I'm using my regular CDkey. I've got 2 for the realm, at the worst case.
I haven't checked if onlyer's refiller works for 1.09 (I know the D2Loader won't).
The lag on it isn't really bad at all. My ping is slightly higher than on the realms, and it lags a bit when I join/exit games. It's nothing like waiting in a 1.5k line or anything.