I tried all the above suggestions (compatibility, IP address) and turned off my virus software (this stopped some of the crashing) and turned off my firewall. Still linkdead. I tried a ton of times.  Finally I got it to work. So if you did all the stuff above and you\'re still linkdead try this.

You have to get a character name first try. If it comes back and tells you that name is taken close PS and start all over. This was the only thing that worked.