>No. I've borrowed a laptop with internet connection and have used that when I can't connect on my own PC. I seem to be having problems when it is a slow connection. I've checked my settings and the "disconnect a call if idle for more than" option is not selected.

These are usually on your ISP's server or a problem with the local Baby Bell (if in US, anyway, maybe similar in UK?). But I didn't quite understand, does the laptop work full throttle on your own phone line but your own PC does not?

Then it's your PC, of course, so look for a modem driver patch on the web 1st thing...here are some other ideas too:

After 6 years or so of dialup, I get these slowdowns periodically when there's a problem with one of the above two (ISP, phone co.) Usually they are repaired after a few days of calling and pestering people. The best general workarounds I've found are:

1) Keep your email open with a refresh set to every 1 or 2 minutes, this helps keep the line active, if/when you get a faster connection.

2) Add 3 commas (,,,) to end of dialup number. An ISP techie told me this trick, I don't know how good it is, or if it works in UK or even at all, but it seemed to help when I had problems. (It may have been psychological, though, not quite sure about this technique...)

3) Or it could be local phone hardware. I had a 40 year old line from phone pole-to-house, and it began "disintegrating" - first with speed from normal 53.2K down to 35K or so, then down to 20K, then down to 14.1K (useless, IOW :-)...and then both my dialup & telephone stopped working altogether. A linesman came and replaced the old cable, and all was good again. So in this case, the loss of speed was just a symptom of a phone-line problem (BTW, I had some static on phone too before it went dead, that may be a clue)