A server is meant to handle only so many requests at a time and funnel out so much data. When it gets way too many, you get a "Denial of Service" style natural attack. Since Silkroad.exe is trying to connect to the server, but it's seriously overburden, you get what you have now - non-updating client.
With the way the networking code is, it will wait for a response, which will take a while, so until that response comes, no start button and no update.