New to the server - kind of

My husband and I decided to try to explore and see what the world is all about. But every time we try and make a character, we get a message at the very end - "There are no servers available right now; pleas try again in a few minutes." This has been going on for about 4 hours now. I guess I am curious if there is some sort of requirement we are missing, or some other totally newb thing I am forgetting.

Been 12 hours. Still can't create characters. Any ideas?

The only thing I can think of right off the top of my head is that you have to be a paid account. Other than that, look for logs in your EQ2 folder file. If you find any that show a problem and post it here, I might be able to help.