plug-ins not installing

every time i try to add a plug-in from the dashboard – it fails. i hits “add new” — then search for the pug-in and then choose “install now” from the list that was propagated — and then i get “Downloading install package from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-cycle.0.1.11.zip…

Unpacking the package…”

and the page just hangs. nothing ever happens — plug-in not added.