How did people not expect this to happen? Too many people trying to access the same site at the same time. Every single launch of a popular MMO has been meet with issues, I see no reason to think that PS2 will be any different. We will see threads about it and the best advice I can give is that everyone should just arm themselves with patience.
Yep. Try Pro7 or Steam. Although... apparently Pro7 installer also goes "poof" (quote from a friend).
http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_setup.exe link to download if you guys registered before EU site was opened. Otherwise http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_PSG_setup.exe