iCloud Authentication Errors

I've been getting authentication errors when trying to sign into iCloud from Windows 10 for quite a while. It worked before (months ago) so I've been trying to troubleshoot it the past couple weeks. Lots of Googling and some calls with Apple led me to try many things: Disable Windows firewall, uninstall Malwarebytes, disable IPV6, enable/disable NetGear router security, tried a different router from TP Link, tried connecting directly to my approved Motorola DOCSIS 3.1 modem.
The first thing that worked was connecting the laptop to the internet through a cellular hotspot with all Windows settings back to normal. In other words, not using my Spectrum home internet. Then I tried connecting my Windows laptop via Spectrum but using Nord VPN and like the cellular hotspot, it worked. So it appears that when connecting through Spectrum's servers, iCloud won't authenticate. But when connecting the same laptop other ways, it works fine.
I've sent this to Apple. I think Spectrum needs to know about it too. So here it is.
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Is that with the iCloud app as well as with iCloud.com via browser and what if any is the error message?
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It was the app nearly all the time and iCloud.com most of the time. So the website worked better but it's the app I needed to sync with Outlook. The error said, "An error occurred during authentication. Please try again." Of course, trying again and again didn't go anywhere. On the website, no error message came up, just no iCloud.com landing page.
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No sweat, man. See if that newfangled Intel Killer Network Service is running and if it is, disable it unless you need Intel to be contra-biasing your port 443 TLS encryption and your DNS automation and burning down your CPU's house‼️
🔗https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255065254?answerId=259484491022#259484491022
🔗https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-11/what-is-the-killer-network-service-in-windows-and-is-it-safe/
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Hello @Epiphone!
Welcome to Community Forums! I'm sorry to hear that you've been experiencing authentication issues, I am happy to look into this for you. To clarify, is this only happening with iCloud? Are there authentication issues with any other apps/websites? Have you tried clearing the cookies and cache on the devices that your using to access iCloud?
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No Killer Network here. I should have mentioned that I'm running a wired Ethernet connection on my laptop.
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This is happening with the iCloud app, used to sync with Outlook, no other apps. Web browser is not involved.
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It does affect iCloud.com as well but not as often. Just a guess for illustrative/comparative purposes... it affects the iCloud app 99% of the time and it affects iCloud.com 75% of the time. Using a VPN or connecting to another ISP, solves all.
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