Found some interesting stuff:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19849110/The_one_and_only_34;Ask_the_Realms_designers_thread34;_4&post_num=181#337929118

Hey: I just tried connecting to the server but it didn't work; told me it timed out. I've downloaded and installed the necessary files.

Did it give you any additional notice? Are you using unique keys (not the default ones that GOG sticks into every download)?

Well, I started playing...
could not find anyone to play with (biggest issue), the starting city was deserted save for NPCs and the game is built for parties. (XP BONUS for being in a party rather then penalty)
killed (twice) by a skeleton just wandering the city. Killed by a thug's familiar (who proceeded to slay several dogs and cats after killing me)... did 4 hours of fedexing getting me halfway to level 2... (trying to play a wizard aspiring to red wizardry).

My familiar (my only defense as a lone level 1 wizard) keeps on disappearing every time the game crashes (which is often) and I can't resummon it until I rest, and the inn was full so I had to leave the city (and purchase more firewood each time to rest)...

So, I managed to find a non full inn... but the guards there killed me as I was renting a room because I didn't sheath my weapon (because I did not SEE them tell me to do so, because they did not initiate conversation, rather they just floated text above their head, offscreen) The reason I had it out is because things keep killing me in the city and taking a round to pull out a weapon... that's too long.

Guards didn't let me stabalize but finished me off then the game crashed on blank screen and when I came back I was stripped of all valuables...

Did you allow NWN in firewall? It gave me the exact same error until I did (actually, I also opened the port in question in the router BEFORE allowing it in firewall and didn't close it afterwards... so it might have been both. Just forwarding the port in router but not firewall did not work obviously)

That sounds awesome. Aside from the no one is around it reminds me of some early days on EQ pvp server. Stripped of all my gear. Ah the good times.

Yikes, that sounds like a tough night.

I wish I could tell you why some people seem to crash fairly often. If you were playing last night, the server was strangely quiet (there were far fewer people on Friday night than had been during the same hours the several nights prior). People also seem to be out adventuring (or whatever they're doing) which does make it harder to find people.

Thugs do tend to appear within the cities at night. I was actually in a party that got blasted pretty good a couple of nights ago by some (wizard) thugs inside the city. I actually wound up "bleeding" twice that night. I didn't need to respawn (which is the only thing that actually counts as a "death"), but it was close.

The guard text should have appeared on your chat bar, but even then it can be easy to miss depending on what else you're doing.

Hopefully, you give it another try and have better success. You might have better luck finding people if you play early this afternoon (EST), since the server was rather busy last weekend (I'm not sure if there are any events this weekend).

As a comparison, there were 15-17 people on all of Thursday night. Last night, it was what 3-5? Maybe people really do other things on Fridays.

That being said, it can still be tough to find other PC's. The server is fairly large and a lot of players seem to be in early exploration mode. I'm fortunate in having some long time playing companions, so I often have a (small) easily found party to watch my back. It's doubly fortunate, because our characters (being Haflings) aren't exactly popular with the bulk of the "local human" PC population.

is there some sort of matchmaking available?

It just says 'the server did not respond (timed out)'.

I'm just using the keys GoG supplied.

edit: Do I need to put anything in for a password?

Taltamir: I allowed NWN2 through the firewall, but didn't do anything with ports or the router. Not sure I know how...

This might be the problem.

It's a NWN server, not a NWN2 one.

Haha! Well, I feel a little silly now.

Thought I'd give this thread a bump as I've been massively enjoying Thay over the past month or so and hopefully this will bring a few more players into the fold.

If you haven't checked it out yet, do so. It's really an amazing server.