This problem just started happening about 3 weeks ago. After the pc is idle for a couple of hours (not sure of the exact time) I can't get online, page can't be displayed. If I reboot it works fine, only once did it quit working while I was surfing, I rebooted & it was ok. At the time my cable modem (Toshiba PCX1100) was hooked up to an external adatper (ethernet cable) that plugged into a USB port on the pc. I was told the adapter may be going bad so I installed an Asante 10/100 nic inside the pc & the ethernet cable goes directly into that from the modem, same problem. Then I got a different modem (another PCX1100), same problem. I went into power management & unchecked the feature to turn power off on the nic & also did the same thing for the monitor. I use no screensavers. I have Kaspersky running all the time to detect viruses but I turned that off, same problem. I did a system restore to a date before the problem started but that didn't help. A friend said it may be a registry problem but didn't offer any suggestions. I use Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 & keep on top of updates. Anyone got a clue what is causing this?

Try a repair of your XP installation..IMHO I don't think the issue is hardware related from your description..

Not a satsifactory answer, but can you reconnect through Network Connections?

Sabertooth, not sure how to do that, what is the process?

Also I didn't get the Win XP cd when I bought my pc

Well call the PC manufacturer and ask 'em for your a complimentary copy of their CD's.