Hi Matthew & Roy
thanks for the welcome and the
amazingly fast replies
have considered broadband, but actually am very happy staying with dialup;
only one of the three computers is really "good enough" for broadband, so it would be a case of putting "all my eggs in one basket"; I'm often fiddling with the hardware on one or other computer...
...plus there have been (quite a few) times when I've caught software trying to 'phone home** which I reckon I'd probably have missed with broadband
**although I missed one recently - my Googlebar "updated" itself and sneakily turned on several of the "bleat" features in the process. Aaargh! BHOs...
not being able to have a 'phone conversation while online is indeed a bit of a hassle, true...
...but this not connecting thing is frustrating - and trying to explain it to the CS who were convinced that I must be putting in the password incorrectly was a right wind-up!
I
did remain polite though (despite steam coming out of my ears...)
==
this non-connection thing only started happening about 4 or 5 days ago - up to that point the service was fine, it was only very rarely that we would not get in at the first attempt.
best wishes, HJ.