Network disappears

[viniosity]

I have a debian/sarge box configured to run as a static IP. When I boot it works fine -- I can access the network, surf the web, update my system, and even ssh into my box from within the network.

After a while though, network access disappears. I can't even ping the box!

--- 192.168.1.237 ping statistics ---
899 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

However, if I walk over the computer and type a few keys in suddenly the network is back -- no reboot required.
PING 192.168.1.237 (192.168.1.237): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.237: icmp_seq=0 ttl=254 time=2.568 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.237: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=2.123 ms

This is really confusing me.. is there some sort of time-out on the network that I don't know about? How can I fix this?!?

[lacek]

Couldn't it be that the BIOS puts the 'idle' computer to some kind of sleep state, or similar? That would explain the sudden wakeup upon keypress.
Check the BIOS of the computer, turining of anything that even remotely suspicious.

[viniosity]

You're exactly right -- it was a BIOS setting.. damn do I feel stupid. Anyway, thanks for pointing me in the right direction!