MSN connection dropping with ETEC 3812 router (non-wireless)

hi

I have this intermittent problem whereby my MSN connection drops,
generally without me noticing but the person I am chatting with says
I've signed out. I also get dc'd from some chat rooms.

All other connections to the web are fine, such as BBC radio Player
which I use a lot and has never dropped.

The line's been tested by BT and seems to be fine, I'm only 600m from
the exchange and only using a 512K service. Zen's my ISP and they
can't see anything obvious either. I've done some tests through L8NC
and there is some packet loss, but I suspect that's true of most DSL
lines.

I have 2 PC's at home and don't want to use port-forwarding as I could
want to use MSN from either machine.

My other observation is that the connection drops more frequently
during the day than in the evening.

I'm wondering if it's the router's a crock and I should go and get
something more reliable.

Any suggestions welcome.

ta.

have sorted it.
bought a Linksys WAG354G, a router that supports UPNP, the ETEC is
rubbish and does not support it.
My advice to people is not to buy cheap junk from Maplins as I did.