I installed Ryzom last night and it went all the way through that little DOS window titled "ryzom_recover.exe". Then that box went away and the installation window closed up. Then nothing happened. I checked the Task Manager and there were no Ryzom files running. So I clicked on the Ryzom Game Icon to start the game. Nothing ever opened except an error box, which when I clicked on ignore gave me another error box and then finally a Runtime Error of some sort. I didn't really get it documented as I was in a hurry to try again. Same problem the second time around. And it locked up my internet connection so I had to reboot. Got frustrated and uninstalled.
Rebooted computer again and reinstalled. This time when it got to the "ryzom_recover.exe" box it practically froze up. I'm using a cable modem and it only took 2 minutes to complete the download this box does the first time. The second time, an hour into the same download, I gave up and went to bed with it still running. It ran extremely slow, like my modem was the oldest one on the planet. While it was doing this I connected to my Guild's website and the "ryzom_recover.exe" box suddenly shot back up to normal speed. But it appeared to me (who doesn't have much knowledge about this sort of thing) that it was actually just downloading the same files over and over and over again in a neverending cycle. When I got up this morning it was still downloading those same files more than 8 hours later. Uninstalled again.
Rebooted computer. Reinstalled. This time it went through the "ryzom_recover.exe" perfectly, like the first time. This time before trying to start the program I went into Configure. Set it to OpenGL like I used to do with WinME just to see if that made a difference. Nope. Same error message when I opened the game:
A failed assertion occurs
ProcName: client_ryzom_rd.exe
Date: 2004/12/23 11:29:54
File: R:\code\ryzom\src_v2\client\client.cpp
Line: 150
Reason: "sock.connected()"
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Log with no filter:
-------------------------------
Log Starting [2004/12/23 11:29:54]
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe DBG 2660 inet_address.cpp 242 : LNETL0: Network error: resolution of hostname 'ryzom.com' failed
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe INF 2660 sock.cpp 117 : LNETL0: Exception will be launched: Socket error: Hostname resolution failed for ryzom.com (183: )
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe WRN 2660 client.cpp 133 : Can't connect to web server 'ryzom.com:80': Socket error: Hostname resolution failed for ryzom.com (183: )
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe AST 2660 client.cpp 150 : "sock.connected()"
-------------------------------
I clicked quit after this I believe and got this second window:
Access Violation exception generated at <NULL>, thread attempts to read at <NULL>.
The thread attempted to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
-------------------------------
Log with no filter:
-------------------------------
Log Starting [2004/12/23 11:29:54]
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe DBG 2660 inet_address.cpp 242 : LNETL0: Network error: resolution of hostname 'ryzom.com' failed
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe INF 2660 sock.cpp 117 : LNETL0: Exception will be launched: Socket error: Hostname resolution failed for ryzom.com (183: )
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe WRN 2660 client.cpp 133 : Can't connect to web server 'ryzom.com:80': Socket error: Hostname resolution failed for ryzom.com (183: )
2004/12/23 11:29:54 client_ryzom_rd.exe AST 2660 client.cpp 150 : "sock.connected()"
-------------------------------
When I hit quit on this window I got a box that said something about:
MS Visual C++ Runtime Library
Application requested to Runtime to terminate in an unusual way.
I tried to connect to the internet and it apparently had locked up my connection again so I rebooted. I'm leaving it installed and posting this here in the hope that it's something easy that I didn't see when I skimmed through the other postings. I will be trying Klients, but I've had trouble signing in so I don't have much hope. (No go. I tried and it won't recognize my login as either knitcucumber or knitcucu. Help!!) And it'll be hard typing all this up again there.

Please help.
Edit to add:
I'm running Win XP Pro with SP 2
2.53 ghz Pentium 4
512 DDR Ram of some sort. Can't remember
ATI AIW 7500
Onboard sound card of some sort
30 gig harddrive at the moment
Have the game set to run windowed at 1280x1024
If I'm missing anything you need just ask
I'm using Zonealarm, but it's set to allow all Ryzom files. I've turned off AVG virus. I am behind a router, but it never caused problems when I was playing on Win ME and nothing's changed in the settings.