So there I was, playing Demigod multiplayer, and enjoying myself in spite of being horrible at the game since I just bought it a couple of days ago. Then, I get the dreaded 'lag' screen overlay, and I lose my connection to the match. "No worries," I think, "Demigod has online connectivity issues. I'll just find another game."

Nope. Turns out that somehow the game is locking up my whole connection on that one machine when this occurs. I cannot even ping devices on my local network from it. My other PCs still have connectivity to the internet and local network, so the problem is confined to the machine I am running the game on.

When this occurs I cannot ping in or out of that machine, though ipconfig reports a valid IP address. I cannot renew the IP address either. Rebooting works, of course, but I don't consider that an appropriate solution. Other info: Vista Home Premium running Windows Firewall and Avast! Antivirus, using wired ethernet connection to router, no previous connectivity issues. I have reproduced this problem on 3 separate attempts. Only actually finished 1 multiplayer game (when, amusingly, my teammate was the one to lag out)

I will attempt to reproduce again, without my antivirus or firewall running (grr...). In the mean time, is this something others have had problems with? Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks

-Foddz