That's the same error I got when port 23 was blocked. Not sure what else causes that, but that's one possibility.

So it seems as if you're right. I'm not super techy, but I ran a port scan and 23 is not one of those available (I get 88, 139, 445, etc...)

Is there a work-around that isn't incredibly cumbersome? Or will I just not have access where I'm currently at?

Port 23 will not be open on your own PC unless you have a specific service running on that port. Despite you -connecting- to 23 @ lusternia.com, your operating system will use a random high port to connect.

Most, but certainly not all of the time, issues like this are caused by an IP pool blacklist. Mail support@lusternia.com with your IP address and character name and they will check and whitelist as appropriate.

Hope that helps. :)

Try using port 2003 as well.

I've contacted support@lusternia so hopefully they'll be able to help.

Here's the last three lines of what I freeze on when trying to connect through port 23:

looking up the IP address of server:lusternia.com:23 ...
The IP address of lusternia.com has been found. It is: 209.212.145.235
trying to connect to 209.212.145.235:23 ...

And here it is for port 2003:

looking up the IP address of server:lusternia.com:2003 ...
The IP address of lusternia.com has been found. It is: 209.212.145.235
trying to connect to 209.212.145.235:2003 ...