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Not sure I understand the second part of your answer, galeck, but hanks for the first hint. Thanks also Boxtops; I've been holding off installing IE9 because of the problems I've been having recently with IE8, and for the moment I'm going to find my way round Chrome which seems to be fine. I actually think much of the problem lies with BT as the connection keeps dropping. Think they're trying to get me to upgrade to Infinity, but as I said to them on the phone why would I want to pay more to a company that won't provide the service I'm paying for in the first place?
Many thanks to everyone for useful advice.