I don't know if my problems are related to MCE, but I've also got a Win
XP Pro machine on the network that is working fine. I think some of
the issues are related to the firewalls on the machine (Windows and
Norton) and the default settings. Even though both firewalls are
disabled I'm still getting problems.

I have a LAN connected to a Linksys router that handles DHCP, and acts
as the gateway connected to a hardware firewall and then on a cable
modem.

The problem is that I lose connectivity. This is the second HP Media
Center PC I've tried - slightly different configurations - but both
lose connectivity. With this one it looks like there may be a slightly
different issue, or even perhaps hardware related. But the connections
to other LAN computers and the Internet goes away.

If I run a continous ping I can see periods where there are timeouts.
If these periods coincide with the timing for DHCP lease renewal (I
shortened the lease from 1 day to 15 minutes to try to help debug) then
I see error events in the event log. The network icon in the system
tray shows 'network connection unplugged'. This shows up anywhere from
seconds to minutes. but it always shows up.

I've installed a NIC in addtion to the onboard networking and see the
same thing, so I'm pretty sure it isn't hardware.

This problem is really getting in the way of me completing setting up
and relying on what would otherwise be a nice machine, so I'd really be
grateful for any ideas.

Thanks
Mike