It must be the QLD heat! lol I wonder if it's a Java display issue. Go to menu bar, View>Hide>Connections. Then go back & choose Show Connections. Is the window still blank? Oh hang on, your connection bars are red. Are they still red?

Was there anything you did with LW before it happened (before the bars turned red)?
I've never heard of that before! AFAIK But UP's are required for getting connected to the net. I'm not sure how important their role is after that other than filtering traffic.