New to Project 1999 - Can't Access Server

[Era'viss]

A good friend of mine told me about Project 1999 and I've been extremely excited about the prospect of playing; however, I'm unable to get to the character creation screen. Every time I try to select any server (I've tried other servers than p99 red and blue), my client will hang up for about 30-45 seconds, and then it reverts back to the login screen. The first time this happens when I load the client, no error message appears. When attempted a second time I've been given the infamous 1017 error.

The computer I'm running is an alienware m11x r2. Processor is i7 640LM and my GPU is the 335M GT nvidia. All drivers have been updated.

I've tried numerous solutions, so to name a few: reinstalling EQTitanium with no virus protection active, reinstalling with both EQTitanium and EQemu inside and outside the Program Files (x86) directory, using WinEQ2 to address the multiple cores I have, patching a fresh install with my firewall and anti-virus turned completely off (super scary to do), turning off Windows Aero theme and running Windows 7 Basic, running everything as admin, and running everything as Windows XP compatible.

Naturally other games (dragon age: origins, medieval total war 2, and the new x-com) that I play regularly haven't had any performance issues.

One thing that I'm afraid might be happening is a conflict with the resolution my computer has. Since it's a m11x, the display is unique and has unique resolution settings that are not equivalent to the options available by EQ. To compensate for this I've used Duxa to run EQ in windowed mode at 1280x800 while my desktop resolution remains at 1366x768 (recommended setting).

As you can see I'm getting desperate for solutions and I feel like I'm grasping at straws. If you have any ideas or professional advice to offer I'm open to suggestions.