problems upgrading from 10.10

[Lenny]

Hi,
I am using Ubuntu 10.10 on one of my netbooks, and since it keeps reminding 
me to upgrade, I thought I'd do that.
It seemed to update first, I ran:
sudo apt-get update
But when I try to upgrade, it can't seem to get any packages and it fails.
I am not using a proxy, and I am on-line.
When I use sighted assistance to go into synaptic package manager, to set it 
to "default" instead of "smart" update, under settings, it locks up.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Glenn