I'm not sure how to fix it yet, but here's what's been happening to me:

Recently, I'll start LW and there's a brick wall in front of the globe (showing that I have a firewall problem).

I've been using LW for a while now, and I've never had any firewall issues. I have my McAfee firewall configured to allow LW access to the internet, and I have my Windows XP firewall turned off.

After a few minutes, however, the brick wall disappears and I'm back to downloading as usual...