Fabion -- Thanks for your response, and the suggestions... good to know it works for someone!

Well -- all our parental controls are turned off...

Our ISP {SBC Yahoo! DSL} and our DSL modem/firewall vendor {2Wire.net} don't give out much documentation, it seems... But, I did find out -- from some SHAREAZA documentation on the web -- how to set up firewall port forwarding -- just by poking around... SO, our port 6346 firewall handling is all set up, and seems to be working AOK -- evidence: there have been a few dozen successful P2P GUEST uploads completed via LimeWire PRO... after waiting over FOUR hours for the ultrapeers to detect my node...

But -- still no joy with LimeWirePRO Direct Connect -- via IP address -- with my friend... WHY???

• I've tried to download the LimeWire 4.8.x user manual .PDF -- but that did NOT work -- after http download of the PDF, Acrobat reader says that PDF is corrupted -- same results after THREE http download attempts yesterday ...
  
• I've read HUNDREDS of forum posts here... to NO avail.
  
• No help yet from LimeWire PRO support... I sent a message to PRO support yesterday, but no replies, yet...
  
• I'm about to give up on LimeWire PRO -- and switch to 100% free SHAREAZA... or FTP!!! but, I've already paid TWICE for LimeWire PRO !!!