Hello again,
After many reinstallations of java, Mac patches, Limewire, and trashing p-lists, I'm not sure why but it is now working and has been all day. ANd survived many reboots. I did learn that the p-lists often are the cause of problems, or are a good way to figure out what the problem is. Remove the p-llist from Preferences, the applications immediately create new ones that lack the offending information which perhaps existed from before all the trouble started.

It would be nice if it were a less capricious event, and could be resolved in some sort of a patch from Limewire...????? or Apple? this is obviously a serious and consistent problem.

thanks for all the suggestions and support. This is a great forum with very knowledgeable and intelligible people!