Ya, yesterday was a crappy afternoon for the login server. My server does require authentication, so even once you can get past the client login, you still have to re authenticate against mine. We were having issues there last night also, but found that if you kept trying (2-5 times) it would eventually accept the connection.

And the IP:Port info is available in the private forums. Once you login to the client, just hit multiplayer and plug that in.