So you think MS wrote some thing like a filter in their program or was
could the problem be client side. Funny if indeed it was blocked,

I don't need to say that MS it's not reasonable sometimes, but there's no
reason in doing such a thing like this. MS does not need to be so explicit.
I'm not apologizing MS, but, actually, they have market share enough for
don't worring about writing code to prevent people to download images of
Ubuntu. I think this way and, if I were you, I would double-check my
ethernet cables or squid config

There is a bit of wisdom that says never suspect a conspiracy when
plain incompetence or general idiocy would suffice!

Yes, check the Vista internet settings first, VIsta has enough
unsurmountable problems just actually letting users work for a
protracted period of time without being containing malicious code by
design.

I must say that MS paranoia gets you no where in understanding
a download failure. Vista does not stop a download anymore than XP or
Ubuntu would. This could however be your virus protection or MS Defender
if you have it installed. Just shut the virus protection off or tell
Defender to allow the download. Defender comes with Vista by the way.

Not just Linex-MS unzipper stops programs too,also,"Definder". I Googled
somewthing to do with Linex,and was sent to a MS site dealing with MS servers!!
So, they do scan for opertunities,For MS of course!! One day Big Bill and group
will be involved ,as much as we don't want ,or need it.

If you Google you get hundreds of hits on the words so of course you
would go to an MS forum where it was discussed because google searched it.

IMHO I must disagree. IE stops the download , as I found out trying to
access a site for a DRM patch, IE would not permit the site, Firefox
was fine and I've stayed with it since.
So I have just this minute tried the same download on IE6, the page
comes up but the download refuses?

I downloaded Gutsy with IE7 & 6 and Firefox overnight on my laptop. No
problems. All three at about the 25% mark stopped for a while but then
started again. You are dealing with you own computer, your physical
connection, your isp, their up stream provider, the ubuntu servers, the
load on those servers..... it might get slow and it might stop. If you
have a decently fast connection and it stops, just walk away and let the
time pass to see if it picks up again.

Your ISP might have a download limit. There are lots of possibilities.
But none of those include MS being able to stop you from downloading
something.

On this page
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
the only problem I see on either browser is where it says, "Choose a
location near you" the drop down box spans off the screen. Its too wide.
When I click Start Download in either browser, it works.

If you have a pop-up blockers, a site blocker, NOScript, Phishing
filters in stalled, check to see if any of those are causing a problem.

Well thank you for your interesting replies and some help, albeit a
little off topic. So it is obviously not one particular site, nor one
server, neither the operating system nor its spyware settings, nor
even the ISP OR Paranoia, everything being equal, changing only the
browser did make a difference.

I have and it works fine. I did of course make sure that in Advanced
Options there were no blocks.

I seriously doubt it. M$lop hasn't done any serious R&D on Exploder
since 2003 when they disbanded the development team. Ever wonder why
they don't even have tabs yet?

IE7 has tabs. It's tabs and how they are integrated with IE7's
bookmarks (favorites) are very poorly designed, but never the less, it
has tabs. I haven't played with it in over a year, but at that time, a
group of bookmarks could not be opened at the same time. Each tab had
to be opened individually. Like Opera, IE7 feels the need to store
bookmarks in alphabetical order and will not let the user change this
order. At least Opera will open groups of bookmarks even if they do not
open in the order that you want them to open. I wonder how long that it
will be before Microsoft eventually eats Opera and we see "Microsoft
Opera Explorer 1.0" "MOE 1.0"?

Yes they all worked fine in Firefox. The reason I first moved to
Firefox was in similar circumstances, MS would not give me access to
another particular (anti DRM) download site.

I've downloaded Ubuntu several times with XP, Vista & Ubuntu. The
downloads were all about 360 K/ps.

But the same incompetence allowed Firefox to download OK and other
downloads have no problem!