Sounds like a firewall program is blocking/asking for permission in the "background".  Can you alt-tab when it seems to "freeze" and see if a firewall is asking for permission to let SINS out?

 If you can't Alt-tab once the program "freezes", please try running the game in "windowed mode" untill you set the firewall permissions.

thanks,

the Monk

Are you on a university network? If so, they might be blocking the ports sins uses altogether.

Well, the 1.1 patch that's coming out soon should actually take care of this since it comes with tunneling technology that should bypass router settings so (in theory) it should also allow you to play through your Uni firewall. That's a lot of 'should's, but I don't think anyone's actually posted that it works fine through uni firewalls, we know it successfully bypasses the need for router port forwarding, so that's a good sign But I do wonder if it kicks in for connection to ICO itself, or only game hosting..

You can try out the beta patch if you want to test it, before you take any more drastic measures like threatening your university's IT department with a smelly broom

To try out the beta patch, make sure Sins is registered on Impulse, and select "Show pre-release versions" in the blue orb menu for Impulse to make the patch show up.

The feature is called Alloy, I'm not sure if it's on by default but I believe you can toggle it in the options somewhere Good luck, I hope it works - and definitely post back if it does!