Losting LAN/internet connection

Hi, ive got a small network at home set up, 3 PC's 2 x XP, 1 X 98 then a notepad NT 4.0. Ive noticed that my main machine, my XP one, loses connection to the internet at exactly on 24hours of being online, connected to the internet. But my sisters XP machine which some times stays online for days on end without rebooting, aswell as the 98 machine - can still be connected to the internet and surf, download etc.. long after the 24 hours has passed. The only difference really is the CPU, mine being AMD and the others being Intel.

Any ideas how i can be connected to the net without having to reboot at exactly 24hours.

 

Dial-up, cable, DSL, Sat.?

And your ISP is?

You connect using
- router/switch and a single Ip address from the ISP
- hub and an addresse for each PC
- switch and an address for each PC
- ICS/sygate/wingate or similar modem sharing app?

Your system and application event logs do/do not show an error, warning, or informational event when you are disconnected?

The 24-hour disconnect happens when your internet connection is idle/in use/both?

 

Cable, the isp is NTL - its in the UK

Single IP address, through a linksys router 4port switch - BEFSR41

Each PC has its own LAN address

The connection is usually in use, downloading music or what not, but it will always die when it hits 24 hours in the LAN connection screen.

 

When this happens does the XP client have a valid IP address (use ipconfig)? Are you using any firewall software that could be blocking lease renewal? Have you tried using a static IP address, gateway and DNS for that client?

 

Adding on to what unixfan said,

- what is the IP address lease period you have your router set to use for it's client PCs?

- and if they have a valid IP address when the connection loss occurs, have you tried just unplugging power to the router/switch, waiting a few seconds, and plugging it back in? That should force it to refresh it's settings from NTL.

- another thought, Linksys releases firmware updates for their routers fairly often. Check their web site and if there is an update for yours, download and install it.

- and a last idea (for the moment) based on the timing of the problemn. XP by default sets itself to cache DNS addresses and to retain good ones for exactly 24 hours. And it will always check it's local cache for a URL before checking with the ISP's DNS server. If something bad is happening to the cached information, you could well be unable to find a web site by URL even if everything else is working fine. Two easy things to try for diagnostic purposes.

... start~run~ipconfig /flushdns and see if things start working

... while you have a good connection, find out the IP address of one or two internet sites you frequent. Easiest way is to do start~run~cmd and then ping the url and copy down the IP address you get. For instance, for this forum site
ping www.windowsbbs.com and you should get an address unless the site has blocked ping. Can't check since I'm at work and behind a firewall that won't allow pings out of our LAN. Once you have the address, next time things quit working, try putting in your browser address bar
http://{ipaddress} rather than the name and see if you can connect. If you can, DNS issue for sure.