Numerous ftp timeouts - why?

[Michael D. Norwick]

New to FreeBSD not new to *nix.  Have the docs/handbook/faq, etc.  Using
freebsd 6.0 RELEASE on Compaq Proliant 2500R.
Why when trying to install various apps from ports do the ftp sessions
frequently timeout?  If I manually fetch packages from
sites the download goes ok, but this means I have to copy files to
/usr/ports/distfiles manually.  did 'man fetch' but still no clue
as to why this happens.

Thank You,

Michael