"birdy" is correct. All I had to do was sort out the Java versions.

I quickly found this thread after having exactly these issues. I knew it was not a FW issue because other PCs in the house all work fine behind the same FW. All I did was uninstall ALL older versions of JAVA in the add/remove programs of the control panel. I ended up with version 6 release 3, the latest and I am now back in the game.

Many Thanks birdy!