I have had a similar issue since I arrived at college with the #lordkat channel. Whenever I attempt to login, either with my registered nick or not, I do not go past the Connecting to GeekShed, Please Wait... message, which appears twice in the window. After 30 seconds or so it returns to the initial login screen. I assumed some messed up system of blocking peer-to-peer connections, which I know some form of which is utilized by my campus, was preventing access to IRC servers and clients. However, I have had no issue using a chat at a stream page or, as I learned yesterday (Dec. 13) the IRC at Mibbit.com that the #RadioDeadAir channel was hosted on. I checked what ports were open on my end, and turned off my firewall to see if that was the issue. My sole guess at the issue appears to be wrong and so now I come here. Also, to clarify, my login attempts result in this for the 30 seconds before I am kicked to the starting screen.
[Timestamp] Connecting to GeekShed, Please Wait...
[Timestamp] Connecting to GeekShed, Please Wait...