chimerea

I'll just add my mess to the lot and see if anyone knows what can be done about it. So after the great GameSpy collapse, I've reinstalled A2 and Aoa through steam (I used to enjoy the retail version). That's all fine and dandy, everything loads as it should and I can start either A2 or Aoa without problems. SP works fine. But. Once I click the multiplayer tab from the main menu, everything seizes, frozen with the main menu still on screen and the multiplayer tab highlighted. If I wait for a full five minutes or so without touching anything, the server lobby coughs into life and everything then runs happily again. Touching things tends to grey it all out and gives me a non responsive mark on the task manager. If I go back to the main menu and reclick the multiplayer tab I have to go through the whole debacle again. Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?