Unfortunately, I've only been working there for 2 weeks, so I still don't have all the answers. I'm actually using the forums as a training grounds, looking for common problems and answering what I can. And I'm Off for the holidays (skeleton crew, being low man...). The Problem of it being the firewall is also a hit and miss thing. It was usually my problem, and making sure the firewall/router didn't block it almost always worked for me, but there were a few times it didn't fix it. for those times, I had to bring the files in to school and render them there.

As to the performance on the Mac, I have no experience with Maya on a Mac, so I'm affraid I can't assist on that. I'll see if someone knows off hand when I go Back after the holidays.