Ethernet cable slowing down connection

Thanks for responding. I will look at the Device Manager on the laptop and see if anything can be updated. I think updates are automatic, as you said. I looked at it on my own laptop and didn't see anything possible to change. I right-clicked on Network adapters and nothing came up that offered any actions to take other than scanning hardware or looking at properties.

Not sure what happened with the cable. The Cat6 seems to be doing its job in connecting me to the internet though not with greater speeds. I did some tests where the speeds seemed normal, and I will try to run tests every day when I connect the laptop to start working. Unfortunately, I am scheduled to work evenings, from 5-9pm EST. It's possible that I could switch to mornings, but as I mentioned, there is no way around the VPN. I was very concerned about that during training, as connecting to VPN was in the first steps to accessing the work space.