Losing network connection after a while

Greetings folks. I know there are similar topics here and some other places as well, but my problem doesn't go away as it does with the others. I'm quite a rookie with computers so please tolerate my ignorance and give a man a hand if you can.

It's been a while since I first noticed these weird connection breaks. First it was quite rare, but now it's everyday so it's bothering. I have Win XP Professional, ADSL connection with wires and all, Zyxel Prestige 600 series "adapter". And the problem itself.. I lose network connection after some thirty to sixty minutes into surfing or just being idle. The little icon appears in the tray thing on the bottom of the screen saying "connection lost" or something (I'm from Finland and the XP is in Finnish so I don't really know what the text's exactly in English).

Trying to fix the connection on the icon does nothing, it gets stuck with "renewing or retrieving ip-something". Yet, just a week ago, it got to the point of "flushing DNS or similar failed", yet it still fixed the connection. Now the only thing I know that fixes the connection is booting the system. I'm quite sure it isn't the network adapter or "ADSL modem" since my other computer(Win2000) and my dad's computer(WinXP Home) are connected through the same "hub" and don't suffer from the problem.

I've tried flushing the DNS with the ipconfig /flushdns, but all I get is an error message. Same luck with displaydns -command. I've also tried changing settings with "Services.msc" and making sure DNS client is automatic and started. Still no luck.

My system seems to be virus, spyware and other crap-free, according to Norton AntiVirus, SpyBot and Ad-Aware. I haven't noticed anything suspicious with HijackThis logs (I can and will post them if you guys and gals think they're useful), but I did find one suspicious rootkit entry with Rootkit Revealer: "HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\sptd\Cfg" ; the program said it had "access denied" which shouldn't be according to the readme.

Oh, and yes, I've unplugged and turned off the "modem" times and times again (some have suggested that). No luck.

Any words of wisdom are extremely welcome.

Cheers. Tim.

 

Since it seems like you tried alot of things, I'm going to ask you about your network first.
What kind of "hub" are you using? is it a "gateway router", or just a regular "hub"?
Did you try using another port of the "hub"?
When you shut down all other PCs, do you still have the same problem?
When you query IP settings (ipconfig /all) in command prompt, does it give you public IP or private IP?
Does your DNS settings match with other PCs when you're connected?
Did you try using another NIC (network interface Controller/ LAN card)?

 

Thanks for replying. The problem got solved, it was the bastard firewall. It was refusing to let some Windows program connect to the net or something. But thanks for replying, I appreciate that. Cheers, Tim.

 

Hi elpajero, newbie here also with similar problem, tried everything, can you please tell me how you found out it was the firewall or how I would go about checking to see if mine is the problem. Thanks muchly for replying....

 

Hi elpajero, newbie here also with similar problem, tried everything, can you please tell me how you found out it was the firewall or how I would go about checking to see if mine is the problem. Thanks muchly for replying....