Java game's not playing nice!

I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right place but here goes...

A friend of mine is about to drive me completely over the edge with her pc!! We both play on pogo games and that's where the problem lies...

The games have been loading fine and she has been able to play, then suddenly the game itself will start freezing up but the chat still runs... At least she is able to read what is being said to her but her chat sticks and then comes through in ones great stream of panda faces (our code for freeze lol)! It will then play for approximately 30 seconds then boot her out of the game with the following error...


The following error has occurred:
Unable to Connect to Server

Explanation:
In order to play, the Java applet must open a network connection to our servers. The applet was unable to open this connection. This could occur if you are trying to connect through your company's firewall. Other things that might cause this error are that our servers may be temporarily down or that one of our other systems is currently unavailable. This problem might also be caused by Internet connectivity problems.

How to Fix the Problem:
There may be the possibility that one or more of our servers are not running. We typically try to keep the server downtime for maintenance and upgrades to under 15 minutes, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

If you don't think that it's a server issue, then there are several things that could have gone wrong:

The server just started up and is still initializing.
Try playing the game again to see if you are able to connect.

There is a network problem that is preventing you from reaching the game server.
If you know how to use traceroute, you can try to find where the problem in the network is. Otherwise, you should try to play again later. Sometimes, major routing points have glitches in their systems that cause intermittent outages. If the problem persists for 24 hours, you should contact your network administrator or ISP for support.

You are located behind a firewall or proxy server.
If you are located behind a firewall or proxy server, you will not be able to play the game. The firewall/proxy is preventing the applet from connecting with the server (that is what the firewall is designed to do). This is typically what happens if you try to play from work. All you can do in this case is to play the game from an account that is not behind the firewall (for example, a home account instead of a work account).

We know the servers are fine because I'm playing the game, and she's not behind a proxy server, I've had her disable her firewall even though it is the same as mine just to check. We've run several clean boots, and we have run more virus/spyware/adware scans then I care to think of!! I've even had her change the network card on her pc which made it work all day yesterday problem free!! Today however it is worse then ever before.

There is actually nothing wrong with her internet connection itself, she can play fine on her laptop and also I've had her log in to yahoo while playing pogo on the pc today just to test that it's not the connection dropping out (Her isp did have some problems a couple of days ago but say that they have fixed it). Now she has just sent me a message on pogo telling me that she is even having problems loading their webpages! It really is making my head hurt and to be honest I'm all for her getting a hammer and smashing it!!

Perhaps someone out there could have a solution slightly more appropriate then my hammer? Please help us!!

Oh by the way, incase I never mentioned it she is running windows xp home sp2. She also has the latest version of java! And anything that pogo 'technical support' have suggested has already been done 20 times or more!! They're about as helpful as a chocolate teapot!!

Thank you so much in advance