I had exactly the same problem. It happened for a few hours early in the morning; I normally log on at around 5:30 am during the week to around 8:30, when I log off at the time I officially have to start earning a living.
We're 6 hours ahead of US East Coast time at the moment.
Don't be so negative. During the last few weeks in the eastern DRC it took 20 minutes just to make a normal phone call. You have to wait for the right satellite to go around. Russian satellites work better than US satellites. Then you also only get connected when the whether is nice. The SA satellites can more-or-less be described as cr*p. The Chinese satellites work better than the others, though.