Question : How do I test a suspected bad NIC card in XP?

I have a HP XW8000 workstation with XP SP2 networked to a 2003 Server.  Once in a while the workstation will fall off the network for a short period of time, like 20-30 seconds.  This has happened 6 times in the last month.  The NIC card is integrated into the HP motherboard.  My application has an audit log and there really is no pattern or traffic type of issue.  I have also ruled out the server because there are other machines on it that do not have the same problem.

I'd like to get your advice on a good network software tool (hopfully freeware\shareware) to determine if the NIC card on the workstation is bad or not.  Looking for something that doesn't need much hardware (outside of normal computer stuff) but would actually prove the NIC card is bad.  Any other suggestions would be welcome too...I'm open to all ideas.

Thanks.

Answer : How do I test a suspected bad NIC card in XP?

when its fallen off the network, on that machine try pinging it 127.0.0.1 -t, this will ping the internal card if the card dont answer then the cards not working right.