I think I read recently that LimeWire is going to fix the site that confirms you can connect to the gnutella network.

Port forwarding shouldn't bother your ISP. Mine told me that using a router is fine with them, but they can't help with the configuration: that's the seller of the router's responsibility. They also confirmed that they don't block 6346, which some providers do.

So--just ask them, and also ask tech support for a tech who uses a filesharing program.

As for other comments--it's easy to be a leech. Sharing is much more satisfying and should be what peer-to-peer is all about.