still no luck. So weird.

I setup a webcam and skype today. None of that interferes with the connection.

Well you are not alone with this problem, If you have a workaround using another IM client like AIM in Trillian, I would recommend that. The other option is to put your computer in the DMZ, but for only 1 person on ICQ that is fairly extreme.

I seem to have a similar problem to Millipede. I'm running Miranda with ICQ, and I'm using a Linksys BEFSR41 router. When I tell Miranda to go online, it does so after about 5 seconds, as expected. The problem is that about 10 seconds after that, XP SP2 says "A local connection is unplugged", and about 40 seconds later Miranda indicates that it's gone offline. I observe no other problems with Internet connection during any of this time. In other words, I suspect the local connection isn't really unplugged, or at least not long enough to affect anything else. It appears that ICQ is somehow temporarily making XP think the network cable is unplugged, after which ICQ goes offline. One difference from Millipede: I'm on cable, not DSL.

But here's the Big Clue: I've been using this kind of configuration for years with no problem. The problem started only when I replaced my old Linksys BEFSR41 router (firmware 1.44.2, Dec 13 2002) with a new one (firmware 2.00.02, Feb 14 2007)! Both the hardware and the firmware of these "same model" routers are very different, and might as well constitute a different model. I'm wondering whether the problem is really the new router, or my configuration of the new router, or Miranda's ICQ protocol. Any help I can get on narrowing down this problem would be much appreciated.