Thanks for the help guys. Im gonna run to Office Depot and get a USB network adaptor and see if it solves the problem.
Appreciate the offer Will- that was more than generous of you. And just when I was losing faith in my fellow Floridians...
I do have surge protectors on all of my electrical components (thank God) but dont know of anything for the phone lines.
I have Windows xp lilcuda but my wife has Vista.... I agree with you on the Vista thing but I havent really had any remarkable issues with xp.