[andrewas]

Though it woudnt be something obvious. And IIRC you posted earlier that tech support has no clue.

A few random things which probably dont make all that much sense but I could get lucky.

MMORPGS download patches each time you log on. Any chance they could be causing the appearance of a freeze? If youve just re-installed and you have an old copy you could be downloading years worth.

Dialup sucks. But a games oriented ISP (I dont know where you are so I cant suggest one, barrysworld in the UK was ace but im not sure about them now) can make it suck less. And will likley have a forum of people who know these things.

Shoot the computer.

Firewalls. Proxies. Horrid things you probably wont have cos your on dialup, but which screw up games like nobodies business.

DO other games work?

Im still thinking its a problem with your ISP, which company is it? Freeserve, AoL? avoid AoL BTW, they suck big time.