Funcom’s authentication servers are down. All servers across all platforms are experiencing the same issue. This is a good time to kick back, eat a slice of cake, and be infuriated that you can’t play the game.
Thank you, Maineiac. I thought that after the player gets to the server selection screen the Funcom authentication was already complete. I did not know that it interjects itself again when connecting to a private server.
Instead of cake, I am (literally) drinking a beer. Fortunately family members who cannot play are busy with other things: I was going to test new mods now while it is convenient to start/stop the server as needed.