Hi all. Just to clear something up - the retail version does get you a 30 day trial but the CD itself is pretty useless since it needs to be patched comprehensively (retail was released in 2003 and no longer supported by CCP).
Best option is to wait for Friday when the new expansion is ready (Red Moon Rising) and then download the client.
An IS based isp will give u roundbouts 600ms pings. This is not a problem in eve considering it's not a click death game. So you should be fine.
The best pings I ever got was with Wireless online....260ms bouts.
Currently playing on SAOL's 10gb package and getting bout 450ms stable pings.
The greatest irritant to eve is packet loss.
Kinda sux when u wanna warp or you lose your ship cause ure connection had a hiccup. Eve is very unforgiving when it comes to losses with one of the most harshest death penalties in mmorpg's. This is not a game for little girls.....well mebe....but only if their like ......go yarr an stuff.
I constintly use TS for our corp ops and there is no prob running the two together. Hell a lot of corps insist that you at least maintain a listen presence on their ts server.