The Friends Reunited website has reconnected thousands of lost loves and school friends, as well as being responsible for a number of broken marriages. As it celebrates its fifth anniversary today, Lindsay Jennings looks at a national phenomenon.

DONNA Steele tapped her username and password into the computer and held her breath. Sitting in an Internet caf in east London, she watched avidly as the Friends Reunited website opened up its page and welcomed Donna to its site. There, to the left hand side of the page, a new email flashed up from her old school sweetheart, Gareth Edge.

"I hadn't wanted to leave a message, because I felt a bit precocious saying I was an actress," recalls Donna. "Then I got this email from Gareth. It said he'd seen my name come up and he wanted to see what I'd been doing and that he was living in London."

The last time Donna, 28, had seen Gareth was round about the time he ended their relationship - in the middle of their local shopping centre in Peterborough. The pair had met at the school disco aged 15 and had been going out for about a year and a half. But when Gareth moved to a different school they grew apart and she believed he had joined the RAF.

Following his email via Friends Reunited, the pair, who were both single, went on to swap telephone numbers and arranged to meet. Gareth went to watch Donna in the West End show Thoroughly Modern Millie, which later toured to the North-East, before meeting up afterwards.

"It was the first time he had seen me in ten years and when I first came on stage he just saw me with two suitcases and wasn't sure it was me," she says. "But he said later that when I smiled he knew.

"I went to the pub afterwards and I recognised him straightaway. He'd come straight from work and was in his suit (he works as a software developer for Barclays Capital in London) and his hair was shorter, but he was just the same. He was still playing rugby and had a lovely, calm air about him. We hit it off immediately."

FRIENDS Reunited became the dotcom success of the new millennium when it was launched in July 2000 by husband and wife team Julie and Steve Pankhurst and their friend Jason Porter. Julie, from north London, was looking for a part-time business she could run to coincide with being a mum, and hit upon the idea of a site to help long-lost friends and old school mates get in touch after she had attempted to find her own classmates.

Since its launch, the site has expanded and now reunites people from their workplaces, teams and old clubs and even has a section for former neighbours to meet via their street names. Around half of Internet users are members of the site, with 3.3 million using the site every month.

As well as Donna, the site has been responsible for thousands rediscovering lost loves and rekindling friendships. The first Friends Reunited wedding was in September 2002 when school sweethearts Nigel Williams and Su Price, both in their 40s, reunited after 27 years. They married five months later.

The first Friends Reunited baby, Dylan, was born to Simon Smyth and Annette Livingstone from Milton Keynes who had dated briefly in 1982 but were reunited after 18 years apart when Annette found Simon's name on the website. They married in 2003.

But while thousands can thank the site for resurgent love lives, it has come at a price for some unsuspecting spouses who have suddenly found themselves signing divorce papers while their partners begin a new life with their old school flames.

Most famously, former England goalkeeper David James left Tanya, his wife of 13 years, for an old school flame he met via Friends Reunited. But the new relationship, with mother-of-two Amanda Salmon, did not last, and within two years they split again.

Friends Reunited creators Steve and Julie argue that the site cannot be blamed for the break-up of relationships.

STEVE says: ''People blame the site for splitting up marriages but when you look into the stories, the marriages have been on the rocks for years. If it wasn't the website it would be something else. People just use it to vent their anger.'' Julie adds: ''The site is aimed at getting friends back in touch with one another. What they do after that is out of our control.''

Users should also pay caution when deciding to denigrate their old teachers, a popular pastime among those recalling their school days.

In May 2002, in what was believed to be the first case of its kind, Jim Murray, 68 was awarded £1,250 in libel damages following a "character assassination" by a former pupil. He launched his action after former Doncaster school pupil Jonathan Spencer, posted a message on the website.

In January 2003, the site saw the downfall of Raymond Casling, then 24, of Redcar who could not resist bragging to former school pals about his successful career as a drug dealer. "I'm doing very well. I'm selling a lot of charlie (cocaine) in Redcar and I've got three sports cars," he wrote.

Unfortunately for him, his message was spotted by police. Casling, of Lumley Road, Redcar, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

The site has also been credited for bringing other people to justice. In April, 45-year-old Carl Wallace was given a 16-week suspended sentence and ordered to pay £250 costs after boasting of his impending marriage to a woman 20 years his junior - when he already had a wife.

AN old classmate saw the posting and told the police and his wife Anne, who had, up until the posting, refused to grant Wallace, of Oldham, an immediate divorce. Unable to wait, he had taken his fiancee off to Lake Garda for the lavish nuptials, only to be arrested when he returned to Britain.

But fortunately the negative stories appear to be rare. As Donna knows only too well, there are some incredibly positive sides to the site. The couple have been together for more than a year and plan to marry.

"We still say to each other 'do you remember that time when...'," laughs Donna.

"If we had stayed together from school, I don't think we would be together now. You need to see a bit of life first, go to university and do your own thing.

"Relationship wise, it can be a difficult profession being an actress but because he's known me since I was 12, he knows how much I've wanted to do this. I've found a man in my life who can cope or deal with anything and I have the site to thank for that."