I have a 3 Com cable modem connected to a wireless D-Link router. Half
the connection goes to a wireless USB NIC in another part of the house,
but the primary connection is via Cat 5 to a computer 6 feet from the
modem and router. I'm running Windows XP (no service packs) and have
an Intel NIC on the main computer.

For the past couple of months I've been getting sporadic disconnects
that appear to be the result of high up/down traffic. Often when
downloading newsgroup headers, transferring large files via FTP or HTTP
to web-hosts, or IM trading files I will get disconnected for about a
minute. The cable modem indicators do not change, however, so I'm not
losing synch (apparently.) I can not ping outside IPs like my DNS
servers during this period, but usually after 2 or 3 consecutive pings
I will re-establish connection (that's where I get the ~1 minute time
frame.) This also can affect online gameplay if I have been playing
for long periods of time.

I'm on Comcast Cable in the Orange County, California area so it could
be discrete bandwidth capping, but I don't know.

Any tips on how to isolate a potential cause?

well to make sure it isn't the router do a direct connect to your pc.
If you are still getting the drop-offs it could be an overcrowded node or
just a connection problems with the wiring from you modem to the pole.
The last thing of course is the cable modem and the only way to check
that is have a tech come in.
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