[BBKing]

No, in fact don't have Automatically Detect Proxy enabled, since it doesn't do anything.

Ideally you shouldn't have a permanent proxy selected, just if there's a local difficulty. Also ideally, tech support should either not recommend setting a proxy explicitly or make clear that if they recommend setting a proxy, this should be turned off after a day or two.

I'd love to see a full on status page for those interested, but two things - first the number of ntl customer's who'd want the whole nine yards would be tiny and the cost in money and time would be hard to justify.