Same old, same old. This has been a constant up again down again situation since the days of TRS2004 it seems. At least now (in TS2010) I see there is a handy network diagnostics tool in Content Manager.
I'm thinking that everytime I can't connect I might just run this little diagnostics utility and email Auran a copy of the results. You never know, something might just get done about it.
Until now the standard answer for connection problems was always "well it works for me. It must be your connection/ internet provider/ firewall software etc., etc." Hopefully the network diagnostics reports should put an end to that nonsense and perhaps lead us to a real solution to these problems.
Stuart