Homeworld's current situation is not good. WON has been offline/broken for a very long time. This is unfortunate. I encourage anyone who is displeased with the companies responsible for the current state of affairs to vote with their wallets. Keep in mind the type of product support you've received when deciding on your next game purchase.

Currently, people are using Hamachi as a substitute for WON. From what I understand, though, there are a few problems with that solution:

1-Hamachi is not free.
2-Hamachi doesn't work on older versions of Windows (like Windows 98), and some Homeworld players are still on those older versions of Windows. Therefore, they are excluded from playing.
3-There's a limit to the number of players per "room" on Hamachi. The lobby then becomes fragmented. That's bad for getting games going.

I and a fellow by the name of Wayne have been working on a replacement for WON. The plan is to integrate it into the next version of Hwsecure. There's no telling when it will be complete, but I thought I'd mention it here to give hope. It sure would be nice to be able to have a WON that is 100% functional, filled with eager Homeworld players!