aTOMic,
we also are running cable here - you may have to replace the modem (we did) to get back the good fast speed. the things are on 24/7 and after a while the electronics get fried. after we replaced it we're getting a steady 450kb/s speed.
as far as e-mail goes why not sign up with gmx? they are the best in my experience - servers are hardly ever down. they are in munich so you have to know a little german to figure it out but then again we drive MB's so we all should know just a little german, right!?
they can be found at
www.gmx.net. the free version gives you a 10 mb box. just follow the links and keep your german-english dictionary handy!
