I hope this is the right area to post about this considering I don't know if it's linked to software or if it sounds more like a hardware/internet problem. (I'll split the information up into two highlights, backstory first for extra detail and scroll a little further down to get right to my issue at hand.)
Backstory
About 3-4 weeks ago we upgraded our internet from comcast residential to business grade because in our household we have about 10 different devices connected to the wifi or ethernet. (3 desktop computers, one being a older work desktop and the other two are gaming pc's each connected with ethernet. A xbox one hard connected by ethernet as well. 4 phones on the wifi and about 3 firestick devices for streaming tv shows or movies since we only have internet service, not the tv service anymore from comcast.)
So the main issue we had and why we decided to upgrade our internet plan/service was because they suggested business grade since we were having buffering issues with streaming on our firestick devices and supposedly the business grade can tackle that easier. We had someone come out about 3-4 weeks ago to do what was needed to install the service, which I think all they really did in person was bring in one of their modem/router devices that looked brand new and hooked it up. As for the hook up how it looked before, we have the line from the street coming directly into our one room/wall where the coax cable connects to the wall. Said coax cable was going into a 3 way splitter because the signal was a bit too high before or running "hot" as the last comcast person told us. Then another coax cable attached into said splitter before it went into our very own modem we bought, which was then connected to our route via ethernet port/cable.
With that mentioned, our new setup is the same but now instead of a 3 way splitter, they used a 5 way splitter with caps on the unused inputs. (This was because originally they thought we were going to keep our residential service active AND the new business grade service together. So our old modem and router would still be connected alongside it as it's own extra connection wifi/etc.) So with the 5 way splitter, one line went to our old modem & router combo, another line went to the new provided modem/router built in one device they gave us and that was that. Before they left, we asked if we still needed to be hooked up to our old setup or if we could connect everything over to the new device for wifi and ethernet devices, which they told us to do just that if we're looking to get rid of our residential service.
The problem at hand
Anyways, once I got our devices all connected to the new modem/router built in one device. We didn't notice anything off right away, streaming on firestick devices seemed better than before and it didn't seem like there was anything out of the norm. That is until I began noticing a day or two later when browsing around on my own gaming pc that some websites wouldn't load as quickly as they did before and not just that, but websites with thumbnail images displayed would maybe display 10-15 of them right away, but the others would have a highlight around them and blank. Sometimes if I scroll down and leave it there for 5-10 seconds it'll load the missing thumbnail images, other times it won't at all and force me to refresh the whole page in hopes it'll load properly. I noticed sometimes these websites for thumbnail images if clicking on them to expand the image and see it fully, it might not do that or it'll take forever before it does.
At first I thought maybe it was something to do with my computer, perhaps a firefox update needed or just playing around with settings or clearing cache/cookies to fix things up since it's been a while anyways. Well... I'm pretty sure I've tried just about everything possible that I could to rule out if it's something to do with my computer, unless it has something directly to do with windows 10? But even that I tried rolling back updates just for the heck of it and nothing, so below are a number of things I've already tried with fail.
I have tried deleting cookies/cache data completely, run firefox in safe mode, dev mode, etc.
I've tried deleting firefox completely, all old folders so that it'll reinstall freshly without any setting from before. Nope, didn't fix it either.
I tried turning off nearly every setting in firefox for hardware accel, smooth scrolling, etc. Nothing seemed to work with that.
I was at my ends with firefox testing, so I tried chrome and internet explorer to see if it was a firefox only issue. Nope, it was still doing it on those browsers too.
Maybe it was my graphics card drivers I thought. I updated my drivers for my gpu and everything else that was outdated and... No luck.
There is one thing I have noticed that does work 100% regardless of browser, if I hold SHIFT key and left click the refresh page button. It'll completely load the thumbnail images perfectly! The only issue is having to do that every time I go onto a new page with thumbnails, cause I have to go to said webpage like normal and before scrolling along I have to remember to do that or else things won't be loaded perfectly. I don't know if that's a lead on this issue, it seems to have worked for other people mentioning similar issues but while it is a fix. It feel much more like a bandaid that you have to manually remember to apply every time you go to websites. (Unless there is a hidden method to applying whatever that Shift + left click refresh combo is applying within settings or through changing code, etc.)
Aside from that, there's only two things I can think of that are causing this.
(1) - Windows 10 for some reason is acting weird about loading websites thumbnails in browsers? I figure if this was the case there would be more reports about it though and attach it to update X or Y causing it for some users, but I haven't heard anything. Why I suggest this idea is because the work computer doubles as a media computer for watching stuff on it in another room and has windows 10 installed and seems to be having the same issues my gaming pc is seeing. The other gaming pc in the house uses windows 7 and with trying to test it for a bit, it didn't seem like there was any loading issues going on with the other gaming pc at all.
(2) - Something to do with our new internet setup or the modem/router device settings conflicting with certain websites or ping requests? Maybe the internet is actually being chugged down somehow? I have noticed our connection in the last week or two has dropped randomly and takes forever to reconnect when trying to reset the device, but before our old modem/router setup didn't really have that issue. I also think that if the internet or device is at play here, why is it only affecting the computers with windows 10 installed and yet the other computer with windows 7 seems as far as I'm aware just fine?
I'm just puzzled and getting a bit frustrated. I want to possibly hook our old modem and router back up again, but I wasn't sure if using this new device provided by comcast is purely meant for business grade internet and won't be able to work right with certain devices or if their modem/router in one device for specs is even better than what our devices for modem and router are.
Below is the hardware details for the modem/router devices.
(Our old modem and router devices)
Modem - Netgear cm600
Router - Netgear WNDR4500 R2
(Comcast's provided modem/router in one)
Modem+Router - Technicolor cga4131tch
Our internet speed stats below.
Ping to nearest server - 12ms
Download speed - 502mbps
Upload speed - 42mbps
I've attached a example of the thumbnail loading problem below. Sometimes the missing thumbnails will load within 5-10 seconds, other times it seems to timeout and just won't load them.
Backstory
About 3-4 weeks ago we upgraded our internet from comcast residential to business grade because in our household we have about 10 different devices connected to the wifi or ethernet. (3 desktop computers, one being a older work desktop and the other two are gaming pc's each connected with ethernet. A xbox one hard connected by ethernet as well. 4 phones on the wifi and about 3 firestick devices for streaming tv shows or movies since we only have internet service, not the tv service anymore from comcast.)
So the main issue we had and why we decided to upgrade our internet plan/service was because they suggested business grade since we were having buffering issues with streaming on our firestick devices and supposedly the business grade can tackle that easier. We had someone come out about 3-4 weeks ago to do what was needed to install the service, which I think all they really did in person was bring in one of their modem/router devices that looked brand new and hooked it up. As for the hook up how it looked before, we have the line from the street coming directly into our one room/wall where the coax cable connects to the wall. Said coax cable was going into a 3 way splitter because the signal was a bit too high before or running "hot" as the last comcast person told us. Then another coax cable attached into said splitter before it went into our very own modem we bought, which was then connected to our route via ethernet port/cable.
With that mentioned, our new setup is the same but now instead of a 3 way splitter, they used a 5 way splitter with caps on the unused inputs. (This was because originally they thought we were going to keep our residential service active AND the new business grade service together. So our old modem and router would still be connected alongside it as it's own extra connection wifi/etc.) So with the 5 way splitter, one line went to our old modem & router combo, another line went to the new provided modem/router built in one device they gave us and that was that. Before they left, we asked if we still needed to be hooked up to our old setup or if we could connect everything over to the new device for wifi and ethernet devices, which they told us to do just that if we're looking to get rid of our residential service.
The problem at hand
Anyways, once I got our devices all connected to the new modem/router built in one device. We didn't notice anything off right away, streaming on firestick devices seemed better than before and it didn't seem like there was anything out of the norm. That is until I began noticing a day or two later when browsing around on my own gaming pc that some websites wouldn't load as quickly as they did before and not just that, but websites with thumbnail images displayed would maybe display 10-15 of them right away, but the others would have a highlight around them and blank. Sometimes if I scroll down and leave it there for 5-10 seconds it'll load the missing thumbnail images, other times it won't at all and force me to refresh the whole page in hopes it'll load properly. I noticed sometimes these websites for thumbnail images if clicking on them to expand the image and see it fully, it might not do that or it'll take forever before it does.
At first I thought maybe it was something to do with my computer, perhaps a firefox update needed or just playing around with settings or clearing cache/cookies to fix things up since it's been a while anyways. Well... I'm pretty sure I've tried just about everything possible that I could to rule out if it's something to do with my computer, unless it has something directly to do with windows 10? But even that I tried rolling back updates just for the heck of it and nothing, so below are a number of things I've already tried with fail.
I have tried deleting cookies/cache data completely, run firefox in safe mode, dev mode, etc.
I've tried deleting firefox completely, all old folders so that it'll reinstall freshly without any setting from before. Nope, didn't fix it either.
I tried turning off nearly every setting in firefox for hardware accel, smooth scrolling, etc. Nothing seemed to work with that.
I was at my ends with firefox testing, so I tried chrome and internet explorer to see if it was a firefox only issue. Nope, it was still doing it on those browsers too.
Maybe it was my graphics card drivers I thought. I updated my drivers for my gpu and everything else that was outdated and... No luck.
There is one thing I have noticed that does work 100% regardless of browser, if I hold SHIFT key and left click the refresh page button. It'll completely load the thumbnail images perfectly! The only issue is having to do that every time I go onto a new page with thumbnails, cause I have to go to said webpage like normal and before scrolling along I have to remember to do that or else things won't be loaded perfectly. I don't know if that's a lead on this issue, it seems to have worked for other people mentioning similar issues but while it is a fix. It feel much more like a bandaid that you have to manually remember to apply every time you go to websites. (Unless there is a hidden method to applying whatever that Shift + left click refresh combo is applying within settings or through changing code, etc.)
Aside from that, there's only two things I can think of that are causing this.
(1) - Windows 10 for some reason is acting weird about loading websites thumbnails in browsers? I figure if this was the case there would be more reports about it though and attach it to update X or Y causing it for some users, but I haven't heard anything. Why I suggest this idea is because the work computer doubles as a media computer for watching stuff on it in another room and has windows 10 installed and seems to be having the same issues my gaming pc is seeing. The other gaming pc in the house uses windows 7 and with trying to test it for a bit, it didn't seem like there was any loading issues going on with the other gaming pc at all.
(2) - Something to do with our new internet setup or the modem/router device settings conflicting with certain websites or ping requests? Maybe the internet is actually being chugged down somehow? I have noticed our connection in the last week or two has dropped randomly and takes forever to reconnect when trying to reset the device, but before our old modem/router setup didn't really have that issue. I also think that if the internet or device is at play here, why is it only affecting the computers with windows 10 installed and yet the other computer with windows 7 seems as far as I'm aware just fine?
I'm just puzzled and getting a bit frustrated. I want to possibly hook our old modem and router back up again, but I wasn't sure if using this new device provided by comcast is purely meant for business grade internet and won't be able to work right with certain devices or if their modem/router in one device for specs is even better than what our devices for modem and router are.
Below is the hardware details for the modem/router devices.
(Our old modem and router devices)
Modem - Netgear cm600
Router - Netgear WNDR4500 R2
(Comcast's provided modem/router in one)
Modem+Router - Technicolor cga4131tch
Our internet speed stats below.
Ping to nearest server - 12ms
Download speed - 502mbps
Upload speed - 42mbps
I've attached a example of the thumbnail loading problem below. Sometimes the missing thumbnails will load within 5-10 seconds, other times it seems to timeout and just won't load them.
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