I have just checked it again to check the ping times. The Discovery RP 24/7 server has a ping time of between 55 to 58ms. I vaguely remember it being about 56ms before I switched ISP's. The Russian server has a ping time of 101 to 102 ms. The UK Freelancer 1.0 server, the one that I can remain connected to has a ping time of 28ms. I have tried disabling my software firewall but it made no difference because I still disconnect immediately on connection with the message "The connection to the server has been lost. Either the server you were connected to has crashed, or your internet connection to that server is not working. This is usually an intermittent problem. Please try again later."
I would appreciate it if someone could give me some recommendations on how to test this and any ideas about where the problem might be.