Do you have firewall in win xp disabled or at least set so that it allows LW & java to get thru? Do you have any other firewalls/routers, etc.? Check the following thread to allow LW to get thru: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/firewalls.shtml To check if a firewall is causing your problems (quote of murasame): go to Limewire->Preferences and click on the Bug Reports selection. There, click for an example and scroll down to the part where it says: Recieved incoming this session. If it says true then Limewire does not have a problem from Firewall. If it says false, Firewall(s) are blocking the connection.
Hope this solves your problems!