Trouble creating character - Server not responding

[Parry.Lost]

Hello,

I am running Windows XP. I just downloaded the game, and I ran the update program without any trouble. When I open the game, everything seems to go well at first; it connects, and lets me begin creating a new character. However, a couple of minutes into the process, before I can finish, I get this message:

"Server is not responding, try again in 5 minutes." It also tells me to check the website for server status, but when I do so, the server appears to be online.

Once I click "Ok" on the message, the game just closes.

I have tried this a few times over the past hour or two, but every time exactly the same thing happens -- the "server is not responding" message comes up before I can finish creating a character. It doesn't seem to come up at any specific *point* in the creation process, either; it just seems to happen after a short length of time. Once I got this message when I spent a long time looking at the different races; the next time I went through this quickly, but got the same message on the screen where you choose your parents' descriptions. And so on...

So I'm just wondering what the problem might be, since the server does not seem to be down. >_>

[Morla Phlint]

What is your internet connection? The problem might be there (IMHO).

Or maybe the reason is a firewall.

(Btw this board would be more appropriate for your question. Just so that you know for the future )

[Parry.Lost]

  Sorry for posting on the wrong board. >_<

... I am actually not sure about the details of my connection... I'm not good at this technical stuff. >_> I have a relatively lower-speed broadband connection, and I have a wireless router connected to the modem thingy that the internet... comes out of. 6_6 And that wireless connection is what I use to access the Internet on this computer. It usually works just fine... I could try to find more technical details but I'm not sure what to look for.

I *am* fairly sure it's not a firewall problem though... And I don't -usually- have any problems with ports being unavailable or anything like that. 6_6

... could you please give me any advice on what aspects of my setup I should be looking at to find the problem?

[Morla Phlint]

Unfortunately, I'm not an insider at that topic either but I can at least give your some suggestions where to look and what info to provide so that the problem can be faster dealt with later.

1. Check whether your system covers the minimum requirements (scroll down).
2. What operation system (OS) do you use?
3. If it's a Windows version, you can see more about your systems specs when you use "Run" with the "dxdiag"-command. (not sure how it works on other OS)
4. Update your graphic card drivers.
5. You might also look at this topic although the situation is a bit different or search the "Problems before entering the game"-board for other problems related to yours.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Parry.Lost]

Thank you very much for the advice. ^_^ I'll look into those things... I have Windows XP, and I'm pretty sure I do meet the minimum requirements... there is only one that I am not entirely sure of, and that's the graphics card... It's actually an ATI Radeon Express 1150, not a GeForce, but it has 320 MBs of memory, which is more than what it says in the minimum requirements... so I hoped it would be okay. >_> Also I didn't mention this because the problem seemed to have something to do with the Internet connection, not with graphics (since I can't even get to the game itself), and the 3D models on the race selection page certainly displayed without any problems... But I guess I'll try and figure out how to do this "updating drivers" thing that you speak of. :-P And I'll try and play around with my connection settings to see if anything changes...

Thank you for the advice. ^^