Debian 2.2: download stops during "apt-get update"

[jkelm@concentric.net (Jeff Kelm)]

I originally sent this to debian-user, but got no response.  Perhaps this is
the more appropriate list.

I am in the process of trying to upgrade my computers to 2.2.  My
workstation was running 2.0 and my server was running 1.3.  When I upgraded
my workstation, I started having network problems.  Downloading files seems
to frequently stop after 1-5 minutes.  The network is still up, pinging the
source still works.  Other connections (e.g., http) still are running. 
There is just no download occurring!  Sometimes everything works great.  My
slrnpull cron job hasn't worked since the upgrade because it aborts after
downloading one group and part way through the next group with the error
"***Connection to news.concentric.net lost. Performing shutdown.".

I thought there might be some problem with the server (acting as my Internet
gateway) running 1.3, and since I needed to install a larger hard drive
anyway, I did a clean install of 2.2 on the server.  Everything goes great
until I get to the point of downloading the rest of the system using ftp and
apt-get.  When I try to do "apt-get update" the same downloading problem
occurs and apt-get times out without getting the full packages listing.

I've been using Linux for a couple years now, but I'm no expert.  Usually
the Debian installs and upgrades work without any big problems.  I'm not
sure how to go about troubleshooting this one.  The log files don't show
anything curious.  I've checked the archives of this mailing list, but
haven't found any mention of a similar problem.  So it must be something I'm
not doing correctly.  Both machines are using 486 processors.  They use
different network cards (NE2000 and HP J2405A).

Last night I upgraded my workstation to 2.2r2, but the problem persists.  I
would appreciate any help this group can provide.

Thanks,
   Jeff