Very strange network problem

I can't actually find a general networking group on this server, as my
problem is not particularly a wireless one, so I hope you'll bear with me.
I have four machines all connected to a switch, two wirelessly and two
wired. The router is wired also to the switch.
The two wired machines, one a laptop and one a desktop, both running Windows
XP, one wireless laptop is running Windows 7RC and the other Netbook,
Ubuntu.
Occasionally, like this afternoon, one of the wired machines and BOTH the
wireless machines will suddenly drop internet access, although access to
shared drives on the LAN is still there, yet the one XP wired laptop machine
does NOT drop internet access. The only way of returning access to the three
machines that have dropped it is re-boot the router, causing hassle to the
one machine that is still on the internet.

Can anyone tell me any reasons why this hugely irritating and totally
illogical scenario might come about?

 

Hi
This situation can occur if one or more of the users are busy with heavy BT
type downloads.
Most Entry Level Routers can not stand such a load and they get "Stuck".
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

 

I did wonder - the XP laptop that's wired in uses VPN and connects to a
large database (it's a company machine - the other three are not....)
strange thing is, it only happens occasionally, not all the time..

 

Here's more info:
I have discovered that it's only web browsing that is affected - NNTP and
email access aren't.....
Any clues as to what I should be looking at?

 

Then it looks like a problem with the router - try to replace it.


--pa

 

That's what I thought - it's supplied by the company my wife works for as is
the broadband (grin) so we will have to go through them...

 

It may be as simple as updating the router firmware.
Vista (or win7) is known to break some naïve routers never tested against
anything besides XP...

--pa