I slowed down and did some thinking and more reading.

The whole problem was that I had multiple entries for Java in the Control Panel, and the gnutella.net file downloaded with the application install is incorrect. The multiple entries for Java was because I "trusted" Sun's install process to do what it said it was doing and uninstall the earlier version.

Here's what I did, and now LW works properly:

1) I closed LimeWire, plus selected Exit from the LW icon in the system tray.
2) I uninstalled LW (Start/All Programs/LimeWire/Uninstall)
3) Opened the Control Panel and clicked Add or Remove Programs.
4) I had 4 entries for Java 6: Java 6, Java 6 SDK Update 1, Java 6 Update 2, and Java 6 Runtime Update 3.
5) I removed them all. (ignore the J2SE entries, they are for your IE browser)
6) I then installed the off-line version of Java 6. Now I only have Java (TM) 6 Update 3.
7) I then re-installed LW and started it.
8) I closed LimeWire, plus selected Exit from the LW icon in the system tray.
9) I copied the new gnutella.net file I had downloaded earlier into the LimeWire folder under the Application Data folder under my username. (the one that was already there was only 1kb in size, the new one is 21kb)
10) I started LW
11) After a few minutes, I now have a *Turbo-Charged Connection*

After doing this, did you lose your entire limewire music library? Or were all your files still there?

I am having the same problem with my limewire and I wanted to try what you did, but I really don't want to lose my music.

I did not lose anything. All my libraries were still in tact. The key is to check your Control Panel for Add or Remove Programs (whether you've got XP or Vista makes no difference). If you see more than one Java 6, then you need to uninstall all of them from the Control Panel prior to installing the off-line download of Java 6. BTW I did the full install of the Development plus Runtime.

Then uninstall LW using the Uninstall script in the LimeWire Program Folder.

The next step would be to reboot before installing anything.

Then install the off-line download version of Java 6. Then you might need to reboot again (I'd probably do it anyway just because you're using a Microsoft Operating System).

Then install LW, but uncheck the box to launch LimeWire. Then you can find the gnutella.net file under your username folder Application Data (or AppData if you've got Vista) and check its size. It will most likely be 1kb. If so, it's bad - bad - bad. Delete it, and copy a new one in its place. A good version of the gnutella.net file will be over 21kb in size.

Then you should be able to start LW with no problems at all (hopefully).

Two questions:
1) "your username folder Application Data/AppData" - sorry about my slow/n00b-ness, but how do you find that? I went to Users > my user name > ...and then did not see AppData, the first file being "backup" instead.

2) To "copy a new one in its place," how would you get a new gnutella.net file to copy?


Thanks for your help so far...I'm sure the rest will also be helpful once I can figure it out!

EDIT: So I found the AppsData folder (duh!), but still can't find the gnutella.net file...
EDIT2.0: Hah, found gnutella.net. But yes, it's 1 KB. So the only question left is where to get the 21 KB version?

Thank you so much. I did exactly what you said and it didn't work at first. But I went in to check my port and had to change it back to 6346. I tried it again and still nothing so I went back in to tools and looked at my proxy settings in limewire because I had been messing with it earlier. The settings were still there so I changed it back to no proxy closed out of there restarted limewire and voila it is turbo connected once again. I just wanted to thank you so much for your post because I had literally tried everything in these posts and nothing was working. I had downloaded napster and was going to try it out. I decided to give it one more shot. My graditudes!!!!!!!!!