SoD connection issue on private server

[Baruuk]

Okay - I have to either be missing it or I have to be a retard - or both. I'm willing to accept the latter. My Titanium client connects perfectly to my server and has for some time when my files are configured with port 5998. However, after modifying my eqemulogin.ini and replacing 5998 with 5999, changing the eqemulogin.ini 'loginserver' value to 5999 and even my 'listen_port' value in login.ini (not sure if it's necessary) to 5999 - I can't connect.

So I load up my SoD client which I use with PEQ, EZ, etc and and change my eqhost.txt file to my IP:5999 and no go. My server is at my private office with a static IP - no issues there in the past. I can make Titanium work but not SoD.
I should also mention that the client just HANGS on "Logging in to the server. Please wait..." What's interesting is that I can see my client attempt to connect on the server's console - it says 'New Client UDP Connection from <IP Address>:1948. I also have port 5999 open in the firewall (otherwise the former wouldn't happen I'd assume).

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.