If you need access to Microsoft sites, try adding 24.88.1.66 to your DNS
search list in your TCP/IP properties. That's an AT&T Broadband DNS server.
Their DNS servers are having fairly good luck with Microsoft sites.
I can get http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?fr=0&SD=GN&LN=EN-US
and http://lc7.law5.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/login this way.
Before I added 24.88.1.66 to my DNS search list, I couldn't get anything
useful.