Ok, if your dad's never disconnects and yours does then the problem is definately not your ISP or the router, at least you can eliminate that, and if you have switched the cabling you can eliminate the cabling, the only things left are your Network Interface Card aka NIC (the physical hardware, or the setup) or your computer. I would start out with that first. Check all your network settings, since your dad's works fine compare the two settings, even if they are differnt NIC's the configs should be about the same (assuming a Windows platform, if you have Linux or another OS please let us know). If the settings are ok what I would be tempted to suggest is that you switch NIC's (assuming thier not on board) with your dad, if you have on board NIC's then see if you know anyone who has a working NIC that you can borrow.

my operating system on both PCs are Windows XP Home Edition.

Also, my comp used to at least stay on longer on the net, but now it disconnects like every hour or so.:rolleyes:

I recently did a system restore on bothcomps(because I Ad-awared some stuff i shouldn't have,so I set the restoration clock back like a week). And so far, it was ok. I think this point is somewhate irrelevent, cuz i did the same to both comps, but my dad's is working as well as it ever did , never disconnecting at any time, and mine doing it quite frequnetly, even before the system restore or ad-ware purge.:cry:

but ya, its mostly annoying, and otherwise, my computer works great.


On another note, could it be a RUNDLL32.EXE problem too?

Check your cables, its sound like theyve died or had a short.

Ya that was my first thought on this, but he said he switched the cables.

Bad port? another bad cable? if its homemade was it terminated properly?

go to your network card in the device manager and make sure that you have it set to auto detect and not to full duplex or half duplex...you want it to detect. Also, unplug the cable modem from power and wait 15 seconds. Plug it back in. Sometimes your internet will reject if the MAC address isn't right for your ISP...make sure your ISP doesn't require MAC addys to be registered. The unplug/replug should work great for the ISP DHCP server to assign you a specific addy according to your MAC address...unless they require you to register the MAC addy. Bah, you'll find out either way eh?

Also, check the RJ-45 port (plug in for the cable on your NIC) for misaligned or broken pins. Also check the cable itself for misaligned or broken pins. You also could give your ISP a call and tell them what's going on...it could be a problem with the signal strength dropping out...in which case they'd have to install a repeater to boost the signal. Make sure you have wake-on-LAN settings disabled in your BIOS as those can also cause problems...any related settings can be shut off as well in BIOS. Also, turn off power save settings as well...see if those are the culprit...I've seen those jack up connection before.

Fast User switching also causes some of these problems...I've seen it in XP where it causes a drop of internet connection before. You might make sure that the opposing user is logged all the way out. Just a few things to give a go.

Unfortuntely, I tried all those things, and for some reason, it still sys everything is "working properly" and "Enabled" but yet still says that "a netowrk cable is unplugged."

It used to stay on for longer, but it always seemed to have trouble staying on, without disconnecting. Now it just can only stay on for like 3 minutes, then disconnect.:cry:

I'm thinking about buying a new NIC/Ethernet Adapter since I beleive that should solve the problem in the first place, or if push comes toshove,a COMPLETE restoration back to factory settings(since so far I've done only time-cased restorations that take back settings like a couple of weeks.) But since I've turned back my settings to before we ever had cable to no avail, I'm thinking its not a software issue.

Considering the fact that NICs are very cheap, I'd definitely try that next (especially since you say the problem is getting worse over time). Since you seem to have ruled out all other hardware, the NIC is about all that's left. With everything else you say you've done, if the problem still occurs with a new NIC, you're almost certainly looking at a software prblem/conflict.

Could be someones hacking you.... should check your router activity light, if your computer is idle but the activity light is blinking hard then your computer is probably being used or accessed by someone else. Happend to me once.. i reformatted my comp (it spreaded through all of my computers so i reformated all 3) and now it works great. If your computer doesnt have any good anti-virus then dont direct connect your broadband with your comp. Maybe your dad has a good anti-virus so they arnt able to hack into his comp. so that can explain why its only happening to your computer. Either you download/install good anti-virus or you reformat all comps connected to the network. Thats what I would do if ive already tried everything.