The gnutella.net file's inside LW's preferences folder...so if you found the gnutella.net file then you also found the prefs folder but maybe didn't realise it

Is this the link that you were using to enter your email address(es)?
Lime Wire » LimeWire PRO Support Center

Do you still have the email that LW sent you, after you bought Pro? That will have a link to your personal download page (where you go to download your Pro installers).

Who did you pay for Pro?
If you bought from the official site Lime Wire » Official Website & Free Download, BitTorrent « are your Pro benefits still current? If you bought 6 months worth of Pro, it needs to be less than 6 months since you paid. Did you buy Pro or Extended Pro?

If you did buy from the official site (payment to LimeWire LLC on your CC statement) but your Pro benefits have expired...you won't be able to download a new Pro installer for free.
If you didn't buy from the official site then your email address would never have been in the official database & you won't be able to download a new Pro installer for free.

Within the help thread If LW Will Not Connect is a link explaining the details that we need.

Yes, that was the link I used.

And unfortunately, I searched ALL of my email addresses and somehow could not find ANY emails from Limewire...I know there would be something, be it a confirmation or something. I'm not sure if I overlooked it, or if I accidentally deleted it, but nothing's there.

Now that you mentioned it...I'm pretty sure I paid PRO, not Extended PRO. I guess I'm confused...I thought once you paid for PRO, it was a one-time deal, with no expirations. I suppose that's why my PRO benefits have disappeared. I'm pretty sure I bought it from the official website (bc they advertise on their actual Limewire asking, "Upgrade now to Pro!" and I clicked that link).

So now it seems pretty obvious to me...everything expired. But I should still get a basic connection. I uninstalled and reinstalled out of frustration, and set up the basic Limewire...but I still have a stupid firewall!!

One random question: When I just installed the Limewire stuff, I have 2 icons on my desktop: Limewire.exe, and Limewire 4.18.3. I want to click the second one to run the program, right? The other one is for setup? (Which I've already done. It just confused me bc it's never had 2 icons on my desktop before haha.)

I'm at a loss. Thanks so much for your responses though! Hopefully a resolution is on its way!

OK, and now to try and answer your questions on that link you provided me:

-Windows XP
-What Firewalls I have...I have no idea! My Anti-Virus Software is McAfee, but it's expired. I checked their firewall settings anyway, and Limewire is allowed.
-It's very possible I'm low on memory...I have an external hard drive I use but this is a relatively old laptop...when I run a defrag, I think it says I have like 75% of my space used up...I went to buy more memory but apparently I already did that when I bought it originally! I don't know how to figure out how much RAM I have either. I thought I knew the basics of computers but apparently not! Sorry
-I have a cable connection, with a Motorola Modem and I use Linksys for my wireless router. The router's model # is WRT54G V8, and the modem's model # is SB4100.
-I have Comcast, and I'm connecting from my house.
-4.1.3 is my LW version; 1.6.0_07 is my Java (which apparently updates all the time anyway)
-The test worked!
-I'm sharing the internet w/my brother's PC. To make a long story short, he ran directly from a cable for his Internet, and I used my wireless system. But we'd lose connection, sometimes for hours/days at a time, so we finally called to figure out the problems. I got a new router and system (Linksys), and the guy on the phone said I had to first connect our home PC to the wireless system, then set up my laptop. So technically, our PC is the "initial" setup one, if that makes any sense. We really don't lose connection anymore, thankfully.
-Never had any problems before (I believe I registered a few years ago, but upgraded to PRO sometime last year)
-YES, there is a stupid brick wall in front of a globe icon. Funny thing is, I swear that was always there, even when I had a working LW, before and after I upgraded to Pro...
-Sorry, I don't understand question 14...I honestly don't know...
-Like I said, I'm pretty sure my firewall settings are fine...McAfee expired...but it's an allowed application anyway...
-Definitely living in the US!

Thanks so much for being extremely helpful and NORMAL...!

The Pro payment is a one time payment & you can use whatever installers you download, while your benefits are current, til the cows come home.

But what they don't tell you is that you have to save whatever installers you download...because once your Pro expires you can't download installers for free any more. It's a bit sneaky & heaps of people get caught out, thinking that they can go on downloading Pro installers forever once they've paid.

Ultimately, it's up to the user to save & back up their Pro installers & I wish LW would make that a bit clearer in the Pro info
So if you ever buy Pro again, remember to save & back up those installers.
_____________________________________

The .exe icon is the installer, the icon with LW's version number is the shortcut to open LW

Is your brother using LW? If so, make sure that you're not using the same port number as he is. In LW tools > options > advanced > firewall will show you LW's listening port number. If yours & your brother's are the same...change yours to 65000 > apply > ok. Now restart LW & see if it connects.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Security Centre. Click on Firewall...that will show you which firewall is currently on. Make sure that firewall's allowing LW access: User Cant Connect - LimeWire

Have you deleted that preferences folder (with LW properly closed)? You'll know if you've deleted it...once you restart LW, you'll go through the setup wizard all over again. If you don't have to go through the setup wizard, the folder hasn't been deleted properly & so you'll need to try again.

Go to the gnutella.net file & hover your mouse over the file...how big is it? If the file is 0 KB, you need to replace it again (should be ~20 KB).

If deleting prefs doesn't help & your gnutella.net file is ok, you could try port forwarding for your router. Your router has it's own firewall & maybe that's why you've seen the firewall icon. There aren't any instructions for your WRT54G v8 but try these for v5: Port Forwarding for the Linksys WRT54Gv5

You'll need to set up a static IP address first, there's a link within those instructions showing you how. LW's listening port, port in the 'manual port forward' box & port forwarded within your router's setup need to all be the same number.

I think I'm about ready to pull my hair out.

My brother does use LW, but our ports are different (of course. That would only make it easy!) So I started to go through that process of changing/making a Static IP address, etc....I got to the part where I had to log into my router's interface. I hadn't created an account yet or registered my product (oops) so I just did it...and now that it's all registered, there is NO page anywhere that gives my router's status!! How can that be? I tried typing in keywords too and nothing! When I click on my registered product, it just brings me to a place where I can get downloads for my model type. I can't find anything in my account profile either! I'm stuck without that step! (Where I'm supposed to find the Linksys DNS numbers and compare them to the ones I recovered from my comp.) This is SO FRUSTRATING!! (I don't mean that negatively towards you...you're being a huge help!)

Did you get the static IP set up ok? Make sure that's all done before you go on & log into your router.

You don't need to be on the Linksys site (I'm guessing that's where you went to register your product) to log into your router. You just need to open whatever browser you use (IE, Firefox etc) & then type in the default IP address for your router (in your case that's 192.168.1.1 - same as mine in the screenshot below). Click on the thumbnail to see a screenshot.


Once you type that IP address into your browser & hit 'enter'...you'll come see a screen asking you to type in a username & password. Just use the default username & password (as in the port forward instructions) unless you've created your own username & password. When you enter the username & password, you'll be able to log into your router & there's where you'll be able to set up your port forwarding

part of the problem is linskys router needs a patch to be able to allow port forwarding As a sysop on mma-central.org.uk i routinely get people conectable

if you have any trouble contact me there or alternativly try here first if no joy give me a shout

PortForward.com - Free Help Setting up Your Router or Firewall