n.townend,
It's a bit hard to find info on Virgin to see if they use traffic shaping but if NTL have bought the company, it's possible they are shaping
http://www.uk-bug.net/Topic27.html

Download a file from here & see if you get a reasonable speed
http://www.magnetmix.com/video.shtml

For your firewall problem, read through the sticky at the top of this section. You'll need to make sure you're only running 1 software firewall & that it's configured properly. You may also have an internal firewall within your modem/router, there's info about this in the sticky. If you need more help, post back with your details

OS(Win XP etc)
LW & Java version (help > about LW & you'll see)
Firewall you're using
Modem/router brand & model
ISP
Connection type (DSL etc)
Where you connect from (home, school etc)
Are you sharing a connection with other computers
Is this your first try with LW


Cloby,
Make sure the XP firewall is off if you're using the Norton firewall. I'm not sure if your router supports UPnP. If it does, enable it & also check it within LW's options > advanced > firewall config. The router does have an internal firewall, this might be causing probs. Read through the sticky at the top of this section, the first part "... check here first". There's a lot of info about firewalls & routers & also some info about manually port forwarding to get around a device's internal firewall. Just double check that your Norton firewall's configured properly