I use 6.14 (since it was available) for a bot I have placed in a small private channel on a small network I won't name.
I (and several others) have one of the popular file sharing scripts loaded and running so that my family and several friends can download (and submit) genealogy files (generated by us) and pictures (generated by us) for our own purposes.
I use windows2000 (service pack 3), but others have 98 and 98se (and running serving scripts in the same channel) and do not seem to be having the problems you are having.
I personally have sent/received over 6000 files to these people in the past 60 days, with no problems whatever (best uptime is over 3 weeks, best IRC ontime is over 11 days).
My sister's bot has been there for 2 weeks now (win98 or SE .. not sure)
I know this is not helping you resolve your problem, but it might help those that are trying to fix it to know that there ARE systems working properly.
Re: Mentality "I've never sent/received a file bigger than 10MB in my IRC life"
I can't recall ever sending/receiving one that big either
