It might be interference on the line. Does it happen at certain times of the day?

I had a problem where a street light outside was faulty and kept going on and off. Every time it did that I got disconnected because the phone lines where under the lamppost. It might be worth checking there is nothing electrical near your phone line inside and outside your house as this would explain the drop outs every now and again.

Thanks for the replies, two points in answer to both of them.

Its not a constant fault, sometimes I can have an evening where it only signs me in and out a couple of times, and other times it does it about 20 times in the space of half an hour. So would that still mean its an issue with my security? (I do have norton)

Also they told me I am only 310 metres from the exchange and so they said that I shouldnt have a problem with speed due to my proximity to the exchange.

It is possible its your computer and not your broadband connection. However if you are only getting 3Mb then you probably live quite far from your exchange and there might be a fault on the line. You could try ringing BT and asking them to check the phone line.

Dolly this may be rubbish but could it be something to do with your 'security'? I say this because I very recently upgraded to Norton 360 and a few problems have been thrown up and to my amazement its live chat is brilliant! Example I was suddenly stopped from entering paypal.co.uk because there was a problem with its security. Turns out it wasn't and ultimately Norton chat talked me through the resolution and wonder of wonders told me to go and try paypal to make sure it was ok. It was and I went back to it, thanked my analyst and logged off. As someone who is used to awful customer service I am still reeling with pleasure.

Hello everyone this is my first post so please bear with me.
Am at my wits end with Pipex, I was on their guaranteed 1mg service for 2 years with no problems and in January of this year I decided to upgrade to their up to 8mb service so I could download things faster. Since then its all gone belly up.
My speed can flick between 250kbps up to 4 meg and anywhere in between that in the space of a few minutes. The main issue I am having though is that even when my speed is ok (its usually about 3 meg) my msn keeps signing me out or not letting me send or receve messages. It can sign me in and out of MSN up to half a dozen times in the space of a few minutes which as you can imagine can be very frustrating!!!

Have had ENDLESS conversations with tech support, they eventually decided to take me off the BT platform and put me onto their platform which they said would make it easier to control my speed and therefore solve the MSN problem.

But it hasnt.

Since they put me on their platform the speed has levelled out a bit, as I said its about 3 meg now, but it hasnt made any difference to the MSN problems, its so annoying because I cant speak to my friends in the evening or have to block everybody apart from one or two so that it doesnt disconnect me.

Can anyone suggest anything, do you think I have a case for asking Pipex to terminate my contract and get a MAC code? And will I have any major problems getting away from them if I am no longer on a BT platform.

Ive heard them mention traffic shaping, but what does it mean to someone who has no idea what thats all about and how is it affecting my MSN.

Im really at the point where id be quite happy back on a 1mg connection as long as it would mean MSN would be successful.
Please help me!
Sorry for the long post
Marie