I have a free AO account and can't get into the official forums no matter what I try. I know how Funcom does their accounts and forum names because its the same in AOC. I went to register.funcom.com and clicked on "forum" and set my name and password. 20 hours later, it still doesn't work. The forums don't recognize the name or password. My only guess is they don't let free accounts post.

No.

Free accounts can't post on the main AO forums.  Best to use those on AOFroobs or AO-Universe.

Strange .. I use my froob account to post on the forums,  you just need to fill out  your forum login info in 'my account"

I''ve "updated" my forum password on the "My Account" page several times, and even tried signing in with my actual AO username and password, but it never lets me in.

It'd be nice if there was an error message along the lines of, "You play for free and you expect a forum, too?"  But no, it just says my password is incorrect and to update it. 

Ah, well, can't have everything.  Where would you put it?

Yeah, their account system is bit mixed up, but alllowing froobs to post on forums could cause quite huge issues with spam...