Well after early drizzle for the umpteenth day, the sun came out and out went the washing.
Yesterday I had a mare with the broadband connected but doing virtually nothing. Having been though endless checking that it wasnt my end, it suddenly started working and i was able to send emails.
Late last night i had to send another email and it wouldn't go again.... I ended up turning the computer off and going to bed.
This morning, booted PC and everything is working... I think it was a BT fault although at the time, no problem was showing for this area.