on-board NIC not always connecting

I have a Dimension 8300 with on board NIC (intel) purchased 12-2003.  It's connected to a E-tech ADSL annex-A router/modem exactly the same way I connected my old PC.                      Both old PC and the 8300 run on XP-pro.

The problem is that most of the time the connection to the router can not be astablished. Even the router cannot be reached with adres 10.0.02      When I run the Intel Proset diagnostics there is no fault reported.(basic test). The advanced diagnostics fail because there is no ip-adres found. (the router is not connected)  

When I put in a extra pci-network card there is no problem at all. But this is not a solution I prefer because it occupies the last free pci-slot wich I need in future expansions.

TIA

Pete

Message Edited by pevaho on 01-05-2004 04:01 PM