head scratcher or am I missing something obvious

[Cathy]

Hi all,

Sorry I have been lurking and not posting for awhile.

Ok so I need some input into a member who is having access/connection problems. I will try to give you all as much info as he has given me to explain what is happenig.

This is what he is experiencing:
I was surfing the site, downloading some video fine and then all of a sudden the speeds drop to zero and the site is unresponsive throwing up a connect connect error in opera and firefox. I closed down the browser and tried to go onto the site but once again the front page will not open and i cannot connect to put in my password.
Had problems in the past with slow downloading from certain sites because of packet loss but I have never not been able to access a site at all.

He has contacted his ISP(virgin) who tell him they have not/do not put up a block. If he pings and tracert the site its fine. He says 10 mins all works fine then it starts to go bad.

I have suggested he not use a download manager, just the old fashioned 'right click' .. 'save as' he says he is doing that. Said to do the whole clear cache/cookies and only use 1 browser. Had his IP cleard/unblocked etc etc etc etc but his ip has been checked and there are no flags at our firewall.

OH and he has been a member in the past with NO issues at all .. so what has changed his end ?? He says nothing all is the same.

His setup is as follows:
Vista home premium
2Gb memory
fibre optic 20mb

Sorry about the long winded explanation, I hope it all helps and I hope one of you can send some suggestions my way or have heard of this before.

Thanks in advance for reading and any help.

Cathy xxx