Hello, this has been a long read for 22 pages and some interesting details. However I am a bit stumped. My issue is:

I seem to connect (sometimes past the MOTD) but never actually get to do anything before a 5 minute waiting period where I usually get a [10053] Software caused connection abort (screen copy to follow at end of message)

I have tried a number of things (as I am not very well versed with MIRC or some of the technical talk that is contained within this thread)including trying different networks such as Undernet, Dalnet, a few networks listed within this thread.

I have tried on various port such as 6667, 6666, 6669, 6665.

I tried the various combinations in MIRC >> Connect > Local. {One thing of note is that when I put 'IP Address' instead of 'Host name' it puts in my computer side IP (192.168....).

I also tried the suggestion of contacting a server by it's IP (/server 66.225.225.225 (which came from /dns irc.servercentral.net (chicago efnet - thank you to whom had posted that command!))) which results in the same message and disconnects.

This system runs on a WinXp Home based system running MIRC v7.22.
We are using Cable to communicate so I guess we are behind a router as well as realtime a/v-firewall running. (Bright house networks(basically RoadRunner and Norton 360 respectively). - I temporarily turned off the 'smart firewall' as well as 'real-time protection' and even took out the entry (temporarily as it puts it back in with each run of MIRC) from the 'program rules' section of the firewall.

We had moved a few weeks ago and this is the first we are trying to use mirc. There were issues where we would have problems connecting before but trying different servers on a given network such as undernet would usually get us connected within a few tris. Now I am wondering if that was the start of the current issues or what? Now we can't seem to connect to any network without getting the software message.

Below is the copy from the mirc window if it is of any help. Should any further information be helpful that i have left out please let me know. After hours of tinkering I am spent and could use some direction to figure this out. I will provide any information I am able to. Thank you very much!

[22:46] * Dns resolving irc.servercentral.net
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[22:46] * Dns resolved irc.servercentral.net to 66.225.225.225
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[22:46] * Connecting to 66.225.225.225 (6667)
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[22:46] -66.225.225.225- *** Processing connection to irc.servercentral.net
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[22:46] -66.225.225.225- *** Looking up your hostname...
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[22:46] -66.225.225.225- *** Checking Ident
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[22:46] -66.225.225.225- *** Couldn't look up your hostname
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[22:46] -66.225.225.225- *** No Ident response
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Welcome to the EFnet Internet Relay Chat Network niche
Your host is irc.servercentral.net[66.225.225.225/6667], running version ircd-ratbox-3.0.6
This server was created Sat Feb 6 2010 at 17:58:30 CST
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irc.servercentral.net ircd-ratbox-3.0.6 oiwszcrkfydnxbauglZCD biklmnopstveIrS bkloveI
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CHANTYPES=&# EXCEPTS INVEX CHANMODES=eIb,k,l,imnpstS CHANLIMIT=&#:75 PREFIX=(ov)@+ MAXLIST=beI:100 MODES=4 NETWORK=EFnet KNOCK STATUSMSG=@+ CALLERID=g are supported by this server
SAFELIST ELIST=U CASEMAPPING=rfc1459 CHARSET=ascii NICKLEN=9 CHANNELLEN=50 TOPICLEN=160 ETRACE CPRIVMSG CNOTICE DEAF=D MONITOR=60 are supported by this server
FNC TARGMAX=NAMES:1,LIST:1,KICK:1,WHOIS:1,PRIVMSG:4,NOTICE:4,ACCEPT:,MONITOR: are supported by this server
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There are 7741 users and 27981 invisible on 43 servers
207 IRC Operators online
4 unknown connection(s)
17640 channels formed
I have 2039 clients and 3 servers
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Current local users: 2039 Max: 5124
Current global users: 35722 Max: 42793
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Highest connection count: 5127 (5124 clients) (1783741 connections received)
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Message of the Day, irc.servercentral.net
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- - _ _
- - ___ ___ _ ___ _____ _ _ __ ___ _ _| |_ _ _ __ _| |
- - (_-</ -_) '_\ V / -_) '_/ _/ -_) ' \ _| '_/ _` | |
- - /__/\___|_| \_/\___|_| \__\___|_||_\__|_| \__,_|_|
- -
- - o Listening on ports: 6660 - 6669, 7000, 8080, 31337 o
- - o Listening on SSL ports: 9999 o
- - o Visit us @ http://www.servercentral.net o
- -
- - -------- Server Rules ----------------------------------------------
- -
- - o No Flooding o No DoS bots
- - o No Clones o No Spamming
- - o No Takeovers o No Whiners

- - -------- Server Staff ----------------------------------------------
- -
- - o Local IRCops may be summoned with the command: /stats p
- -
- - -------- Disclaimer ------------------------------------------------
- -
- - This server, its staff and the people hosting it are *NOT*
- - responsible for the content that passes through this server.
- - Use of this server is a *privilege* which may be removed at
- - any time and for any reason by the friendly server operators.
- -
- - -------- End of MOTD -----------------------------------------------
- -
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End of /MOTD command.
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[22:46] [DM VERSION]
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[22:46] Local host: irc.servercentral.net (66.225.225.225)
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[22:48] * [10053] Software caused connection abort
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[22:48] * Disconnected