Just a follow-up. The issue is ongoing but, like Aliria above, I used my phone to to login but this needs resolution as this is only a work around.

I disabled my LAN connection.
Connected the phone to the PC and turned on USB tether.
Once the internet connection was established I launched the game.
I'm the launcher I supplied my username and password.
After authentication I turned off the USB tether and enabled the normal LAN connection.
Once the internet connection was established again, I clicked the green button on the launcher to actually start the game and continue to character select as normal.