Intermittent Network problem...

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We have a Windows 2k network. We have one old NT4 domain, and a new Windows 2k
domain. (We started making the switch last winter, and haven't completed it
yet.) Both my logon and PC are on the new domain.

I use a Gateway "E" series PC, P4 @2.6GHz, 1.25GB RAM, XP Pro, SP1, latest
patches as of this past Monday(?).

For months I've had this intermittent problem, which may not occur for weeks.
(This was a real PITA about a year ago, as it occurred multiple times PER DAY.
Recently, haven't had this problem in about a week.)

This morning [early] I rebooted my machine, don't recall why. Everything
normal. Went to lunch about 13:30, got back to my PC about 14:45. I had left
MS Access open, but my PC locked. (I have a UPS.)

When I got back to it, and sat down, I tried checking my email. I couldn't
communicate with our email server (current version of Exchange). I went to a
system prompt and tried pinging our AS/400. And just as usual, when this
problem appears, I couldn't ping the 400. I tried pinging our old Data General.
Couldn't get a response from it either. I couldn't communicate with ANYTHING on
the network.

I tried "ipconfig /renew". Windows didn't like this. So I tried "ipconfig
/release" first. This release was successful. But the renew? Nope. This is
what I got:

------
15:23:00.43
C:\
> ipconfig /renew

Windows IP Configuration

An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connetion : unable to
contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

15:24:12.89
C:\
>
------

So I shut my PC down, then powered back up and everything was okay.....

So there *was* never any *network* problem. It was just my PC.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what *might* be going on? I've never
installed XP from scratch [on this machine]. I don't want to go thru all that,
but this seems to be the answer I get from around here when I mention this
problem. (I just took the machine as it was delivered to me, "out of the box"
as it were.)

Any thoughts/suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance,

Tom
.