My messenger isn't alerting me to new mail, neither is my browser. Why?

I know this happened to alot 11 months ago but it's happening to me now. Yesterday I was getting disconnected alot. Then all of a sudden messenger stopped giving me alerts. I download the old sounds because a couple weeks ago messenger stopped give me sounds for friends coming online/going offline. Then the buzz stop, which I don't miss. Even the sounds for ims coming in have stopped. Any help with this problem would be greatly appericated. Thanks for your time.