Should I upgrade?

I currently have 2MB broadband with ntl, I am thinking of upgrading to the 3MB service but I have a few questions or rather two....

1. Will I start a whole new 12 month contract and will I be able to downgrade at any time back to my original service if I don't like it or have any probs.

2. Will my web pages load any faster or is it just downloads that will see the speed increase.

I mainly use my internet connection for email and general browsing as well as maintaining my website.

I also have another question that someone might be able to help me with and it's this:

If I leave my pc on and say I use it after 15-20 minutes of in activity, When I click internet explorer it comes up saying im off line and I have to click online then everything is ok. Somewhere along the line my computer disables my internet connection. I have the ntl250 cable modem connected to a second eithernet card, I have tried switching off the power saving feature on the card but it still does it. anyone know how to stop this from happening?

[MovedGoalPosts]

You shouldn't start a new contract. That should be running from whenever you first subscribed to ntl broadband. You can upgrade / downgrade once a month, or at least that's what you could do if the rules haven't changed.

As for speed, it's upload / download of files that will show the most difference. Web browsing won't show noticeably unless the page has a lot of graphic content. Again email works mostly in tha background so, unless your emails have megabyte sized file attachements, you'll probably never know.

Regarding timeouts, check the network dialup / connection settings don't have a disconnect if inactive seting ticked.

[V3n0m]

At the moment i wouldn't bother as the download/upload speed is poor for a lot of people