Well, I finally got a response in the forums from a TSR. One of the other players who is also having the same problem determined that it is the type of cable modem and router that we are using. The TSR confirmed that this particular model has problems with other SOE games.
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/i...-playing.5887/
What it does is it literally causes the router to power cycle itself over and over after a few seconds of connectivity while the game is running. I didn't have this problem with PS1.
I may just call Time Warner and have them bring a different model out, unless the TSR is able to come up with a workaround in a short time frame.