Yes, sorry for the confusion over the routers. I'm using the wired connection router virgin gave me. It doesn't have wireless. Because of that, many years ago I also purchased a wireless router that connects to that so that I can use devices that use wireless (laptop, gaming devices etc). Sometimes I use wired, sometimes wireless (if someone else in the house wants to use it for example) - the problem happens both times, so I don't see how the problem can be my personal wireless router since it happens when I'm only using the virgin-supplied wired router.
Personal wireless router: LinkSys WRT54GC
Virgin router number on the bottom: E08013:00 (it has a big "256" on the label too)
This isn't my image, but I found a picture on google images of the same virgin modem here:
http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/q...pcrouter1a.jpg
The only reason I suspected traffic shaping was because it would often happen after a period of heavy use (which I try to keep to offpeak times like the middle of the night). If I transfer a large amount of data and then this connection problem happens, I assume that this is the cause of the problem and VM are shaping my traffic or something similar. If that isn't the case, then that's great but it also means I'm totally in the dark as to the actual cause.
Thanks for your help.