Hello Panzer,

Looks like you and me are pretty much in the same boat.

Except that your have a good cable operator who is good friends with you - and I am in Mumbai (Bombay), India - where everyone around is corrupt to the core - right from the goernment to the police to the doctors to the common cable operator. So getting my cable operator to unblock a certain port is next to impossible.

Here in India, if you have internet access, you are a well-to-do successfull person. Only in the cities can you expect broadband. I have a cable connection - a rarity - and I pay about $11-$12 a month for a measly 48kbps (6kBps) line. And if I'm lucky (fortunately, yes!) I have a service without a download limit. Most (Broaband) ISPs have a download limit which varies from 100Mb to 500MB a month. For people who use P2P applications, that's about downloading one compressed movie.

Operators who offer unlimited downloads (like mine) will do any foulplay possible to reduce the amount of bandwidth people use - including blocking ports. Why in the world would they unblock the ports and let people download as much as they want? They get away fooling innocent non-techy people saying that if you can surf the internet, our service is fine and the problem lies with your computer or the website you are trying to access. My ISP clearly told me they dont block any ports - except for Kazaa which is freed only in the nights.

In fact, Bombay has a system of cable operator gangs. In each area, only one cable operator can provide TV and Cable service. A very organized mafia. No other cable operator will provide service in a block already "claimed" by another operator. Else that intruding operator can expect the underworld to shoot him dead! And that happens.

They're backed by an underworld lobby of internationally wanted gangsters! The underworld may be getting huge ransoms for keeping this cable lobby in check and making sure that intruding operators are killed - as a lesson to others.

I'm glad you got your LW working again - and it was as simple as asking your friendly operator to unblock your NAT. I may see no such luck.

At the moment LW is working. That mysterious Internet Gateway fairy appeared again last night. LW got a full-speed connection. And this morning when I restart the PC, it's gone. Ha!

But my LW still works at extreme speeds - I may have found a new little trick - though it's too soon to say. I'll wait and watch a few more times and see if this connection persists. If it does, I'll let y'all know what I did.

Wish me luck, AG.