1. When you log on at work, do you use a company account or do you log on to your own (MSN?) account?

One way to check would be to send yourself an email, to the address you use at home. If you can retrieve your own (personal) email from work, then you will have confirmed that your account probably is okay.

2. Your home modem wouldn't dial if it didn't get a dial tone, so the fact that it tries confirms that you have a modem connection. It doesn't prove that the line quality is good enough, but suggests that it should be good enough to allow a logon.

3. If your dial-up attempt didn't find something at the number it tries to call, even WinME should give you an error message to tell you "server not found," or something to that effect. The only common "hang-up and redial" - without an error message - is a busy signal from the server, or a "ring with no reply." Find out if there is an alternate local phone number you can try.

Since you mentioned "before it logs on to the MSN network" I assume that MSN is your home ISP:

For the benefit of those in the US, new dialup numbers can be obtained from MSN ACCESS Numbers (http://support.msn.com/accessnumbers.aspx). Enter your home phone number, and you should get a list of MSN dialup numbers you can try. This site will typically give you only about 5 numbers, and may not include the one you're using now. This doesn't mean your current number isn't good - but may indicate that it's used enough that they don't want to add new users on that line. BE SURE TO VERIFY that the new number(s) you choose to try is a local call for you.

There should be an equivalent site for UK users. The above link includes an "English (US)" at the top left that you can click to "change languages," and that allows you to go to the "English (Great Britain)" equivalent, but I don't see a direct line to UK dialup numbers. There is a "Contact Support" link that may get you to something useful.

At work, where you can get on the net, you can also go to MSN Customer Care (UK). A bit of poking about at the "I need help|Online Help" should find a place to get alternate numbers, if there are any.

A first rule of troubleshooting is "Ask the guys you're having trouble with."

4. You should not be getting a black screen or BSOD, but that's sort of a characteristic "feature" of WinME. It does suggest that you may have some sort of system or system settings corruption that may be best handled by getting qualified hands-on service help. Back up everything you can before you let someone else mess with your machine. (especially your data, generally not your programs since they'll need reinstallation if they get fouled or deleted. Don't forget to export addy books and email - you can do that offline. Since Hotmail generally keeps this stuff on their server if you let them, you may not need to backup anything you're sure is safe there.)

John