Pproblem #1: i just was experiecing huge red lag, even though there isnt many people on server, and when i tried to log back in it gave me the "taking longer than uual method" I restarted and received the same problem
Problem #2: I cannot see Player charachter ships... all i see are floating guns D: I can see NPC but not PC
I was experiencing erratic red lag at the time you posted this, server eventually crashed.
So it's not just you. As per your second problem i have to go with Dustin, re-install freelancer.