I think the server must be down...I've tried about half a dozen times with firewall down & anti virus off but I've still been able to play around...so far it seems pretty stable too (SHOCK!!!) ok yeah it's a bit slower but I was expecting a real struggle on my system (AMD 700, 384 mbram, Elsa Gladiac Ultra 64mb Geforce 2) I'll have to see how it goes as I delve deeper but so far I'm impressed.