I've searched the boards and Google over consistently, and am having no luck finding anywhere what to do. Whenever I go to the Multiplayer section, it just tries to connect to the Global Server (which I know Microsoft has taken down) forever and nothing ever happens.
I found a few old topics from 2006 that listed some IPs I should enter into fldirectip, but those seem... really old. I tried them anyway, but the multiplayer menu still never got past "Connecting to Global Server..."
So I really don't know what to do. Any and all help would really be appreciated.
P.S. Personal details: I installed a brand new fresh install of Freelancer, and used FLMM version 1.3 to activate Crossfire, version 1.82 (or whatever the most recent version is) and have done NOTHING else in the meantime. So it should be pretty ready to go. I have also given Freelancer firewall permissions, so that should not be an issue.