For starters, eveything that colonius has said is right on. I'd first start off by trying a different browser. That can really help diagnose problems.
FT chat is broken for almost everybody, and we're working on getting that sorted out asap.
If you continue to have problems, can you possible paste a traceroute in here? To do this, please follow these instructions:
1.) Got to Start > Run...
2.) Type in "cmd" (no quotes) and hit OK.
3.) On the line, type in "tracert www.flyertalk.com" (no quotes) and hit enter.
4.) Copy the output and paste it in here.
There is a more detailed explaination on running a traceroute here:
http://support.verio.com/documents/v...fm?doc_id=3743 but instead of pasting that into notepad, you can just paste it into a reply window.