release/renew after reboot

xp home v. - sp1
p4
telus adsl (only 1 pc)

i had a problem with my connection dropping while surfing the net
confirmed the problem was not the modem, so after talking to telus tech. he told me to uninstall/install my realtek software from the device manager

now since i did that, one thing i notice was that everytime i restart my pc i had to release/renew my ip address(disable/enable local area connection) to get connected

is this hardware problem (nic) or software problem???

the problem with losing connection while surfing the net could be due to one of my p2p (just uninstall it!!!)

 

Sounds like some driver issue, or perhaps the TCP/IP stack. Did you remove everything from Network Properties and start over configuring the network?

 

all i did initially was
device manager > network adapter > realtek rtl8139 > uninstall > scan for hardware change

don't know much about it so i didn't touch anything else

how can i check the TCP/IP stack???
or is there other setting i check

 

okay i'm back in action, i think!!! (tested for only 10-hrs)

i decided to "rollback driver" for my nic (5.505.1004.2002 10/4/2002)
since doing that, when i initially power up my pc:
connection is there
for the past 10-hrs, i had my p2p up and no disconnect
sorry for all the troubles, although i still want to thank all those who replied and provided helped
and for those who are experiencing the same problem = try rollback driver