Install is fine, shaders setup just fine, but...

Everything is working just fine from the install, to the setting up of shaders.

However when I got to connect to the game (Albion Online) servers it just loops on "connecting..." forever.

This HAS previously worked with no issues before -- the only thing that is different is that Albion now has Easy Anti Cheat. I have a buddy who told me exactly what he does to get it to work, and step by step his works and mine doesn't.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips that may solve this issue? The game does not crash or anything, it just fails to connect to my login account.

To add -- I've looked through the common troubleshooting tips and nothing has applied or worked so far.