Ok then everyone, here goes...

I think going from Harry's last sentence that there's a DNS problem. When I follow as suggested and try to access that check IP website while running ethereal, things work quite smoothly in Konqueror.

But when I put the URL into Firefox, the destination IP is weird: 1.0.0.0. However when I enter the IP address directly into Firefox, it connects fine, no problems at all. This extends to the URL - so if I've entered the IP first and it connects, FF always connects when the URL is subsequently entered.

So does is sound as though there is some sort of DNS error? OR should I provide more information from the ethereal output? If it is a DNS issue, is there anything I can do? I read somewhere that this is often an ISP problem. Should I talk to them then? Or would it be more a FF problem?

Hope I've provided the necessary information. Thanks heaps for all your help!

PS: Here are the troublesome parts of the FF loading. Unfortunately since I tried entering the IP address first, it now always connects :P so I tried a different website (The Sydney Morning Herald that demonstrates the problem:

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
1 0.000000 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.1 DNS Standard query AAAA www.smh.com.au

Frame 1 (74 bytes on wire, 74 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e), Dst: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2), Dst: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 32877 (32877), Dst Port: domain (53)
Domain Name System (query)

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
2 0.022463 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2 DNS Standard query response CNAME www.smh.com.au.edgesuite.net CNAME a1758.g.akamai.net

Frame 2 (206 bytes on wire, 206 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61), Dst: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1), Dst: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2)
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: domain (53), Dst Port: 32877 (32877)
Domain Name System (response)

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
3 0.024915 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.1 DNS Standard query A www.smh.com.au

Frame 3 (74 bytes on wire, 74 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e), Dst: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2), Dst: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 32877 (32877), Dst Port: domain (53)
Domain Name System (query)

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
4 0.026686 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2 DNS Standard query response A 1.0.0.0

Frame 4 (90 bytes on wire, 90 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61), Dst: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1), Dst: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2)
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: domain (53), Dst Port: 32877 (32877)
Domain Name System (response)

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
5 0.027516 192.168.1.2 1.0.0.0 TCP 57820 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0 MSS=1460 TSV=316663 TSER=0 WS=7

Frame 5 (74 bytes on wire, 74 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e), Dst: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2), Dst: 1.0.0.0 (1.0.0.0)
Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 57820 (57820), Dst Port: www (80), Seq: 0, Len: 0

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
6 3.028375 192.168.1.2 1.0.0.0 TCP 57820 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0 MSS=1460 TSV=317413 TSER=0 WS=7

Frame 6 (74 bytes on wire, 74 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e), Dst: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2), Dst: 1.0.0.0 (1.0.0.0)
Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 57820 (57820), Dst Port: www (80), Seq: 0, Len: 0

[2 more ARP packets]

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
9 9.028460 192.168.1.2 1.0.0.0 TCP 57820 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0 MSS=1460 TSV=318913 TSER=0 WS=7

Frame 9 (74 bytes on wire, 74 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: AsustekC_b5:37:7e (00:11:d8:b5:37:7e), Dst: XaviTech_48:f3:61 (00:01:38:48:f3:61)
Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2), Dst: 1.0.0.0 (1.0.0.0)
Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 57820 (57820), Dst Port: www (80), Seq: 0, Len: 0

[Repeats]