It happends about 50% of the time. Some downloads worse then others. My video downloads (reuters news) will hickup as well although not as much. I have a decent machine- P4 1.9, 256 rambus 800 ram, GF 2 pro video, Audigy sound, Th711- raid MB, Win 2k pro, Latest drivers, and a Direct tv dsl (formaly Telocity) the connection seems solid however it is not all that fast (right at the limit)