"Oops - error connecting" makes Last.fm unuseable

Please help! On most songs on last.fm, I get "oops! error connecting" in the player and nothing plays. Makes the service completely unusable and I would love to use it. It's just not worth the aggravation when I can only listen to *maaaybe* 2 out of 10 songs. Many people are having this problem, and have been for quite some time.

Please give list of specific things to check, and stick with me til this is resolved.

What I've already tried (many, many times over many months)
- enabled cookies, js, flash, activeX, etc, for last.fm
- cleared cache & cookies
- tried in FF & IE
- updated FF, IE, Win
- created a new user account

Thx for any help in resolving this question. It's costing last.fm a lot of users and goodwill so this would make a good FAQ once the answer is confirmed. =)