Having some connection issues

How are you connected to the Internet? Cable, DSL, etc.?? You may have to open ports on your router to the internet along with your firewall in Windows 7. Do you have a hardware firewall? You may even have one in your router to the internet. I know that my old connection to the internet used to have a built in firewall in the router and I did not know that and had issues. Once I opened the ports in the router firewall I was able to access what I needed.

Have you checked your machine for viruses and spyware. If it was working and you have not tweaked any of your Windows 7 settings and then it stopped sounds like something changed something.

Run the following:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware at: Malwarebytes.org

Let us know.

I think that you need to double check the Windows Firewall for port blocking. Maybe something was changed by mistake or some software changed it. Some software that need to have special ports open in the Windows Firewall will add exceptions to the firewall at install or when you start the software. Maybe something changed the wrong setting or some other software just happens to be using the same ports as the game???

Another thing I was thinking: Is your copy of the game legal? If you downloaded it off a software sharing site or such, you may find that many of them get banned because of the illegal use. (I am not saying you did just another thing to check or think about)