Debian and Xp network problem

["Dan" <carbonneau@gmail.com>]

Subject: Debian and Xp network problem

I have a debian sarge box connected to my home network.  It is used as
a dhcp server and samba server. I also have two xp computers on the
same network. My problem is that the xp computers loose network
connectivity to the debian box at random times and for random lenghts
of time.

I ran some test with ping:

Debian box ping Xp computer : never times out
Xp computer pings other Xp computer: never times out
Xp computer pings Debian box: Frequent timeouts

Xp has firewall disabled.
Debian box doesnt have firewall installed
The internet on the debian box as well as the Xp box never goes down,
even when ping timeout.

All computers are connected via a router that has no built-in firewall

-----------------------------------------------
ifconfig:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:DD:09:FF:C4:B7
          inet addr:192.168.2.12  Bcast: 192.168.2.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:241537 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:235177 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:105865542 (100.9 MiB)  TX bytes:69222617 (66.0 MiB)
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0xde00

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr: 127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:31782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:31782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2966038 (2.8 MiB)  TX bytes:2966038 (2.8 MiB)

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          inet addr:64.230.70.150   P-t-P:64.230.197.118
Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:3778 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4834 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
          RX bytes:1421492 (1.3 MiB)  TX bytes:492849 (481.2 KiB)

-----------------------------------------------

cat /etc/network/interfaces:


# The loopback interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.2.12
        network 192.168.2.0
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 192.168.2.255

auto dsl-provider
iface dsl-provider inet ppp
     provider dsl-provider
# please do not modify the following line
     pre-up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up # line maintained by pppoeconf
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Its really a pain when Im connected via ssh or something else, and I
always get disconnected.

thanks in advance.