[h-e-w] Ange-ftp stalls intermitently

[list-emacs-windows]

Hi,

I am using Emacs on Windows-XP with ange-ftp to edit files on a remote
Unix system (SunOS).

When this works, it works great! :-), but there also seem to be phases
where Emacs will hang while accessing the remote site with ange-ftp.

In fact, Emacs does not totally hang as I can regain control with C-g,
but in other respects it behaves as if frozen - I.e. window will not
redraw and there's no reponse to key or mouse operations.

It's possible that the problem is related to the remote FTP host, or a
network or firewall issue (all things I have no control over), however
I regularly access the same ftp account with ncftp & ncftpget, without
any problems.

I've read the FAQ, searched the archives... installed an alternative
ftp.exe program, and played with various ange-ftp settings, all to no
avail - each time I think it's fixed but the problem always returns
eventually.  Please help!...

Some info on my setup, please ask for anything else:

Output of C-u M-x version:
 GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2004-03-10 on NYAUMO

Snippet from my current ~/.emacs, but I have tried many variations:
 '(ange-ftp-dumb-unix-host-regexp ".*")
 '(ange-ftp-ftp-program-name "c:/emacs-21.3/bin/ftp.exe")
 '(ange-ftp-gateway-ftp-program-name "c:/emacs-21.3/bin/ftp.exe")
 '(ange-ftp-process-verbose t)
 '(ange-ftp-retry-time 30)
 '(ange-ftp-send-hash nil)
 '(ange-ftp-try-passive-mode nil)

With the Windows-XP supplied ftp.exe the freeze is absolute - even C-g
will not abort and the emacs task must be killed from the task
manager.  I am using a replacement ftp.exe, copied to the path shown
above, and taken from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/emacs/windows/contrib/ftp-for-win32.zip

Cheers,
-bernie.