New=bad;old=good
I should have stuck with what I had (v.2.3.4), but I was stupidly tempted by the all-singing all-dancing v.2.4.4 and installed it this p.m.

Since then no connections...

Taliban, I've followed all your advice to the letter and absolutely nothing happens after Limewire loads. Nothing has changed in my network configs since v.2.3.4, which worked without problem. I've a sneaking suspicion that this is related to the bundled spyware. I binned/blocked it with Ad-aware/ZoneAlarm as I did with previous versions of Limewire.

I remember though that v.2.4.4 connected the first time, only after I let JAVAWS.EXE online. I know that's spyware and I have since blocked its access ... and since have had no connection.

Coincidence??