Our cable broadband works fine on our other computers (through our router). However, on this computer (HP laptop running XP Pro - and my daughter's laptop (also HP on XP)) whenever returning to the computer after a period of 5 or 10 minutes, after opening Internet Explorer (or if I left it open), a message pops up saying the internet is not connected, and asking if I wanted to 'work offline' or 'try again' to connect. It's connected via wireless, and this problem happens on both my laptop and my daughters.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

Thanks,

Andrew

To clear up some things, can you reconnect to the internet after that happened? Can you send emails then? Have you tried another browser (Firefox or Opera)? Do you have flatrate DSL access and your WLAN router stays connected with the internet all the time? What type of router?

Have you checked IE's internet connection settings? ("Internet Properties" --> "Connections" ---> Mark your connection, then click "Settings" ---> "Advanced Dial up" and see if "Disconnect if idle..." and "Disconnect when connection no longer needed" are unchecked.)