My cache is auto deleted along with a lot of other stuff, every time I shut Firefox down. Haven't noticed much diff. in load times on dial-up.
Background is always the last to appear, due to it's size. I always think there's a problem with the site. Sometimes my browser 'times out' when first loading, but that's just because I load the smilies/members locations as well.
L.
ps. Mick, how many pages are you loading as home? What browser, IE or what?
Done a bug sweep?