Networking on Mac crashes

I have a 2014 Mac Mini running Big Sur 11.2.1. I use my Mac to connect to my work network. My Mac's networking crashes when I attempt to transfer a file to or from a SMB share that is located on the office network. Here is how it happens:

1) Launch Cisco Anyconnect (v4.9.00542) and connect to my work's VPN server.

2) Launch automator script to connect to SMB shares.

3) Open one of the shares to browse to the folder I want to copy to (the browsing is very slow and takes a few minutes to get to the correct folder).

4) I drag and drop the file (4K in size) I want copied.

5) I see the progress bar show the initial copy info (file size and status of the copy which has not started).

6) After a few minutes I will get a notification that the VPN connection was dropped and attempting to reconnect.

7) I get a notification that the SMB shares are not responding and would I like to ignore or disconnect them. The choice doesn't matter because the shares are disconnected.

8) At this point the ability to reconnect to the VPN, SMB shares, or browse any page on the web has stopped. The networking will not return unless I reboot the Mac.

Things I have tried to fix the issue without success

1) Created a nsmb.conf in /etc to disable signing required and to force the Mac to use SMB 3

2) Followed the document http://www.debugginlife.com/solved-very-slow-file-transfer-on-mac-shares-smbafp/

3) Followed the document https://osxdaily.com/2020/11/23/how-fix-macos-big-sur-wifi-issues/

4) Followed the document https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208209

I am not sure what to do at this point. This Mac worked fine before the upgrade to Big Sur. I have a MacBook Pro running the same version of Big Sur and it works fine (navigating the shares is slow but it doesn't crash).