It's likely the forums, not your connection. The BF server is unstable and craps out on a regular basis (though not as often as it used to). It's been acting up tonight.

A way to test if it's your connection or the server is to try to load something from another site, something that's always fast, like Google. If Google pops right up, it's BF, if Google lags along as well, it's your connection.

I have Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T/whatever-the-hell DSL, and I've been very happy with it for the last nine years or so.