thanks for your reply sgt.

i actually uninstalled zone alarm yesterday after i posted, just out of curiousity to see if that would do anything, in case i didn't have the settings correct to allow LW. when i turned on my computer this morning, i even got a message saying my computer has no firewalls. however, LW still somehow detects one when i tried to start it a few minutes ago.

i also don't understand how the ISP could be the one responsible if i've been with them for over a year and just in the past month have not been able to connect to LW.

if no one thinks that this can be fixed, can someone please recommend another file sharing program? i really don't want to give up LW, but it's starting to look like i might have to. i've already tried winmx, kazaa lite, and ares, but have had the same problem with all of them as well...