DNS not responding.. ExpressVPN caused issue...

Question

Ok.. I've scrolled through a lot of question/answers and I haven't found the issue I'm having.

About, let's say, 8 months ago, my Ethernet connection on PC -Windows 10Home v. 21H1 OS build 19043.1645 WFEP 120.2212.4170.0- started becoming intermittent. I have expressVPN but I don't use it as much as I used to. For whatever reason, turning the VPN on (which I hadn't really used in a couple of months) made the connection more reliable. Within about 10 days, the internet would ONLY work if I had the VPN on which was a new issue. I do understand the setting of 'block internet if not connected' that wasn't the issue. I was able to resolve the issue by changing the IPv4 and IPv6 settings.

Now, about 2 weeks ago, around April 1, 2022, the issue of intermittent internet began happening again after a few days of having my modem, PC, basically everything electronic, unplugged.

The VPN, again, resolved it when on. Well, I want to fix the issue and not have the VPN on at all. I'm actually not renewing my VPN subscription so I NEED to get the issue fixed. I uninstalled ExpressVPN - I removed every trace I could find.. that actually made it MUCH worse. Now, my internet icon shows it's connected but it won't load a page on any browser. The issue is 'DNS is not reponding'. Over the past few days, I've tried everything from resets, disable/enable, changing the IPv4&6's settings,metric value (to 15 I believe), restarted my modem (no wi-fi for personal reasons), contacted my ISP - no issue there, used the 8.8.8.8. -8.8.4.4. Google route, disabled p2p, and a few others I can't remember right off (I know, I need to be as specific as I can, I'm trying).. nothing fixed the issue.

I came across a thread about the same issue that had been solved by dumping the VPNs info - but that was for a different OS. If my info is needed, I'm more than happy to oblige. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello.

Do you check your internet with another devices ?

for the first step please run this command :

tracert -d 8.8.8.8

With this command you can find whether the request goes out from your modem.

then share the result there.