Network unreliability on Dell 3050 Micro (Realtek 8168)

hello misc. I've been running a Dell 3050 Micro for a while now and for
as long as I've had it I've had the issue of it being extremely
unreliable when it comes to networking. Regularly, multiple times a
day, the network speeds will slow to a crawl (single digit kb/s
typically) or stop working entirely, one time requiring a full reboot.
After some discussion with a friend they recommended seeing if anyone
else was encountering this issue with the 3050 micro or anything else
that uses the Realtek 8168 NIC. I'm only really asking to check if this
is a known issue and if there's anything I can do about it before I go
out and buy a replacement NIC that's known to be reliable. 
Thank you all