OK make it a differnt way. Download here the torrent file. It is good for 7 days.
https://www.filemail.com/d/tnbmyjnpzfekvlx
I give you a 50Mbit/s upload to such it real good.
Basically same engines but has advanced lighting like bloom and other enhancements. 2142 just has no official modding tools and you can't really debug it well. Look at the Star Wars mod for 2142 to see what all can be done with mods.
Here's a list of all servers sorted by active players at any given time. Between 20-200 players total on at any given time in my experience.
https://www.gametracker.com/search/bf2/?&sort=3&order=DESC
I don't know how to download the vanilla game legally, but would you mind to get the remastered (by the community) one? If not: https://www.moddb.com/mods/battlefield-hd-remastered-3/downloads/battlefield-hd-remastered-30-client
It has the same maps and gameplay only with better graphics and animations and so on... If you don't like the low fps because of the maps you can install this: https://www.moddb.com/mods/battlefield-hd-remastered-3/addons/bfhd-pro-vanilla-legacy-map-pack To get the vanilla maps.
(You have to install the second link after the first link)