well i think i can safely rule out that its mIRC related
or even ircd related.
i tried connecting through a VPN, and it connects perfectly
fine. The same server also hosts a radio that has the same
connection issue, only works through a VPN, where months
prior both were working.
it completely won't connect with the European server, and
drops out when connecting to the Canadian server.
only thing i can think of is...
a. driver related.
b. website hosting blocking my ip range.
c. router physically broken.
d. little green men.
Either way, I'm not sure if you can be much more assistance
unless anyone has any idea how i could narrow this down?
I've factory rebooted my router, reset all defaults,
turned off the NAT, turned off the Router Firewall,
turned off software firewall.
not entirely sure what else is left, besides reinstalling
Windows.