6. Sometimes a new version doesn't work as well on a particular person's set up than the previous version they were using. This usually applies to windows users. But the newer versions are supposed to connect easier & are more ram stable (don't use quite as much ram.) There's also other additional improvements. Stick with LW 4.2.3 for now.

Did you install BSD when you installed 10.3.5? It 'should' be installed to give LW full support. I'm not sure about OS 10.3.x installers but certainly in the earlier installers you could choose whether to install it or not.

1. Try installing from the Standalone Java installer found here: Standalone Java installer (Click on link) Sometimes installing directly from online seems to cause some issues. That's why I'm recommending you to install from the standalone installer. This may oversome some problems with your initial Java installation.

2. (A) Restart in SAFE mode; hold down the SHIFT key immediately after the computer restarts & keep held down until you see the message booting in safe mode. Go to menu bar & select Utilities folder. Choose Disk Utility. Repair Permissions on OSX. Restart computer & try again with LW. (B) If still the same problem, then find your OSX startup disk & place it into the comp. Restart comp whilst holding down the 'c' key. This will force the comp to restart from CD/DVD. Find & Open Disk Utility on startup disk & choose Repair Mac OSX. Quote from Apple website: Steps for using Disk Utility:
1. Insert your Mac OS X CD-ROM disc or Restore DVD disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key. 2. Once started up from CD or DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility. 3. Click the First Aid tab. 4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions. 5. Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary. 6. Click Repair.

Step 5 would be best explained by Stief. It means you can create a separate user & log-in account so that you're almost using LW on virgin territory so to speak.

Sorry to hear you're having problems with LW. But with any luck we'll be able to get you up & running. LW is the best p2p app for mac. You can connect with other p2p apps as well on the Gnutella network.

(To kill 2 birds with one stone.) Also can you tell us about your connection setup? Just in case of potential issues: What brand name & model number of modem & router do you use? Do you use a firewall? Are you connecting from work/home? Some dsl/adsl modems/routers use NAT (as does Apple's airport) which blocks most incoming ports in a similar fashion to a firewall. If you use such a modem we can forward a port for it. A quick check is if you visit this site (ignore the text in the red box) & tell us what it says in the grey box underneath 'The Applet': All I need to know is what's probably on the 4rth line & it says about NAT (eg: It would appear that your machine does use NAT.)