Do I have a virus? funky settings keep changing

[t99]

So a while back my internet was acting funny and the only fix was to go to my Ethernet properties and set IPv4 obtain DNS to 0.0.0.0. I forget what it was, but it was something with windows and this was a fix I found online. Months pass and everything is fine.

Then a few weeks ago my internet started acting up again. I can chat with friends on steam, but nothing else. The fix was to set IPv4 DNS to obtain automatically. Everything is fine, but then a few days pass and it isn't working. I check the settings and it was changed back to 0.0.0.0 so I put it on automatic and everything is fine. Then it changed again and I put it back another 3 times over the last couple of weeks. It seems kind of random whenever I turn my computer on that day.

I don't see anything strange running and I monitor what's going on all the time. The only thing that feels strange is that the ram usage when doing nothing sits at 40%, I have 8gb. It feels a bit high for not running anything, but perhaps it's not. Another very odd thing is that my wifi just vanished from this computer. Around this time I noticed if I go into network / sharing center - change adapter settings that there is no wifi anymore. It only shows my Ethernet connection which I find very odd. I'm completely clueless as to what could of caused that to completely vanish. Having device manager search always did nothing.

 

[boosted1g]

If device manager does not even see a wifi card in yoru computer then it is either defective, disconnected or there is issue with mobo slot for wifi card.

In regards to DNS issue this does sound like it could be an infecton.
If you manually put it to 8.8.8.8 (google's DNS) or your router IPs will it still auto-revert?

 

[SgtScream]

It sounds like you have your network adapter settings set to obtain ip information automatically.
Where are you seeing that your ip address has changed to 0.0.0.0?
When you lose connectivity, what does the network icon look like in the lower right hand corner, in the system tray?
The symptoms you are describing sounds like you are having issues with your internet service provider.

 

[t99]

It sounds like you have your network adapter settings set to obtain ip information automatically.
Where are you seeing that your ip address has changed to 0.0.0.0?
When you lose connectivity, what does the network icon look like in the lower right hand corner, in the system tray?
The symptoms you are describing sounds like you are having issues with your internet service provider.

It never happens while I am online. I use my computer all day and turn it off when I go to sleep. If this happens it's when I turn it on the next day. The icon has the yellow triangle when something is wrong. I am seeing the settings if I do this.. right click icon - network / sharing center - change adapter settings - properties - ipv4 properties - currently set the bottom option to automatic. It will randomly go back to 0.0.0.0. I don't remember exactly what I did months ago, I either set it to 0.0.0.0 or 1.1.1.1, but either way it was working fine for a long time up until a couple weeks when it randomly does this.

I do regularly use a vpn with what looks like a killswitch enabled. They call it liquidlock from liquidvpn, but I think it's just a killswitch. I haven't thought of that possibility before and will try to pay attention to this happening after I use vpn. Typically if I use my vpn it is during the evening downloading and then I will turn it off when I turn the computer off, but I always disable the liquid lock setting first.

 

[t99]

If device manager does not even see a wifi card in yoru computer then it is either defective, disconnected or there is issue with mobo slot for wifi card.

In regards to DNS issue this does sound like it could be an infecton.
If you manually put it to 8.8.8.8 (google's DNS) or your router IPs will it still auto-revert?

I've never tried to put it to 8.8.8.8. I either set it to 1.1.1.1 or 0.0.0.0 a while back to fix some weird issue. It's been a while and I don't remember all of the details. Either way it does auto-revert, but like I said in the other response I'm wondering if this could be tied to my vpn. I will try setting to 8.8.8.8 later and see what happens. I don't wanna mess with it right now while it's working because this stuff is a big pain when it goes out.

 

[SgtScream]

Oh that's makes sense. When you turn on your computer, the computer sends and arp request to all devices on the network, looking for a dhcp server. So for some reason your computer is unable to acquire a dhcp lease from the router, to get it's very one unique internal ip address. Your router is supposed to be handing out dhcp to your computer. Are you having these problems on other devices?
With your computer acting normally, open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" and post the results. Do the same for when it's acting up. This will assist with troubleshooting your issue.