I've tried fruitlessly to get the chat server working again. It's been running perfectly up until now.
I've tried stopping and starting the chat server within the server package while leaving things running. The chat server restarts, but still can't connect. Last night when the numbers got scarce I tried taking the whole server down and bringing it back up. No joy.
I suspect it's a Gamespy problem. I'll keep working on it.
In the meantime, I highly suggest you try out teamspeak. There is a GDA teamspeak server currently running and a post from Cocomoe in the Aliance Officers club that explains where to get teamspeak and how to install it. WARNING: The intructions tell you to fill in one of the fields as "anonymous", but this will get you a "cannot connect" messge. Instead, leave that field blank and you will get in.
For the coalition, I'm sure there is some sort of Roger Wilco or Team Speak structure set up for you in the Coalition forum.
My apologies again for the failed chat. I know from experience how irritating it is not to be able to communicate with your team. Having chat fail at a bad time is an old issue with D2.
-Herr Burt