Is it just me, or does Playonline register every server being up and running currently ( and for the past few hours )?

Wasnt the downtime schedualed for 4:40 pst? so that would be 7:40 EST, which means the servers should have just gone down no more than 45 min ago....(30 min downtime)

I bought the game around 1pm(EST) and havent gotten past the 'servers down' screen as I attempt to register for playonline...

Is there a problem? or is playonline like Verant (EQ) when they say the downtime will be an hour its usualy more like a few....(and in this case almost the entire day beforehand )

Thanks for anyone who can clear this up for me, I just want to get used to how FFXI will handle its downtimes...
Thanks!