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>>Do you mean you have the two computers direct-connected without a switch in the middle? If so:
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>>- are both computers on UPSs or otherwise protected from power spikes/static etc.?
>>- are both computers well grounded with no chance of a ground loop between them, which might show up as a voltage potential on the interconnecting LAN cable?
>>- could you repeat your tests with a switch in the middle?
>>- is there any difference if you manually set your workstation speed to 100Mbit instead of gigabit, to force the slower connection for test purposes?
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>Hi Al. Yes there is no switch between them and they are on a UPS. The other items I will need to check with the networks guy. Thanks. Wierd thing is that the problem seems to be getting worse. It used to happen occasionally, maybe once a month. Now it can happen even every day.
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>I have noticed that a black exclamation icon appears in a yellow triangle in the system tray every time this happens. If you mouse over or click the icon it disappears without any tooltip or menu options.

Another thing I should have mentioned earlier - are you sure your direct connect cable is good? It should be Cat6 for gigabit Ethernet; high-quality pre-made Cat6 direct-connect cables might be hard to find. If your cabling guy made one for you I'd be a little leery, unless he's specially trained/certified for Cat6 work and has done a lot of them.

In general, with unusual, critical cables like that you should always have at least 1 spare, for test purposes in circumstances like this, if nothing else.