I cannot connect at all to the Gamesurge server (irc.gamesurge.net), I continually get errors when I try, and I've even tried XChat and IceChat, they all give identical errors.

When I connect to port 6666-6669 I get the 10053 error. When I try other numbers (6660-6665, 7000, 7001), they either immediately return connection refused, or they take a while and time out.

I'm using Windows XP Home Edition, I tried both mIRC 6.16 and the older 5 version. My only antivirus program is McAfee. My other programs work fine. I was able to connect to a couple of other irc servers without trouble.

I turned off the Windows Firewall, I uninstalled MSN, like I said I tried several other irc programs and none of them worked either. I turned scripts off, I used the IP number. Nothing. I don't know what to do at this point. I tried changing my router, but I don't know what section I'm even supposed to be touching - I'm using a Linksys router.

If anyone has any suggestions I could really, really use help with this.

I'm thinking its your router. I typed /server irc.gamesurge.net:6667 and connected me to this server NetFire.TX.US.GameSurge.net. I suggest doing a search on these forums for "Linksys" searching all posts and all forums probably from now til about 2 years ago as your search range. You should see many if not tons of posts about problems with this type of router. Hope it helps

I tried that, I did practically everything I could find related to Linksys, none of it works. I did the DMZ hosting and the forwarding. I shut off my XP firewall, uninstalled MSN, installed at least 3 other irc programs, all of them still give the same 10053 error, or my connection is refused depending on the ports. I've gone through all of the IRC installation and setup guides, tried downloading 6 different mIRC versions from 4.5 up to 5.81. I was only somehow able to successfully connect once after looking up the dns, but then it booted me off 2 minutes later and wouldn't let me back on again. I tried on my roommate's computer and got the exact same broken results. I've tried letting it run for hours and it never connects. I have no idea what to do at this point.

Most routers wouldn't cause a problem, because most routers don't interfere with outbound connections, only inbound connections (Read up on client and servers). Gamesurge whom I've been with for years and am actually on right now, will only connection refuse in a few incidents, you've been glined (global ban on all servers) and it detects it and just drops you. Second, it will do this if you try to access a bad port. Very seldomly will it drop you due to countermeasures to stop people from reconnecting to an unlinked server possible due to what they have as "(*.net *.split)".

What I suggest is try manually connecting to each of their servers, if they all refuse its most likely a ban. Resources:

http://www.gamesurge.net/servers/ - Server list
http://www.gamesurge.net/utils/gline/ - check for active Glines on your address
http://www.gamesurge.net/chat/ - Java client
http://www.gamesurge.net/ - Main Site