This happens to some people, and I believe this somehow depends on the server's ability to ping you. It causes a fake timeout on some machines.

Here, try this:
Change your default list server to Monolith's (monolith.idlegames.com):

1. Go to the start menu
2. Go to Run
3. Type in regedit and press OK
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
5. Go to Software
6. Go to Epic Megagames (or similar)
7. Go to Jazz Jackrabbit 2
8. Go to 1.23
9. Go to List Servers (or similar)
10. In the right pane, double click on the 000 (zero-zero-zero).
11. Type "monolith.idlegames.com" into the box, without quotes.
12. Press OK.
13. Double click on 001. If that's not there, create it by right clicking and going to New>String value and name it "001" (without the quotes, zero-zero-one) and then double click on it.
14. Enter "jazz.logicware.com".
15. Click OK
16. Click the X button to exit regedit.

Now try hosting. Monolith's list server has been down lately, and if it is, just go in and change 000 back to jazz.logicware.com (which it should be before you changed anything. If it isn't, there's your problem.)

This worked for me for a while for some reason, and I use Monolith's server because it seems a bit more fast for me. But, if hosting doesn't work on monolith.idlegames.com, setting jazz.logicware.com as the original server list again will likely speed up your connecting to the list servers.

This isn't likely to work, but it's worth a try.

As for Games in Progress, if you have the right list server, it does show up there even if it's pinging. If it isn't, then you either are completely unable to get to the list server or you have the wrong list server listed. Make sure it's jazz.logicware.com!