I'am sure that your problem is YADB related , not rip related.
But it is quite weird. You may have a problem with your firewall , or port 80.
Because YADB is working , ok it is slow when cd not in the data. But it is working.
I do not use YADB because of MC beheaviur.
If the cd not in the data , you cannot update infos.
You have to delete the Unknow Unknow album from cd/dvd in the Media part of the tree.
Beside it there is a bug whith last track ,and it happens very often.
To be fair , i have to say that i use 9.0
So maybe things different with 9.1 or 10.
To get infos from freedb , i open another program using Freedb.
MC is open as well , but set to 'Do nothing' when a cd put in the drive ,and to 'do not get infos from YADB'.
When i get infos ,i click on CD/DVD in MC and it updates.
Most of the programs put collected cd infos in a folder 'cdplayer.ini'.
If your program does it , MC will use it if set as i say.
Try to get infos from OpenMG, Mc does not need to be open.
Make a seach for the folder 'cdplayer.ini'
Open it and look if the cds from OpenMG.
If yes , open MC ,set as i said and see what happens.
You have to get the 'Gathering info...' pp up and ,after the cd infos that MC takes from cdplayer.ini
This process is very fast, few seconds
After that ,lauch the rip and see if it works.
Rip is rock solid, i'am ripping right now what must be my 70th cd in a row without any problem.
===What is the use of ripping first and then encoding. Does that save you a lot of time while ripping? ====
If you use SecureRip and do APE , you will not save time riping to wav first. Cause SecureRip is slower than converting to APE