Laptop weaves in and out of internet connectivity

Dell e5500 here, windows 7, a few years old. A couple days ago the internet would start cutting out every few hours. After a while it would cut out every couple of minutes, and return after a minute or so. It seemed to help to disconnect from the network and connect back to it right away.

The internet itself is fine, I had it tested and the problem still happened when wired directly to the modem. I knew it was a problem with the laptop when I tried a different network and had the same problem.

I tried googling but couldn't find something that matched my issue, since it's kind of odd.

Any ideas on what can be done? Maybe something that needs to be replaced? Any help would be appreciated.