Marty-UK - Its worked !! - flushdns is they key to the problem for me. Like I've said I've messed around with MTU size on the router to no avail. I added a brand new laptop from work to my howm...

Thanks for the prompt reply Geek. There is a firewall running on the NetGear router (614 model) - nothing out of the ordinairy from default set up.
Also the PC is running Norton Internet security...

I've arrived at this thread through a search on netgear router and not being able to access hotmail.
My setup - AMD athlon 900
Win XP
20Gb HDD
256MB...