erc connection problems

[B. T. Raven]

Often but not always I get the following error when trying to start erc:
Connecting to irc.freenode.net:6667...
open-network-stream: make client process failed: connection timed out, 
:name, erc-irc.freenode.net-6667, :buffer, nil, :host, irc.freenode.net, 
:service, 6667, :nowait, nil

This usually happens with irc.dal.net server but sometimes with other 
ones. Is this and irc network problem or is there something I can do in 
my .emacs to alleviate the problem? Specifically is "... connection 
timed out" caused by something in my setup? Usually the firefox 
chatzilla plugin works when erc does not.

Thanks in advance for any help or at least insight into the problem,

Ed