Networking, Internet keep going down randomly

[rick_2g]

I've got an XP home box on a small office network that keeps going off the network at apparently random times.

the internet and network always work immediately after reboot, but then stop working after a few minutes or hours. I got it working all day yesterday, but it's already gone down three times today, and it's not even lunch time yet.

it works perfectly fine otherwise, and i can't find out exactly what service is going down, or why. it works for a while, then it's Internet connection stops working and it disappears from the network.

running the internet or network connections setup doesn't do anything, and it only works again after a re-boot.

spyware (S&D) and anti-virus (McAfee) are updated and showing it as clean.

anyone got any ideas or any similar experiences?

[Miz]

Yes, the exact same thing is happening with my XP SP2 system. I'm finding the problem starting to be posted all over the net. So far, no one solution has been found and Microsoft isn't acknowleging it exists. I have found something to try, though. It didn't work for me but it has worked for some.

By default, XP turns off the network card after the system has been idle...or maybe it's after the card's been idle, nobody knows for sure (except maybe the Microsoft programmers)...to "save power." How much power a network card uses surely can't be enough to create all these problems but, anyway....

Try disabling that...Control Panel>System>Hardware tab>Device Manager button, expand the Network Adapter category, double click on the network card listed, go to the Power Management tab, uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power," click OK.