Update - tried calling VM last night with no luck (hung up - very frustrating) Tried again this morning, (non english call centre) who took me around the houses for 1 hour 20 mins before telling me there was nothing he could do, it was my "security" software blocking the gateway??? Tried to argue otherwise but he was having non of it. Rang up 150 and selected the change my package option and spoke to the local call centre. A very helpful chap has arranged for an engineer to visit tomorrow (routine I think, can't see how it works through the proxy if theres a fault my end) so we will take it from there.
Issue still the same this morning, FTP connections to my server wouldn't connect, and 90% of the time unable to load any website. Some such as
www.halifax.co.uk never load at all. Xbox live the same - unable to connect.
Looks like this is going to be a long drawn out issue to get resolved :-(