> It's not that I'm using the ip address by choice [127.0.0.1]
> it just happens to use it if there is not other address
> available (i.e. when you're not connected to a network
> where you can get a dhcp address).
You might want to check using "localhost" instead of "127.0.0.1" for those cases.

I've seen places (.NET included) where security restrictions are more strict for "127.0.0.1" than for "localhost", even though they both represent the same machine.