Keep randomly losing net connection

[Ryan Alcantara]

One minute it's working fine the next I'm disconnected from messenger and IE can't access pages then all of a sudden it'll come back. This just started happening within the past week or so. I have had cable modem since Feb. and haven't had this problem before. I'm beginning to wonder if it has something to do with SP2.

[GaryRouth]

Take a look at Bill Machrone's recent article over at PC Magazine, and see if it's symptom's match yours. You could be having trouble with XP's Winsock. There are a few remedies: one is lengthy & covered by the MS Knowledge Base articles mentioned in Machrone's column. The other method is the freeware program that does much the same work, & has some success on many systems. This is the same link supplied in the article: http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

Since you're on cable, your antivirus, antispyware, & firewall settings may need to be looked at if it's not a Winsock corruption problem. Certainly scan for pests & remove any found. If you don't have antispyware protection (some packages provide all three: antivirus, antispyware, & firewall) - definitely look into trying something. We recommend AdAware and SpyBot a lot (available in free-for-personal-use versions), and one the retail side, SpySweeper 3.0 has received good reviews. Zone Alarm, Kerio, and SyGate all offer firewalls stronger than SP2's builtin firewall (all have free-for-personal-use versions also).

Other issues with connectivity in XP center around the XP "Zero Configuration Wireless Service" Take a look at Neil Rubenking's column for a quick-fix try that keeps XP from constantly jumping from a decent connection to one that turns out to be that grass that's always greener on the other side of the hill (and you're left with no connection at all) http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1566989,00.asp

If it's not either of those, someone might have had symptoms that match your situation more exactly: so stay tuned: lots of informed techs around here.