Blocked by my own host
Just another note as to why you should not use 1&1 hosting - as I foolishly do.
I attempted to logon to my hosting on Saturday with my laptop - alas my convoluted username is only something stored in muscle memory and the lack of a number-pad on my laptop resulted me typing it in wrong a couple of times and then promptly getting disconnected.
I assumed at this point my account would have been blocked for 15 minutes or something, but nooo. Instead my hosting company 1and1 decided that they would block my IP address - permanently.
Phoning their support line I was greeted by a message telling me they were closed until the 21st (calling on the 25th), and then promptly went through to a call-handler. He said it would take four hours for my IP address to be unblocked - an attempt to discuss white-listing my address left him confused.
The following day I still couldn't access my hosting. A subsequent phone-call and I discovered that the automatic banning of connections is not something that they can deal with at the weekend so I'd have to wait until Monday!
I'm now finally back on - but was unable to do anything related to any of my web-sites during this time.
So - if anybody can recommend a good UK based hosting company, please do get in contact!