Thanks for that explanation - Makes perfect sense now.

After looking at the hosts themselves, I found that almost all of the search hits I'm seeing are coming from two hosts. That's weird, but glossing over that, an obvious answer to my perceived problem is that perhaps both of those hosts are inaccessible (from my NATed address) and that would account for the ridiculous failure rate.

I'm going to get a life now. I'll let you know if I trip over any further info.

Thanks again.
/kpt