Nope your not alone, I'm having the samething happen, I can't even get into reg cities keeps giving weird errors.
Error is:
An error occurred while trying
to talk to the update server.
For more info, please go to
http://thesimsonline.custhelp.com
(search key word:'CASTANET_ERROR_HTTp')
Please select 'Retry' to attempt to update again,
or 'Quit' to exit the game.