Question Smelling "electric burning" smell coming from computer directly after plugging in Ethernet cord?

[AggieKO]

Howdy everyone, yesterday I was working on a project in sketchup when my internet began to slow to the point that i could download anything. So in an attempt to fix this I bypassed my router and plugged the Ethernet directly into the back of my computer. This fixed the internet problem, but in very short order I began to smell the burning smell. I immediately turned it off and haven't turned it on since. It is a fairly new computer as I have had it for a little over a year and that was the first attempt to try connect the Ethernet cable directly into the computer. I guess my question is, would me not using the Ethernet connection cause it to have this smell on first use? Or is it more likely I have bigger problems? When I get home later tonight I am going to turn it on without the Ethernet connection to see if it still generates the same smell.

 

[Ralston18]

How is your network physically set up?

As I understand your post it would be something like:

(Arrows "---->" being Ethernet (RJ-45) cables, Cat 5e or above.)

ISP ----> Modem ---> Router -----> your computer.

And you changed the setup to:

ISP -----> Modem -----> your computer.

Is my understanding correct?

What make and models are the modem and router?

Did you connect to the motherboard's integrated Ethernet port or some other RJ-45 (Ethernet port: PCIe slot, or USB perhaps?)