Networking Issues

hi all!

so a while ago I started having issues with my game where every time I start it, my internet completely disconnects from my PC. It works totally fine otherwise, but as soon as I open the game it stops working, and as soon as I close it it's fine again. I tried digging around online for people with similar issues, but so far have come up empty in terms of fixes. this is super frustrating because I'm trying to do the rewards event and while I'm able to do the quests, it won't let me claim anything ;-;

info:

• i have a desktop PC with a wifi card
• i have a brand new network router that I got after this issue started for an unrelated reason
• our internet works very well otherwise and have never had any issues with disconnecting
• other games do not cause the same problem, as far as i know
• issue has been inconsistent up until a few days ago -- before, I was able to occasionally get the gallery to work after restarting my game, but now online functions won't work at all -- and i know it started AT LEAST back during the blast to the past event, maybe before

here's a list of things I've tried so far, in no particular order, that have not worked:

• updated all mods (only gameplay mods I have are MCCC, UI Cheats, and **bleep**)
• power cycling my pc and the game multiple times over the course of troubleshooting
• letting both EA and Sims 4 through firewall settings
• switching to a private network
• performing a network reset (worked for like 2 minutes for some reason? then stopped)
• gone to Device Manager>Network Adapters and unchecked "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" setting on every available driver
• switched to my phone's hotspot to see if that worked -- same issue
• deleted and redownloaded both the EA app and the game
• performed a repair on the game through the EA app

there may be more things I've tried over the last few days/weeks but that's what I can think of off the top of my head, and nothing has worked so far. I'm not usually one to write in forums asking for help bc usually at least one person out there has asked already, but I'm seriously hitting a wall here. any help would be super appreciated!!!! I want that dang swimwear!!!