this has been happening for a while (~1 month) and it's driving me mad.

my mac laptop/ phone/other devices in the house all run at decent speeds, but my Dell work comp is in it's own world and some days disconnects/reconnects the whole network at random.

-it had been getting speeds of ~60mbps but now gets 2mbps-5mbps, aswell as the frequent disconnections (although the DCs mostly stop after updates afaik. it may only be happening when there's pending updates). right now i'm @ 2mbps while my phone is 40+. laptop at 50+.

- it is plugged in via signal boosting ethernet cable (as in not connected to the box but plugged in booster and connected. this more than doubled the computer speed when i got it and don't know if has any relation to the issue).

-i'm certain that it's this comp specifically and not a congestion issue. every device can run simultaneously without issue aside from my work comp but if there's just my phone and work comp on, it's still really slow.

- i googled similar issues and many found that a network speed restricter had installed itself and been slowing down their connection, and deleting the program solved the issue. i couldn't find any of the names mentioned in my programs. the threads weren't exactly new though so it could still be something like that. i did delete a few things but it didn't help.

- i ran troubleshooter and on internet connections it says " windows could not automatically detect this network's proxy settings", but it can't automatically fix it and i don't know if that has anything to do with it.
on windows updates, the troubleshooter also tells me the same issue, aswell as "potential windows update database error detected" fixed, "windows update components must be repaired" fixed, "check for pending updates" fixed.
however, if i close and run the troubleshooter again, it tells me about the same issues and fixes them again.

- i only bought the comp in october and it's got 8gb ram and 1tb hard drive. it's had issues with updates seemingly since purchase.

- i've tried loads of google searched fixes for speed, or 1 slow device, etc and nothing's worked. i don't know what i'm doing 3/4's of the time cuz i'm not the most technical. if turning it off and on again doesn't fix it, i'm lost and blindly clicking buttons getting frustrated 'til it works again. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.

I don't really know what you mean here, but this is probably where I would start troubleshooting. Can you temporarily try connecting directly from the Dell computer to your router using a short Ethernet (network) cable to see if you still experience the issues?

unfortunately i can't connect directly to the router.

have this thing called tp-link 600, ya plug one of them to the router and the other plugs to your device to improve connection speeds.
i tried disconnecting all that and just being on regular wifi and speed/connectivity improved alot to around ~10mbps and stable, which is obv not great (and the reason i bought a booster to begin with), but it's a significant improvement on what i've been getting.

so yeah, basically the problem was with that. thanks for your help, not really sure why i didn't try that sooner. now i don't know whether to buy another wifi booster or just leave it and be grateful it's working properly for the first time in a while.