the default transparent proxy I was using was causing slow browsing issues and very frequent timeouts to certain sites; or sometimes every site, complete deadness.
so I changed my proxy in firefox to "cdif-cache-2.server.ntli.net:8080" and bang, instant browsing no problem. I switch proxy off, reload the same site and it timed out
So after going through a few things trying to find out why my connection was so crap, I cant believe its down the default cache I am using.
I know I am stating the obvious and people probably know about this, but hopes this helps for time being.
you can find ntl proxies to use here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...cache.html#ntl