NTW Multiplayer Campaign Problems

My brother and I both own copies of NTW and the game words great on both of our computers (XP and Vista. Both machines are very capable of playing NTW) both single player campaign and battles as well as mulitplayer battles on both the LAN and Online. HOWEVER, when we tried playing the Multiplayer Campaign we ran into an issue. My brothers pc is a bit nicer than mine and when connecting to play the Multiplayer Campaign on both online and over the LAN my campaign map and battles will begin to freeze about every three seconds or so after approximately ten minutes of play. The game runs GREAT for ten minutes then, BAM!!! my campaign map and battles freeze about every three seconds. But the thing is, when I play single player battles or campaigns or mulitplayer battles (even with my brother) it works GREAT! It's only the multipayer campaign (which is what I really want to do)!!! We both tried hosting the campaign on both LAN and online but always run into the same problem. Who should be hosting the game? Is there anyway to get rid of this mulitplayer campaign ONLY lag/freezing. Should we play LAN or online (the computers are five feet away)??? We have Verizon Fios High Speed Internet and are both plugged into the same router. Can we plug directly into each others computer and bypass the router????? We tried lowering graphics and have the exact settings on each computer. Its just the MP CAMPAIGN that wont WORK!!!! Also, the introduction videos as well as any videos in the game fail to work on my PC? They always freeze up. But I can live with that (help on this issue would be appreciated as well). I just want to play mp campaign and it seems that's the only thing I can't do...sorry about the long message... ANY help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jim

I think the problem is that your pc cant keep up with your brother's pc, but im not 100% sure.

I thought that, but I updated my pc a few weeks ago and its fine now. Also, when I play him when I am at my apartment and he is at his house it works fine. It only seems to not be able to handle being played on the same router.

I hate routers and their darn firewalls.