No auto connect feature on LW anymore

[sparky_05084]

First of all thankyou if you have shown intrest in my topic. Secondaly, happy new year!
I hope you can help me with this as I must admit im rather puzzled. My current version of LW is 4.14.12 and it runs good. I have windows XP installed on my comp and have bags of memory and all the rest of it. I have had no problems with it whatsoever, but lately, things have changed. When I used to load up LW it would instantly connect no trouble. Green bars would go up and then away you go.
Now, the bars stay red and the globe has the brick wall graphic icon in front of it. Hover the mouse over it and it says: "LW has detected a firewall"
What?!?
I have had bullguard antivirus and firewall installed on my pc ever since I got LW and it always allowed it no matter what. Windows firewall is disabled so I can eliminate two antiviruses clashing. I haven't changed any settings and this can no way possible be a virus or a system bug. I mean how can it? lol. Now, heres the thing ok. I have noticed looking in the posts that a lot of users are having trouble connecting at all. (Sorry if you are on of them by the way). They can't even connect and no matter what they do, LW still won't function.
Now, if I let LW load up and then go to File>Connect..........hey presto!! LW will then, yes you've guessed it, connect. Now, I will forgive you for saying stop whining and just press file>connnect everytime you load it up what is your problem lol. But, Im sure if you were in my place you would wonder these points:

*Why does LW not immediately connect to the network like it used to?
*If the globe states that it has detected a firewall, why does connecting via the file option, do away with it? Surely that means the firewall is not the issue?
*Has a setting changed where LW does not respond until the user manually connects?
*If a setting has changed, how do I get it back to how it was?

If you have my version of LW that would be a plus as you may have had similar problems. If you don't then thats still no bad because more than likely, you know more than me. Please could you come up with a few suggestions. I have been as thorough as I can. Many thanks. Sparky.