Problem with apt-get. Help please, I'm in over my head...

[Jonathan Lupa <jjlupa@jamdata.net>]

I'm hoping someone out there will have a better idea than me where to look
for a solution to this, but in a nutshell:

The short version:
	Since I reinstalled/repartitioned/moved the kernel to 2.2.9, apt-get
has been stalling indefinitely as it downloads anything from a resource 
listed in my sources.list file.

The long version:
	when I run apt-get upgrade (or any apt-get call that goes out to the
network to load stuff down), it starts downloading, the ticker is going fine,
and then it will stall down, and then after a while just hang there 
indefinitely.  If I Ctrl-C the operation and then start it again, it will
resume, then slow down, then stall again.  This happens when I do an 
'apt-get install blah' or when I use dselect.

The facts:
	I'm on a small masqueraded network that is sharing a modem out to
my ISP.  I have no problems doing ftp transfers either directly from my
debian machine, or any other computer on my network. (which is why I'm
hesitant to suspect the modem).
	I have no problems doing ftp transfers within my local net. (which
is why I am loath to suspect my ethernet card.
	This has only started happening since I reinstalled debian, and
repartitioned everything (after reading that wonderfull thread on partions).
I have Installed from slink CDs, then upgraded via apt all the
proposed upgrades.  I have compiled up my own kernel (2.2.9) using the
one true debian method (make-kpkg).
	The logfiles (/var/log/messages && /var/log/syslog) show nothing
unusual.

I am lost as to where to start looking for the problem. 

attached below are some files that may (or may not) help.

Thanks for any help, this is the first major problem I have had with
debian!
Jonathan Lupa
jjlupa@jamdata.net

/etc/apt/sources.list:
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable non-US
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian dists/proposed-updates/

/proc/devices:
Character devices:
  1 mem
  2 pty
  3 ttyp
  4 ttyS
  5 cua
  7 vcs
 10 misc
 14 sound
128 ptm
136 pts

Block devices:
  2 fd
  3 ide0
  8 sd
 11 sr
 22 ide1

/proc/interrupts:
           CPU0       
  0:     482686          XT-PIC  timer
  1:       9021          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  3:       2030          XT-PIC  eth0
  5:          1          XT-PIC  soundblaster
 11:         40          XT-PIC  advansys
 12:          3          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
 13:          1          XT-PIC  fpu
 14:        637          XT-PIC  ide0
 15:       4784          XT-PIC  ide1
NMI:          0

/proc/ioports:
0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
0170-0177 : ide1
01f0-01f7 : ide0
0220-022f : soundblaster
0376-0376 : ide1
03c0-03df : vga+
03f6-03f6 : ide0
03f8-03ff : serial(set)
0620-0623 : sound driver (AWE32)
0a20-0a23 : sound driver (AWE32)
0e20-0e23 : sound driver (AWE32)
e400-e41f : eth0
e800-e80f : advansys
f000-f007 : ide0
f008-f00f : ide1

/etc/fstab: (probably has NOTHING to do with it but it did change)
/dev/hdc1	/		ext2	defaults,errors=remount-ro	0 1
/dev/hdc2	none		swap	sw				0 0
proc		/proc		proc	defaults			0 0
/dev/hdc3	/var		ext2	defaults			0 2
/dev/hdc4	/usr		ext2	defaults			0 2
/dev/hdb1	/home		ext2	defaults			0 2