at both places. The modem I have now is 1 week new. I figured comcast might be the issue but someone online said using 8.8.8.8 in the dns settings uses google's dns servers and that would fix the dns issue?

Update: Okay so when I was trying to solve the problem, our whole internet went down. No device was working and my roomate had work to do. I restarted everything, set the router back to defaults, got different ethernet cords, the whole shebang. Still everything got a dns no internet error. Turns out it was the router. My favorite router had died. Luckily i had another so we plugged it in and all our devices starting working. EXCEPT my desktop pc. I still get the freezing program issue. I wiped my drivers for the pcie network card and am using microsoft's default driver to see if anything will change. My laptop connects to the 5ghz band great, but my desktop right next to it can't reach the router on 5ghz that well. The 2.4 ghz band is so crowded i don't know if its worth it.

 

[DButcha]

Wiping the driver seemed to fix the issue. Nothing has frozen since I did that. I'm just gonna keep it this way from now on.