Ouch...
I'm sorry that Phex froze your Mac!
There's been a bug which causes freezing on very few configurations (I only knew it from Windows) for a long time, but I never managed to track it down
Having to disconnect the Internet suggests that it somehow gets in conflict with some routers or such.
Could you post your type of router - how do you connect to the Internet?
Besides: These forums are intended to offer help, so please just post problems (in constructive language), then others can find your post when they might have the same problems (and we can add "(fixed)" to the topic, when the problem's solved - something I should have done all along...).