It worked.

Yes, the XP firewall is the only firewall I have, the firewall icon is on.

My modem is a Toshiba PCX2500 cable modem, if you need them I have SN numbers and other numbers I can give you straight off the modem itself.

I just got off the phone with my ISP, they basically told me that Patriot Media closes no ports so limewire should have no problem communicating with my modem. They told me that a customer service rep who use Patriot Media can connect to limewire with no problem and whatever problem is on my end ... this is not the case because I have downloaded stuff from limewire on occasion, and if it were on my end no internet would work.

There's not too much info around about your modem but it seems to have no firewalls. You aren't using a router at all? If you're seeing the firewall icon then either a software firewall or firewall within some hardware is being detected!!
Some ISPs give customers a firewall as part of their service - any chance that yours did?

You could try using a higher port to connect. No guarantees though & this won't help you get rid of a firewall... that's a separate issue. See below for port numbers to try. If you do change listening port, you'll have to also change ports allowed within the XP firewall.
Alternative Ports

I do not use a router I am directly connected to the internet via cable modem. Not sure about a software firewall since the only processes I run while connecting to limewire is AVG antivirus (free edition) and Spybot Search and Destroy (which might be the prob'm). I made the firewall accept port 6346 and the limewire program, in all logic it cant be the XP firewall. If it would help I could make a desktop screenshot of all the applications running when I open up the Windows Task Manager.

I dont know about a firewall within hardware, and my ISP has not installed any firewalls on my computer to my knowledge. My guess is it's either client-side, or the fault of the programs which makes little sense to me because limewire, bittorrent and AOL Instant Messager would all have to be screwed up. I will try changing the ports.