Upload and download issues

Allrighty, new to the forums- so glad to see that activecollab was taken on by others and developed! I'm tickled pink with this type of management software!!

So, I recently upgraded from AC 0.7.1 to PP 0.8.0, following the instructions on the web site. The upgrade seemed to go swimmingly with no issues. Until..

A client used PP (not AC) to submit a 6mb zip file. I went to download the file, and every time I click on the link to the file, I'm directed to a blank web page.

I've been using the file system method for all file storage for over 2 years now, so I can't switch to MySQL at this point- too many files I need!

I dug through the uploads folder via ftp and found the file- transferred it and added .zip to the file name and was able to open the file successfully, but couldn't download it via the PP interface.

So, to test, I tried to re-upload the file again, and lo and behold, I then get server disconnects continually, after ~60 seconds.

So, I re-installed the original AC 0.7.1 from backups, and tested again. I was able to download the 6mb zip file without issue by clicking on the link for the file with the original AC install. However, I still had server disconnects when uploading.

So, I got in touch with my hosting, and they allow custom php.ini files for scripts. Here is the exact text from my php.ini.

max_execution_time=999
max_input_time=999
post_max_size=250M
upload_max_filesize=200M
memory_limit=16M

I still cannot upload anything bigger than around 1mb. I verified with my hosting, and the value of TimeOut in the httpd.conf for their server is 5 minutes (300 seconds).

I have placed the php.ini file in the root of where PP is installed, as per other threads I've read here.

Does anybody have some insight into this problem? It would be GREAT if somebody had a clue as to what is going on!

Thanks!