This morning a weird problem with my internet connection manifested itself: I lost access to about half of the internet. That is to say, there were a lot of sites that I could still connect to normally (Google, Netflix, ...), and a bunch of other sites (Amazon, Reddit, Steam, ...) where I would always get a ER_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT connection error. But that happened only on my PC, while my other devices that link by Wifi to exactly the same router had no problems at all.

I concluded that the problem must be somewhere with the PC. After trying various software resets and similar stuff for my network card, which is integrated in my Gigabyte Z390 Gaming SLI motherboard, I finally decided I needed a hardware solution. So I bought a PCI-e network card for 20 bucks in a local store, and that completely solved the problem.

I assume that some connection on my old network card broke. I just don't understand how that can result in the problem I had, that part of the internet was still working fine, and another wasn't working at all. I would have thought a broken network card to just not work at all anymore.

As it took me some hours to figure out the problem and solve it, and my PC couldn't connect to the Genshin Impact servers anymore, I ended up playing a bit of Genshin Impact on my iPad. And I was thoroughly impressed: Apart from the different controls, you couldn't tell the difference between the PC version and the iOS version. I still prefer the PC version, because controlling your character and the camera at the same time is easier with mouse and keyboard than with on-screen controls. But while Genshin Impact is of decent graphical / gameplay quality for a PC game, it just blows any other mobile game away in comparison. You'd think you are playing on a console and not a tablet.

- posted by Tobold @ 12:13 PM Permanent Link