Question : "A network cable is unplugged"

Before I tell you my problem, I would just like to say that I have seen the two relevant posts in the tried and tested section but the information in there doesn't seem to solve my problem.

OK, I am on a home network with three computors attached to a Sitecom router connected to cable broadband.  Two of the computers are running XP and the other 98.  The connection has been working fine up till now but recently I have started getting messages popping up saying that a network cable is unplugged and I cannot connect to the internet.  The thing is, a cable isn't unplugged and the message goes away after about 10 seconds and lets me continue my surfing.  This message seems to come on most frequently in the evenings and with seemimngly random regularity.  The computer that I'm on is the only computer that has this problem, people can be happily surfing the 'net on the other computers and still be fine when the error comes up on this computer.  It is not the cable that is the problem, because I have tried other ones.  The ethernet port is attached to my motherboard (a DFI Lanparty nf2 ultra) and is not PCI.

This problem has only started this month or so and is becoming increasingly annoying.  I hope you can help me solve this problem.

Thanks.

Answer : "A network cable is unplugged"

I would disable the onboard NIC in the BIOS and replace it with a known good PCI NIC to see if the problem is jabbering. I think this may be the most cost effective method, as a new NIC will cost you about $15 at any PC store.

This doesn’t sound like a software issue if all has been fine for a while.

Hope this helps…