[BLooDCalibuR]

Whenever I try to use/enable my Microsoft Loopback Adapter it causes a "firewall-like" effect, meaning no one can connect to my ventrilo server (which is run on my computer) except for myself as well as other things that normally would require port forwarding to be able to share with such as hosting on games. When I have it off/disabled, everyone can join, such as join my hosted games.

My biggest confusion is that this was working fine just two days ago. I'm using a Linksys router (model BEFSR41) and haven't had problems in many many years concerning port forwarding or hosting on games or hosting a server (ventrilo, etc.). My port forwarding seems to be correct since when I have the Microsoft Loopback Adapter disabled everything works fine. I'm also obviously using Static IP settings on my Local Area Network (aka the main one thats used to connect to the internet) to allow my port forwarding to work properly. Microsoft Loopback Adapter was working fine before, but ever since I changed my external IP Address (you know, the typical way of changing your MAC address on your router settings and then doing a power cycle to get a new IP Address) and updated the IP Address settings in the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, it would cause a firewall like effect and now allow connections to my computer. The internet/browsers work fine of course and I'm the only one who can connect to my ventrilo server or my own hosted games.

The reason why I NEED to use the Microsoft Loopback Adapter is because it's required by one of the hosting bots I use to host my games on Warcraft 3 so that it stops me from being booted off my own host at the beginning of the game. Like I said, everything works fine ever since I changed my IP Address.

So far I've tried the following things:

Flushed the DNS
Repaired
Released
Erased all the IP settings for both Local Area Network and Microsoft Loopback Adapter
Uninstalled Microsoft Loopback Adapter and Reinstalled it
Power Cycled many times in between those

If anyone knows what could be wrong, or if I must've not tried something, I'd appreciate a well detailed response, thank you.

I'm using a Windows XP Pro operating system.