I had a similar problem with this a while back - turned out to be Zone Alarm...if it is set to update every so oftem the new configuration seemed to throw things off kilter. I took Zone Alarm off completely, use Windows Firewall, but have Ghost-ed my system in case the worse happens...my PC flies along now and can see other computers in the network etc.
Further talk here:
http://help.lockergnome.com/lofivers...hp/t43163.html