I keep unticking (work offline) in the tool dropdown box on my laptop but it keeps coming back on again. How can I stop it reappearing all the time?

Laptop, eh? Maybe your laptop is disabling the connection to save on power. You can disable that if that is the case.

• Click on START > MY NETWORK PLACES
• Rightclick your connection and select Properties
• In the Connect Using: box you will see your network card...click on CONFIGURE...
• Your network card driver menu will appear, click on the Power Management tab
• Untick the Allow computer to turn off this device to save power
• Click OK

Hope that does the trick!

Edit: If you're using internet explorer, go to Tools > Connections > LAN settings and check Automatically Detect Settings.