[SNYPE00]

The high pings on mapchanges happen on all servers, just watch the pings when changes happen (you even see the Slow Server sign come on). Even Crow Kings Autokick has an option to skip teh first Staus check after a map change because of the high pings after map changes.
There is a formula for how many players a connection can hold: #players x MaxRate = Connection Upload Speed/8.
So you have a Connection Speed of 384, divide by 8 = 48kps. Now you have some choices, you can change your MaxRate to accomodate more players (and suffer from game quality), or set MaxRate higher (better quality) and have a couple more players. I have played with MaxRates as low as 3000 but, 7-8000 seems to be the best for running without quality issues.
6 players x 8000 MaxRate = 48kps.
8 players x 6000 MaxRate = 48kps.
Also you need to be SURE you actually have 384k available, just because its sold to you that way (384k bandwidth) doesnt mean you actually get that. Its a theoretical maximum. You need to test and see what you actually have. Go here and run this test: http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/fut.html
Run it a few times at different times of the day you will be suprised at how much it varies. Then configure your server accordingly, dont just configure for the maximum, be realistic otherwise your in for timeouts, etc.

Will: try and keep your posts all in one place, I just answered yours in the other post.