Have you had the connection window open? To see if it's you not connecting to people or others? If even one person can't connect to someone the game will hang and you will have to research or join, but if it's you you're doing that to everyone else.
The connection window is generally in the bottom right corner, if you click it, it will open up and you can see the people... If it's you not connected to people it's on your end, if it's someone else, then just cancel the search as it will hang and not start and try again.
But if it's you try not to join any games til you can resolve the issue... As you could end up hanging it for other people.
