As far as I know, if you're blocked from using something like Limewire because of port and firewall issues, you're blocked whatever computer and OS you use. Napster had this same problem. I forget how Aimster worked, but it may have used some tricks to work with moderately restrictive firewall setups. If so, I'm not surprised it was inefficient!

An efficient firewall will simply block traffic on all ports except those explicitly opened by the network manager for your use. For example port 80 ('scuse glossing over details, morning headache and rush to get a review written) is used for HTTP traffic, and is virtually always open in firewalls... but you can't just switch the ports an app uses and carry on as normal - for example switch Limewire to port 80 and communicate with the Gnutella network.

[idle wishing]
I don't know if it would be possible, but I'd love to see a way to route Limewire traffic through that port - even if just for requests, not two-way sharing. But this is probably a gross violation of the way things work, and a security nightmare if it was possible. :-)

Best suggestion I can think of is to bite the bullet and get yourself a broadband connection at home. Then (a) you won't be sitting behind a corporate firewall, (b) you will get acceptable sharing speeds, and (c), if you have 'metered' Internet access now, you won't have to worry about racking up the online call charges in the future. (You'll be paying a wedge for broadband, but at least it is fixed. :-)

Keith
MacUser technical editor