Issues, Workarounds & Localization

I had a lot of problems trying to patch into Escalation to Inferno. I had never had any problems with the launcher or the client before this. After several frustrating days I decided to uninstall and reinstall the client. This has been a problem as well as for some reason I keep getting corrupted files. I saw a link over here for something called "metalinks." These appear to be for a previous version of the game, however, and I'm afraid that if I download it all that will happen is I will be in the exact position I was in before I had my problems with the patch in the first place. Could someone please tell me how I can download/install the game without corrupted files? I tried two different versions of the recommended manual downloads and a third where I had to extract the payloads myself. Nothing is working right now. Please advise. I have not been able to play at all since the patch.

I use Windows XP professional.

Thanks