Router disconnecting. (WXP-Pro)

[Sohj]

Like the subject says, my router keeps dropping my connection. Originally, I had an Intellinet router that was doing this. I found out that it was overheating, so replaced it with a Linksys BEFW11S4 router. The problem continues, only I'm fairly sure the Linksys isn't overheating. It has to be rebooted before the connection is taken back up.

I have a 4 Mbit connection that is heavily used. My network consists of a Motorola cable modem, connected to the Linksys, connected to two computers, both running XP. The second computer (my housemates) is rarely using the connection, but mine is fairly constantly using it, either through simple browsing, or torrenting.

I've been troubleshooting this for a while, and I've been at a standstill. The router doesn't disconnect at any standard interval that I've noticed, and it doesn't seem to have anything to due with network utilization (it'll disconnect when I'm sleeping, or at school, and it's been idling, but it'll also disconnect when I'm using it). Anyone have any ideas?

[Brf]

Does power-cycling the router or the cable-modem fix the problem?

[Sohj]

Yeah, power-cycling the router helps. Sorry for not being clear, but that's what I meant by rebooting. Re-reading it, it sounds like I meant rebooting the PC, but I didn't.

[Brf]

I dont often have to power-cycle my router, but I have to power-cycle the cable modem several times per day. It depends on what websites my kids are playing on....

[Sohj]

My modem works fine when it's connected directly to the PC--I used it for over a year this way, before we got a housemate, with absolutely no problems. Whenever the router stops working, the PC activity light on the modem doesn't flash, but the internet activity (and the two ethernet activity) lights do. Is that indicative of anything?

Also, I noticed that when I tried to stream video (from www.gamespot.com), it had to be power-cycled to work again. I'm sure it wasn't the bandwidth that did this, because I was able to get close to 400 kilobytes a second torrenting without it crapping out (using Open office, of course).

Maybe I should get a good network monitor to see if there is any sort of correlation I can find. Do you know of any good freeware network monitors?

[Sohj]

Now I only get disconnected when streaming video using WMP. Flash streams work fine (ala www.ign.com) but streams using WMP disconnect me. Why is this happening? Why just WMP?