That makes some amount of sense. It was my own hypothesis -- the only legitimate reason for it to try to contact ebay that I could think of.

The real question is: why was it unable to establish a connection, when the web browser, MSN messenger, and other network apps were working OK? I suppose the incorrect firewall detection has something to do with it...

I've configured my copy of limewire not to try to use UPnP to detect a router or firewall since I know darn well there is none and I know autodetect anything is a headache waiting to happen. Unfortunately, it seems to ignore that setting and sometimes tries to autodetect a firewall anyway, resulting in the inevitable headache: it detects a phantom firewall that doesn't exist, chokes, and dies. :P