solved this, out of curiosity the only thing I didnt try changing was my wireless card (Intel WiFi Link 5300 Card). Today I disabled it and plugged in a USB b/g/n adaptor and everything worked perfectly. No idea if this could be solved using some settings in the card config but I gave up trying 
Got a really strange problem, for the last year I've been basically unable to upload anything to Picasa without it timing out or able to wirelessly print anything to my wireless Canon MP560. I always put this down to my ageing Linksys router but I relaced that this weekend and the problem still persists.  I've tried disabling firewalls / anti virus and all the usual things, someone suggested to try a wired connection to the router - thinking it was strange (because I can use Dropbox, FTP, etc with no problems) I tried and everything works perfectly over a wired connection (the printer is still wireless at the other end) - so I've managed to isolate it down to the laptop -> router wireless connection. This WIRED connection still works fine with the firewalls and antivirus ON Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this connection to seemingly timeout and and suggestions to try? thanks Dave
Studio 17 Laptop / Picasa / Canon MP560