This sounds very much like the problem I have as well. GE worked fine for me for about 1 hour yesterday after I first downloaded it (ver 3.0.0529) then it stopped connecting to the server. I turned off my firewall and checked to make sure IE was in "on-line mode" and it still doesn't work.

From what I gather from the various threads here, it seems to be tied to my IP address being restricted due to "spy ware" (as the very *helpful* help file says). However I have run a clean mahine for over 3 years now, (and checked it again this morning) so I know its not that.

As I am using a cable modem with a dynamicly assigned IP, which does not change very often (if at all), even after uplugging the modem; it looks to me like I am kinda of screwed until the either I get a new IP or the GE serve restrction system gets flushed. I guess I could use a proxy server or an anomyizer but it seems like an awful lot of work to get a around a bug in one piece of software.

Does any one know why this is happening? I tried to send a e-mail to to tech support, but as a lowly (non-plus version) user I got an automated repsonse telling to check the above mentioned help file. I was thinking about upgrading to the Plus version before all this trouble began, but at least for me in my situtation it seems like it would be a waist of money if I get it to connect.