Problem upgrading larger packages on dialup

I'm having problems upgrading larger packages (vlc, mplayer) from freshrpms on 
my dialup connection. I have no problems with smaller packages. Is there some 
sort of timeout, where I have only so long to download each package?

Doing an apt-get dist-upgrade, which includes the upgrading of packages from 
freshrpms, any larger packages cause problems. I get about 10% of the 
download, then something like "connection closed from server end". If I do an 
apt-get install vlc (for example), I often have to rerun apt-get install vlc 
up to 12 times before I finally get the package download completed.

Anyone have any suggestions (apart from moving to livna) as how this might be 
resolved.

btw. I had a similar problem upgrading Wine from the sourceforge site, mind 
you, sourceforge is a whole bundle of fun on it's own.

Nigel.