Save Empire Earth

Me and my friends play ee a lot. The last few weeks my computer hasn't been able to connect, before that it was crashing to the desktop when we started the game. I have to use direct connect, even when LANing, but I keep getting a "no sever specified" error (or something similiar to that).
I'm running Windows 7 and I've never had a problem with it until Christmas.
ideas? anyone?

The others are able to connect, just not you?
Can it be an antivirus program or a firewall blocking access?

I've completely disabled my firewall. And my antivirus is set to prompt me for everything.
Yes, everyone except me can connect.