Yep, MC does seem to have a wierd habbit of giving 404s for brief periods.

I suppose it could lie somewhere on a route to MC but I know its not my ISP. My ISP can cause me problems as foolsetroupe mentions but if I get that, I get it with all pages and I usually have 6 browser windows open at some are different sites (MC, folkinfo, the annexe, bbc4 message board, bbc2 message board and bbc news often google as well). That MC fails far more often and that in most cases I have no problem with a 404 to the other sites to me does indicate their must be something wrong at or towards MC.