Can also help to try different proxies - see the Cable Forum articles on
Proxy Server Information.
If you need help setting a proxy in a browser other than IE, come back and ask. Incidentally, if you do find changing your proxy helps, it's worth thinking about using
Firefox - there's an extension available for it (
SwitchProxy) that lets you specify several proxies and change to whichever one you want with a couple of clicks.