Ring any bells?

[frostbite]

I connect to the internet via ethernet/LAN (XP).

When I first boot up for the day, everything goes fine with the connection.

I then usually leave the computer for a couple of hours, but when I come back to it my connection appears to have gone to sleep and only a reboot will bring it back to life.

Any thoughts?

(computer screen set to go off after 10 minutes inactivity, HD 20 minutes. No system hibernate etc.)

[Robear]

For some reasons, I've never too keen on letting my HD going to sleep. It sometimes does weird stuff upon waking up...

Is there a time out on the connexion itself?
Cable or DSL?
Is there a router involve or is it connected directly to the modem?

I would try to reset the modem and see what it does. Perhaps it loses its IP address...

Godd luck
Robert

[frostbite]

I've not been able to discover any timeouts. Had a look in LAN properties and there's no timing facility of any sort.

It's a DSL modem connection, and the weird thing is, this only seems to happen once a day although there are several two hour gaps in usage.

[Albert Square]

Are you connected via wireless? If so, the wireless zero configuration service may be the problem. See article
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/06/63705

I disabled the service via MSCONFIG which fixed a problem on one of my PC's

[cwatters]

I think I would try leaving the HD spinning for a few days - see if the problem goes away - just to eliminate that.

[The Flying Pram]

I've been following this thread with interest as I have been having a similar problem with my wireless enabled laptop. As it's not the fastest machine in the world, I tend to close the lid to put it into standby mode if I'm not using it for a little while. Normally opening it up again brings everything backup and running, but if left for an hour or more the wireless connection refuses to work, even though all the indications are normal. Even letting Windows "Repair" it makes no difference. Shutting down and re-starting is the only thing that works. The link provided by Albert Square suggests the "Wireless Zero Configuration Service" may be the culprit. Next time this happens I will try disabling and then re-enabling to see if this solves it.
Thanks.