networking issue
 

basics...

10g network
fedora first 29 now 31 server
netgear 10g switch
netgear cable modem
comcrap cable internet service

i got a really annoying networking issue going on that i could really use some help on. so, a few days ago, my surfing speeds just dropped. i was having loading some websites and others would take SEVERAL minutes to load. we are talking like 5-10 minutes. my assumption was it was comcrap because, well, it is comcrap and i have connectivity issues way to frequently.

then i started troubleshooting it after i realized that my server was connecting fine. so when i ping 8.8.8.8 from my server i get about 17 ms. when i ping google.com from my server i get 17 ms. now, when i ping 8.8.8.8 from my pc under my server, i get 17 ms. when i ping google.com from my pc i get between 34 and 55+ ms. here is the odd thing, when i connect to a vpn, i get normal speeds and everything loads fine. also, when i plugged my notebook directly into the modem. speeds were fine that way so i thought it must be my server.

what i figured was that maybe someone got on my server because i had not been paying attention so i reformatted the server because i do that every other year anyway and this was the year. the situation was the same.

then i changed by switch from my relatively new 10g switch to an 1g switch to see if that was the issue. still there...but when i connect to a vpn, it goes away.

then i changed one networking wire, same...

then i changed both networking cards in my server, same issue...

i cannot figure this out. it cannot be my server because that has been rebuilt, at least the os side. every component between me and the modem has been switched but the wire between my server and my modem however i tested that with a connection tester and that was fine. after all that it still persists that when i use my server i get consistent speeds but when i use a computer under my server, i get horrendous load times for websites and have all sorts of connection issues until i connect to a vpn.

man, i would really appreciate some thoughts on this...i am completely perplexed!

crazy, i dont know wny i figure this out just after i post here but again i did. i used the pia dns servers. i also use pia as my vpn. for some reason pia must have changed their dns's because they were the issue. maybe they changed it to work only when logged in or something because that drove me crazy. i changed to cloudfares dns and everything works fine. i guess i should have thought of that but...i finally did!