In reply to a post by thebigdolphin1:

Just tried with my phone's SIM (Three) and it's also experiencing IP changes every second or two, so it's not just a SMARTY issue.

For interest, just checked the public IP on my phone over a 10 minute period and it remained the same so it must just be the way Three\Smarty is setup

In reply to a post by dect:

For interest, just checked the public IP on my phone over a 10 minute period and it remained the same so it must just be the way Three\Smarty is setup

You've probably come to the conclusion I did on Thursday

In reply to a post by thebigdolphin1:

Next step I'm gonna start killing programs one by one to see if anything improves

Security software, and drivers can't be "killed" as they don't run in user land but interface with the kernel. They need to be uninstalled.

If you have any third party security products, start with those.

Super weird but somewhat good news at least. Fresh Windows install works completely fine, so there's something cocked up in my current installation. Ideally I don't wanna have to reinstall and reconfigure anything, but I'm honestly out of ideas on where to look next. Tried disabling AV and Firewall (both built into Windows) and that's shown no improvements.

That’s quite positive actually. A slow process but if you add back software one step at a time you will eventually find out what ‘broke’ it.

The most important part of that being "one step at a time" .

I think I'm just gonna copy my files and get rid of this current installation, I've spent far too long trying it the other way around (removing suspicious apps/drivers one by one) and getting nowhere. I have a feeling its just some weird config or driver left behind from years ago, I've been using the same Windows installation for 10 years now and it's just been upgraded over time.

I'm surprised my system hasn't shutdown (yet) from all the services and drivers I've killed.

Edited by thebigdolphin1 (Sun 15-Aug-21 18:40:02)

Good move. Windows does well with a clean slate and 10 years is a *very* long time on the original build.

You really should upgrade to Windows 10 as well. If you're running a 10 year old version, it's probably Visa or 7 right.

I didn't want to upgrade to W10 from my trust W7 setup, but now I have, I couldn't go back.

You can upgrade for free as well usually.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/14/21065140/how-to-u...

Nah I meant it started on 7, and has been upgraded to 10 over the years without doing a complete reinstall. I mostly wanted to hold off for the release of Windows 11 next year, but I'd rather just get it over and done with now as it's causing problems.