Hi, my home pc is running XP Pro, fully patched, on Verizon DSL via a Belkin
wireless router. I doubt that any of that is highly significant but I'm
trying to give a full picture of what's going on. Basically, the problem is
that I lose my ability to connect to the internet after an extended delay.
For example, I can work all day, going on and off the internet at various
times, no problem But then I leave the pc running overnight and find that,
when returning in the morning, I can no longer get internet access. I run
ipconfig and get a good address. I do a ipconfig /release followed by a
renew and get a good address (usually the same address, but that's
expected). I do a power cycle on the router and DSL modem, in the correct
sequence, but still cannot get on the web. Only when I restart my pc does
the machine go on the web. Having done a restart, everything works fine
until I leave the machine alone again for a long time. The problem seems to
occur after four or five hours of inactivity. Event Viewer does show an
error, something about "Optenet Proxy", but I've not been able to find
anything about that. Event Viewer also shows a WinMgmt error but that occurs
at boot up.

I'm not sure what areas to troubleshoot. Would appreciate any guidance.