Have you tried modifying the shortcut to go directly to the servers?
1. - Right click the ET icon your desktop
2. - Scroll down to "properties" and then left click
3. - A window like this should appear:
4. - Click on the "shortcut" tab at the top of the window:
5. - Now in the "target" text box, left click once inside and then scroll to the very end
6. - At the end of the text box put a space after the last double quote " , then type:
+connect 108.61.18.109:27989
Should look like this:
7. - Click the OK button and then try connecting again by double clicking your ET icon
** Note ** This will take you to the blue server automatically each time. If you want to play on other servers I would suggest copying the icon first so you have 2, then modify one for the Blue server. I have 3 on my system, 1 for Red, 1 for Blue and 1 for General servers.