I used
GigaGet for the PW download. It was recommended to me by someone who said it is very good for foreign sources or something like that. It gave me 700 kB/s on part 1 (mirror 3) and about 350 kB/s on part 2 (mirror 3). Not at the same time.
So yeah I just spend a little over an hour on the character customization screen trying to make "me". In your userdata\userpic\ folder there are files labeled 1.gif through 6.gif; replace these with pictures of yourself (or whoever) and you can open them in the character creation screen in a resizable, zoomable window with a transparency slider, so you can "trace" your features... kind of. I was very frustrated. There are tons of presets but some of the sliders don't have a lot of range, there's not a ton of body options just a lot of face ones (I can't change shoulder width without also changing chest depth), and everything leans toward the asian in appearance. That makes sense but it also makes it reeeeeally hard for me to make a "me". Also for facial hair you've either got stubble or several inches plus, nothing in between.
So yeah some people will find it very hard to make their character look like themselves. I guess you can be a wolf/lion/tiger/panda person in that case. Not much to customize with that race, though. The guys are very animal-looking and the girls are just normal with cat ears and a fox tail.
I was a bit disappointed but only because the hype led me to believe I could really make a character that looked like me. Despite its flaws this game still has better customization options than any MMO I've played before.