Last week I replaced one of my home phones with a cordless phone. The base connection plugs into the normal phone socket on the wall. Since then I’ve had to dial up my ISP 2 or 3 times each session before establishing a stable connection. I made sure that Call Waiting was switched off before dialling up but the problem persisted. However, since I started unplugging the phone base from the wall before logging on the problem has stopped. Is this likely to just be a coincidence based merely on a run of bad luck or do cordless phones have any special reputation for interference?

I haven’t heard of cordless phones causing any interference but I am still confident that the problem does have something to do with the phone as it seems to be more than a coincidence. Some phones draw power from the phone line for their functions even when they are not in use. This can cause a drop in the voltage on the phone line which can result in, for example, an unstable internet connection such as you are experiencing. My suggestion is that whenever you want to use the internet, you unplug the phone so that you can maintain a stable internet connection without having to constantly redial. Alternatively, you might consider having a dedicated phone line installed for your PC.