Very likely it was cause by a lot of people hitting the beta patcher at once. You can copy your EQ installation over to another folder and put the beta patcher there. That will shorten the patch time because you won't have to re-download the entire game. That will save a lot of time. Can also put the beta patcher in your normal EQ directory but then you will have to repatch every time you want to go into the regular game (though the amount of patching at that point is not going to be huge.) Otherwise, unfortunately, you'll just have to wait it out.
