Another thing that will help is to install a Download Manager so that if you
lose connection you can resume without having to start completely over
again. I have used Download Accelerator for a few years and works well. As
far as losing connection you should contact your ISP to make sure all your
settings are correct. If you are on a dial-up it could be that your phone
line is not in the best of shape although this gets to be a 'blame the other
guy' thing. The phone company will say their phone lines check out fine and
your ISP will say there is nothing wrong on their end and blame the phone
company.