A couple of points: while checking at work to see whether the thread options thing was OK (IE6 on an old NT box and it's all working fine) I noticed that the path from My Controls is a bit wonky if you're not logged in. I went there without logging in and was prompted to register or log in now. I chose the log in now option, but was presented with the new registration stuff.
Next, when I went to post this query and hit the 'post' button (having logged in) I was sent straight back to the start reading screen i.e. the threads, as though I had hit cancel. This had happened before a while back, but I didn't bother following it up because I assumed I had hit cancel by mistake.
As far as I know there's nothing odd about the connection at work. It's a shared BT connection freestanding and separate from any work firewalls, odd routers/switches etc. (deliberately set up like this to keep an air gap between open internet and work stuff).
