losing internet connection

[johnmasters007]

Hi
I have been having problems with my notebook when connecting to the internet using internet explorer. I use a wireless router to conect to my broadband connection.

When I first boot my pc, I can use internet explorer to browse the internet without any problems. I can close windows and open new ones without problems. But after a couple of hours if the notebook has gone into standby or not been used for a while, when I try and use internet explorer again it wont find anything. The only way to access the internet again is if I reboot the notebook. It isn't just explorer, windows messenger wont connect either. It doesn't happen if I close the lid for 10 minutes and then return, it only happens after and hour or two! I can still see my wireless router too, which is connected to my ISP without fault. To me it seems like an explorer thing but I haven't found anything that I can change to fix it.

I had exactly the same fault with my last toshiba notebook and thought it would be sorted when I got my new one! A friend of mine has the exact same setup and never has to reboot his machine.

Any help would be gratefully recieved and save me hours of rebooting!

Cheers
John

[mgriffit]

what are the brands (linksys, d-link, etc) of your router and network card? sometimes there are incompatibilites (despite vendor claims) between them.
What protocol are you using? 11b? 54g? other?
Are you using Microsoft wireless networking or a 3rd party utility?

Do you have the latest firmware updates for your router?
Do you have the latest software updates for you network card?
Have you applied the available updates from Microsoft?

Resuming from standby with a wireless card still seems to be a 50/50 proposition.
Instead of rebooting, try repairing the network connection first.
If you use personal firewall software other than microsoft's, make sure that the microsoft firewall services are disabled and also deselected from your network card (advanced tab of network settings)
I think ZoneAlarm or Sygate are both better choices than the Microsoft firewall (and there are free versions of them as well)