Ok, I can connect to the net, but when I try to load a site it either says "http://whatever cannot be found" or "The operation timed out when attempting to connect to...". It takes a few tries and then the page loads. Virus scan didn't pick anything up, neither did ad-aware or spybot. Any ideas?

if you download and install firefox, do you still get this problem? You might have some bad internet connection setting, like auto detect proxy on. Have a look in IE options under connections, LAN settings.

I am using firefox, I should have said.

And you get the same when you use IE as well?

If so, it could actually be your ISP.

Once you finally reach a page, is all well when you then go to other sites, or does access remain erratic and patchy?

Yea it's the same with IE.
It happens erratically.

Are you using broadband or dialup?

It's all sorted now, turns out I had to reinstall the winsock file from the XP disc. Cheers for the help