[ale] is Earthlink or BellSouth failing, when multiple attempts are necessary to get on-line ?

[cc.thomas at earthlink.net (Courtney Thomas)]

For the past year I've had no problem connecting to the internet but in 
the last few days my dialer has to make multiple attempts to finally 
connect.

I've tried using a different dialup number, etc., but it makes no 
difference.

What's goin' on  ?

Thank you,
Courtney