TCP/IP Failure after aprox 24hrs

I have two Windows 98 machines on a LAN
connected through a 5 port switching hub.
Also connected to the hub is an iDSL router
to the internet.
The two computers are rather different beasts. Outside of the Win98, the closest
thing they have in common is 3C905B and 3C905C (both wake on lan) NICs.
Now for the problem.
After about 24 hours of uptime, both windows machines stop issueing most TCP/IP traffic. This include IE and telnet. Though
oddly enough ping still works.
So before ~24 hours, all networking is fine.
After ~24 hours:
- No more telnet (LAN or Internet)
I verified it wasn't the iDSL router
by putting one of the machines into Linux
and attempting to telnet into the Linux
machine from the other failing windows
machine.
- No Web browsing. Nothing comes up.
Initial page search then error window.
All subsequent attempts get error page
immediatly.
Ping still works. Ping all LAN devices,
other Win98 machine and the iDSL router.
Drive/Printer sharing still works. The
Win98 machines can talk to each other via
MS sharing.

Now this has not been a problem for long. It really seems like something that began to occur say 1 or 2 months ago. I'm not sure if
some system files were curropted or maybe the iDSL box is sending out something that eventually locks up the TCP/IP stack.
With this post I'm trying another experiment which is to reboot one of the Windows machines and disconnect it from the network
and replug it in after a day or two and see if it will be able to telnet out. Not sure if this is the right path though.
Also, the machine that dual boots to Linux never has these problems in Linux.
Machine 1:
PII350
128MB ECC PC100 SDRAM
ASUS P3B-F 440BX Motherboard
SB Live 5.1 (was failing prior to this HW add)
Asus GeForce 2 MX (fail prior to this HW add)
8x CDROM
13 GB UDMA/33 IDE
3COM WinModem w/telephony stuff
3com NIC 3C905B-TX

Machine 2:
Dual Boot Win98 and Linux
PIII 500 (Dell Dimension T-500)
256 MB PC100 SDRAM
20 GB IDE HD
Diamond V770D Nvidia TnT2 Graphics card
3COM 3C905C-TX NIC
Tekram ???? Fast40-Wide SCSI controller
4.5 GB fast40-Wide SCSI drive
4x DVDROM (IDE)
Cinemaster MPEG decoder card for DVDROM
24/8/4 CDRW (IDE)
Seagate NS20/Travarn 5 tape backup (IDE)
Turtle Beach Montego II Soundcard
iDSL:
Service through Covad/Easystreet
SpeedStream 5871 IDSL Router (120-5871-001/2) v4.0.1
by Effecient Networks Inc.
Switching Hub:
Hawking EN505ES
All ethernet cabling is Cat 5

1. RE: TCP/IP Failure after aprox 24hrs
lbyard Dec-14-00 04:37 PM
In response to message 0

Your ISP probably switched from static to dynamic IP addresses (mine did) and the IP address lease from your ISP’s DHCP server is probably expiring. I often have to connect to my router and release and renew the lease after the cable MODEM has been off overnight. I have not had the time to fix this annoyance on my system and don’t know if it can be fixed. I probably won’t try to remedy it as our cable system is scheduled for conversion from a one-way with dial-up to a two-way system in the next few months. When that happens, I will leave the cable MODEM on all of the time. Larry

2. RE: TCP/IP Failure after aprox 24hrs
BlueWlvrn Dec-14-00 05:59 PM
In response to message 1

Actually I forgot to add that I have a set of fixed IP addresses as my connection routes through Covad/Easystreet but the ISP is really is my work.
My IP addresses are 192.168.98.113 and 114.
netmask is 255.255.255.240
iDSL router is at 192.168.98.124 and is the default gateway
On one computer I ran the sys tool to replace modified windows systems files (revert back to cd version). I forget the name of the tool, standard Win98 tool. Anyway, it replaced a number of things including "notepad". Now I wouldn't think this too odd but whenever I did a ctrl-alt-del to look at running processes, notepad was always running. Yet I did not have any notepads open. The reverted notepad doesn't seem to always be running in the background. Anyone seen this one and know what it might be?
The reason I'm mentioning this is that the computer I did this on has been up for nearly 36 hours and still is networking fine. Now I don't consider this to be fixed. Atleast not until its up on consistant bases for many days or I have to reboot because of other windows issues.

3. RE: TCP/IP Failure after aprox 24hrs
BlueWlvrn Dec-17-00 02:32 AM
In response to message 2

That notepad thing I saw turns out to be a VIRUS. It's a worm that allows someone to up/download data and run data on your computer.
Here's the information on it.
www.f-secure.com/v-descs/qaz.htm