Can you ping 81.2.78.41?

no

If not, there's a routing problem between our two ISPs, or you got
unlucky and tried when my ADSL fell over.

If you can, must be a DNS problem - I'd like to look into that so any
feedback would be helpful.


Doesn't look like DNS: see tracert results below.

Tracing route to mothra.dionic.net [81.2.78.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.123.254
2 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms 10.181.40.1
3 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms osr01dals-v11.network.virginmedia.net
[62.30.144.129]
4 9 ms 7 ms 7 ms
osr01hari-tenge72.network.virginmedia.net [62.30.250.29]
5 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms osr02hari-v99.network.virginmedia.net
[195.182.179.82]
6 8 ms 9 ms 7 ms
pop-bb-b-ge-200-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.182.178.169
]
7 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms nth-bb-a-as1-0.network.virginmedia.net
[213.105.64.17]
8 12 ms 11 ms 10 ms nth-bb-b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net
[62.253.185.118]
9 12 ms 15 ms 13 ms tele-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net
[62.253.184.2]
10 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms ge-1-3-0-309.picasso.as34270.net
[195.66.225.36]
11 15 ms 16 ms 15 ms ge-3-0-0-0.raphael.as34270.net
[85.91.232.2]
12 15 ms 13 ms 14 ms no-dns-yet.inetc.co.uk [85.91.232.30]
13 10 ms 12 ms 11 ms abovenet.aimless.aaisp.net.uk
[213.161.69.150]
14 11 ms 11 ms 13 ms careless.aaisp.net.uk [81.187.81.72]
15 40 ms 40 ms 67 ms 81.2.78.28
16 45 ms 41 ms 46 ms warpfield.dionic.net [81.2.78.46]
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * *


--
Robin