Long time user. Wouldn't connect this morning AT ALL. Never have any problems. Tried the exceptions route, it's there, tried anti virus off, nothing. Tried MS firewall settings and exceptions, it SHOULD go through. NEVER had any problems before. I DID just do a SP3 upgrade so if THAT's it, anybody got any ideas? SYSTEM DELL 3500 with XP media, 1gb ram, cable modem,,NO router,

Try each option http://www.gnutellaforums.com/connec...t-connect.html

Remove LW from the XP firewall rule & then re-add it.

SP2 caused a lot of problems ... not sure what SP3 does. But it does sound like the culprit to me, directly or indirectly.

Actually, went home with the intention of working on it and it works but it DOES take forever to come up and get bars. Slower that dog poop right now too. Have to watch it for further developments.

ok, sounds like maybe your UPnP might be not working well. Do step one in the link I gave you above. It might also be worth doing this: Tip: Purge the Downloads Queue! (click on blue link). It's just a guess as happens with some people, too many incompletes flooding the connection making UPnP not communicate properly.

I'll try that tonight, if the spousal unit doesn't have too many tasks in the folder! thanks.

If further problems, delete the LW prefs folder whilst LW is CLOSED; instructions here: Point #2 & 3 in Fixes for Limewire (sample image included at bottom of page.)