chynco,
That Microsoft bug report seems specifically for users of Microsoft Proxy Server v1.0... which I doubt is your problem. I'd try changing the mIRC port from 6667 to something else, as ParaBrat suggests. If that doesn't work, don't waste any more time with it, just go buy a different NIC, the LinkSys LNE-100TX I just got completely fixed this problem (plus they have newer WinXP driver support.)
Han
