This is markman's dad posting this. He doesnt have internet right now.
The below is what he told me to post:
Hey all. Ive come across this really wierd problem. First, my specs: Epox 8K7A, Athlon xp 1300+ fsb 266, 3com internet card, win2k sp2.
So I was fiddling with the cable of my monitor to change the color of the screen (POS monitor), and when I looked up, my internet connection was out. My computer had been on all day yesterday and I dont know if it had internet during that time, all i know is that when I looked it didnt have the internet. So, I tried restarteding a couple of times; it still didnt work. Below is a list of things I did:
) Changed the position of the lan card on the mobo
) Changed the lan card with one from netgear (f311)
) Changed the line going from the lan card to the linksys router
) took the router out of the network and plugged myself directly into the cable modem

I know the internet is still up since my mom's computer could still access it through the router and throught the modem directly. I tried every possible combination of the above and the internet didnt work. Then I noticed a funny thing. Whenever my computer was hooked up into cable modem (directly or indirectly) my virus scanner hung up for about a minute when I started up my computer. If there was no wire coming out of the lan card, or if the wire wasnt plugged into anything on the other side, it didnt freeze. so I ran a virus scan (Mcafee 4.5.0.534) to see if there was a virus and there wasnt. So now Im stumped and without the internet.
It cant be the lan card
It cant be the router
It cant be the slot on the mobo
It cant be the actual internet
It cant be the wire form my computer to the internet

HELP!!!!
thats the end of the message from markman