If it's red, your game will lag because cartographer is attempting to establish a connection and cannot.
This is normal behavior because it's CONSTANTLY trying to make a connection.
This will only happen if
1. You're using an old DLL.
2. The connection isn't able to be established due to server being down, network issues or etc.
3. Your firewall / anti-virus etc are blocking Project Cartographer's connections to the servers.