I have a similar problem on my home PC. I find that it often occurs while receiving mail - although not always related to that. I've upgraded from win 98 to win 2K and have the same problem. When I get the chance I'm going to swap NIC's. If you beat me to it, could you please post or PM me with what worked.
A few years ago I had a tech at Equis (maker of MetaStock) tell me they recommended "Intel, all the way"... CPU, MB, chipset... for reliability. I have done that, 2 computers, and have to admit that I've had no hardware problems. (Video card drivers and CD burner software... now that's another story.)
So true... Very often, isolating the problem by taking out parts (swapin, if you can) is the only way to go. One more thing to address. Since this looks like a hardware problem, get all the updates including BIOS and drivers.
I also have a problem(freezing), with my comptr(amd 850mhz,sdram 256 mb) when i was runing eSignal (4charts,2 quotes windows). My o/s was win2k. Then i upgraded to win xp pro and now everything is running well.
I think the chances are a memory problem. Either memory is not enough or maybe a faulty memory stick. Try taking out memory sticks and reinstalling. Also for Def, I changed the NIC card on one of my computers to a D-LINK and I can't believe the difference. It's so much faster in downloading.
1 gig of Crucial ram. 3 sticks total, so I'll test them one at a time. Def, I'll let you know if swapping the NIC helps. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. If I find a fix, I'll post it here.
Swapping the NIC didn't help. It seems that the memory was the culprit. I pulled all 3 sticks and inserted a stick from another computer. No freezes in 4 days. Previously, I'd get at least 1 freeze per day. So far, so good.