Network Cable unplugged?

I'm trying to hook up an Inspiron 2650 with a 3Com 3C960 Fast Ethernet Controller card to my home network. However, my Internet connection gets dropped every five minutes. When I check "Network Connections" in "Control Panel", it says "Network Cable Unplugged", even though it's not. Five minutes later, the connection is up and running again! I've tried everything I can think of... to no avail. If anyone got any helpful suggestions to solve my problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,
Rob

A bad cable maybe? A bad switchport? Maybe the cable is too close to a magnetic field of some kind? A kink in the wire? A malfunctioning ethernet controller on the laptop? A loose cable end? Bad router firmware? Hardware incompatibility?

That's all I can think of right now. This looks like something you gotta solve with brute force. Get every suggestion you can, then eliminate them one by one until something works.

Well i used to have some problem n as Striek says u have to check all these things..... well my problem was rectified after changing the lan card..... hope this work for u....

Check the connectors on both ends...... May be u have missed one or two wires.... got my point