Thanks Eric & Birna
I'd been getting "failed to connect in allotted time" types of issues for several weeks in early September.
After a week or so of behaving better, I got a timeout error again just now.
In addition, when I looked at the Shape Echo thread, the image in one of the posts failed to display.
It was only 250Kb.
As a precaution I checked my Internet connection and it seems that wasn't the problem - see below
Is another kick (or some gentler but more deep reaching surgery) needed?