SSH (client) not working properly?

I have 6.5 installed at home. I can SSH to my remote server from every other computer on my network. I can SSH from my MEPIS box to another local server (95% of the time it works), but I can't SSH out 98% of the time (it just times out). Every once in a while it'll work, but then it'll drop me.

In a potentially related note, the network seems really slow on Mepis. On a 100mbit network, I barely see 200kbps to a local server (in contrast, from another computer on the same network I see over 60mbps)... Any ideas on where to start?