Sammi Somara

"Our" characters? Is this a charname-specific challenge?

Yeah, I've got Vista right now. I heard some scary things about stuff on the hard drive being deleted though and I don't want to lose my saves.

Well I have been loving Oblivion. Initially I played a Redguard fighter - finished Fighter's guild, Kot9 and main quests but found him a bit dull so started again with a more versatile character (custom). Was having a blast when I started getting weird bugs (all crafted items just disappeared from game - not just current save but all previous saves), then random crashes. I had over 1000 saves, many of which I've subsequently deleted, and I've tried reinstalling (I got the patch to fix the error I thought was making my items disappear). But whereas it was really stable to start with, it's just started misbehaving badly. I think it's just the size of the saves - the second character has been to a lot of places and done a lot of stuff, is level 34, and I don't think the game likes it.
Does anyone have any experience with problems like this? I'm leaving it to play other games for a bit but in truth I'm gutted as I was really enjoying the game.

You can set some of the graphics options to a lower level to decrease lag and make crashes less likely to occur. I actually got a really bad bug on one of my characters where she's suddenly invincible. Attacks go right through her (she can still take environmental damage though). It was great at first but now it sucks because the challenge has been sucked right out of it.
I would recommend searching the web for player-made bugfixes and patches. They can sometimes really help.
You may also be able to find help if you ask around at bethesda's official forums. There may also be a page on some of the issues on the UESP wiki. Sorry I can't be of more help here.

Dude. I have the same problem. I think it's the fact that my internet connection is provided by the college though, and they probably have something in place that's blocking it.
Either way, your problem probably is a firewall or something.
It could also be your router. Certain types of routers make it hard to establish connections with other ports. I'd give you the technical terminology, but I totally forgot it. ^^;

Hm. This looks like the prefect time to go out and buy PS:T then. Must start saving up!