As mentioned above.
The timeout is nothing severe, even if it happens a few times in a row, just reload the page a few times, or if posting, try to post it until it does infact post.
The golden box is the login for the site and not the forum itself, and since we don't really use ourselves of the old download section anymore, it's pretty much just for the shoutbox and showing non read pm, which you can see on the forum page as well.
However, you can always try different web-browsers or remove all the cookies from the FH site and then try again. For some, that works.