Trouble downloading WMP7.1

O.K. Here's the scenerio. I have tried at least 6 times (unsuccessfully) to download Windows Media Player. Each time, it completes about 75% of the D/L (this takes nearly an hour!!!!)and then it blows out. An error message screen comes up: 'Do you want to install and run "mp71.exe" from download.microsoft.com? The publisher cannot be determined due to the problems below:
Authentication signature not found.'
I hit "details" to get more info: It says "Unsigned program download - this software does not havea certificate, so it might not be safe to install and run on your computer. " After hitting all the "yes's" on subsequent screens, I'm left with the message, "A required resource appears to be corrupted." I'm left to ask myself, am I the ONLY one who is having this problem? In talking with others, they are not experiencing this.

I tried a couple of prior suggestions from your technical support team, like trying to download a manager (Stardownloader) to accelerate the download time - even to a folder on the C drive named My Downloads. Again, I got another error message: "could not initialize installation. File size expected = 927813. size returned = 626293. This function only valid in Win32 mode. Are these somehow connected??
Thank You for your help!