I have all the "example" clients here with firewalls, routers ect. and have seen all these problems before.
When I post a solution, it's because I had that problem (or something very much like it) and fixed it. Even if these solutions don't help, they will help speed up your connection and tweak it. If you plan to run a server, even just for yourself or a few friends, you really should consider not running stuff like "bearshare" or "chat" sessions and leave the machine clean and only with the server and if only one machine, the client.
I can guarantee you Bearshare (and its wanna-bes) fills your PC up with Malware and crap that owns your bandwidth.
If you run open chats (msn, icq, etc), some of the garbage-people will hack into your pc and commandeer your pc.
If you like to look a porno or like to surf the "gutters" of the internet, you're asking for big trouble there too: You can get screwed with malware and garbage just by browsing a site.
Right now, you might be the proud owner of one of the millions of internet computer "Zombies" that pump out tons of daily spam and garbage while you think all is well.
If you are not careful, even a single email from a friend (who thinks he has nothing), will screw you into oblivion.
I can't count the number of people around here that brought me their "broken" PC's here only to find out it was over run by virus and malware they were unaware of.
Crap like this will affect your Everquest and strange stuff will happen: login server not found, eqgame.exe crashes, etc.
I found these problems by trial and error and the solutions were found while trying to help others get rid of some very stubborn trojans;
http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/sho...8&postcount=17
and
http://eqemulator.net/forums/showpos...7&postcount=25
Finally, as a rule of thumb, nothing in the internet is free! if it's not a download from a known site, don't take it!