Net connection keeps dying

Perhaps one of you fine folks can help me out here.
For the last few days, my cable net connection seems to randomly just die off on me, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Sometimes it dies in mere minutes, other times it goes for hours without a hitch.

No spyware, no viruses.. I don't have a router, nothing wireless either.. It's a direct connection. Repairing the LAN connection or just unplugging the cable between the PC and the modem for a few seconds gets the connection back up and running again. XP never informs me of any problems, the lights on my modem are all as they should be.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe it's overheating. Leave it out in the open where it can get some air.

Also, call the cable company and bitch at them.

1) Get a fucking router, dumbass.  Chances are, you've already been infected with shit.

2) Possibly related, my ISP (Adelphia, Virginia, USA) has been having service outages and a gradual deterioration of TV quality as a result of trying to squeeze more people than they should into a single line.  More likly in your case, though, is either just Windows being gay like always, or you're infected because you're too retarded to get a router.  Get a router and reinstall, install Avast!/AVG then come back and tell us if you're problem is fixed.