When I download for long periods of time (ie, large files) i lose my network connections, its been going on for quite some time, i've tried rebooting multiple times, updating drivers. I can only get back onto the internet by restarting.(i used to be able to release and renew the ip, or even hibernate the comp and get the connection back, but not any more) It also seems if i try downloading two or more files from p2p networks and try browsing the internet with either I.E.6 or Netscape i will lose the connection in a matter of minutes. Is this some buffer issue? Or is it the nic? or sometings else? aslo it seems if i upload files while downloading it will cause a disconnect. If however i limit the uploads (like 10kbs for all ups)and limit the download (20-25kbs for all downs) i can download for days. I have another computer with the exact linksys nic in it and it also has the same problem. I guess i'm wondering if this is normal and i should'nt download so much stuff at the same time or if there is some problem with the O/S or NIC that can be solved. I'm using a dual boot system and it does it on both OS's WIN XP/ME gateway 1000 computer linksys 10/100 nic 640 mb ram linksys router (router does,t lose connection,other computers work fine when the downloading computer fails) Thanks in Advance

It would seem the NICs are not challenged at those speeds. Your thought about a buffer issue seems a good idea, but I don't know where to go looking. Has your ISP been any help? M2

I've been through 3 broadband providers. Sprint BB, Adelphia, and now i'm with quest, they don't seem to know either. How do the rest of you download? Lets say how many downloads/uploads at the same time and what is the combined speed?

I don't limit the number of UP/DOWNloads. The internet backbone here is shakey at best, but number of UP/DOWN don't cause a lost connection. They do, obviously, share whatever bandwidth there is at the moment. Take a look at your IRQs to see if any are shered. Even if there are "no conflicts", a shared IRQ may, at some point, be overwhelmed and simply give up. M2

The irq for the nic was shared with the graphic card and a controller card, i got it to a different irq but it seems no matter what i do it shares with an ACPI irq holder. I also noticed a performace boost in the o/s. I'm testing it out now so i'll post back later today and let you know if that was it. Thanks Again

Nope still losing connection. As for the O/S preformance boost, the longer I download, the slower the computer gets, even the time on the taskbar falls behind.

There is no way the system time should fall behind unless there is a hardware problem or a major software problem with something like Virus, Worms or Trojans. All of which are common on systems used to download P2P files. It sounds like your system has been hijacked by some of this Malware.