Try turning off the opening movie by going to FFXI config. I sometimes have that problem when the opening movie plays and then I try to log in and it says problem connecting to lobby ect. If that doesn't work your internet connection may have weakened for some reason. Sometimes my connection is strong enough to browse the internet, connect to playonline, but not get into the game.

The problem of the spell freezing you for a moment has been something that has always happened try pulling with a thf or a rng sometime and try running away just as the whm casts cure on you. This has been an issus with spells sence I started the game over a year ago not something that just started so I do not think this will be an issue they will fix. Its called spell lag and everyone has always had it happen as long as I haven known and its not really fixable as far as I could tell as its the fact that so much is tring to happen to your char all at once and the server looks at it for a second tring to deal with it all at once and its stalls for about a half a second. Ever notice when your being cured your attack sometimes in a fight does not go off right when it should depending on when the casting happened but if you look at your chat log you will see it still happened even before the action happens. I can remember asking the whm when lvling my nin to please not cast cure on me as I am tring to recast my shadows because sometimes I was still casting when the puller came in and I took longer to take hate due to is.
Ok thatz my two gils worth on that for how ever you take it.

you can use /blockaid if you want

Yeah, I've noticed that for a while, especially when I start attacking something.