On 22 Jul 2008 08:42:19 -0400, Sam Goldwasser
wrote:

OK, so here's the really strange problem dejour.

One day last week, my Internet access dropped out a couple times
(I have DSL). That's not totally unusual. But the next day, it
would only stay up for a couple minutes after booting and then was dead.

Swapped DSL modem - nothing.
Bypassed wireless router - nothing.

Figured, OK, so for some reason, the PC's on-board Ethernet port is dying.
Bought a PCI Ethernet card on eBay for $6 including shipping .

No change.

Then I discovered that it works fine locally. All PCs on my LAN,
wireless or direct, can talk to each other. But for some reason
this PC refuses to go out over the DSL modem. In fact, it won't even
talk to the DSL modem directly (if the Ethernet cable is plugged
into the model bypassing the router and entering the model URL),
but will talk to the router directly.

What the !@#$!@# is going on??? Virus? Some setting got corrupted?

Any info or thoughts appreciated.

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Sam,
I have no idea what causes this symptom, but I have a friend with a PC
that does the exact same thing (except he has a cable modem instead of
DSL). I went over to fix it and left totally stumped. We replaced
the NIC for the same reason you did but no change. We even
reinstalled Windows (but did not totally wipe the HD) with no change
in symptoms. Since the PC in question was fairly old and he was
looking for an excuse to upgrade, we gave up. But, it bothers me to
have never figured out the root cause. Let us all know if you figure
it out.

Regards,
Pat