Illarion.org

It seems when I log in, the screen turns black and stays that way. Is the server down or is it just me?

Control the "online list" again and again, when the player always the same and since 30 minutes didnt change you have your answer.
Easy, or?

I don't understand what you mean.

If the Server is down you get a message saying "Connection refused. Either the Server is down or you have no internet connection."

Please check one thing: If the screen stays black look at the hard disk status lamp on your PC. If it stays dark, press ctrl-alt-del and check if the client is listed as "does not react". Maybe you will have to check multiple times (2 or 3). It does this for me sometimes. This is not related to the server status and I have no clue why it happens. But I would like to know if others have this problem too.

What Fieps meant is that, if the server is down, the listing of players who are online (found in the upper right corner of the site) is not updated. So if this list does not change for a longer amount of time, or you see a char of yours that you had been online with recently, the server will most likely be down.

After pressing ctrl + alt + delete, it doesn't say: Does not react. I do have an internet connection, so I guess I will just have to keep checking. Does restarting your computer help at all?