EDIT: The online takes a very long time to load. Is this normal?

When I try to join or host a game, it takes a really, really long time to get anything from the game, successful or not. Is this normal? It had gotten stuck at the menu for so long that I had assumed it crashed. Is there anything I can do to fix it?

Let me make this short: I can't join or host a game at all. When I try, the game basically freezes up entirely, and I have to have Windows close it down. No error message, nothing. The game just freezes up solid while continuing to play the "online" music.

I've opened every port, tried joining from Hamachi, and made sure those ports were up in my Firewall. Even if that were the case, though, would it be supposed to freeze entirely like that? Especially if I were just trying to join a game?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.