LOTR: Thank you for your quick reply

I have Windows XP Home; I have a system firewall that has been disabled;I have lots of RAM and disk space, i checked all that too; I'm on DSL; I have a Westell modem (A90-210030-04) LW 4.12.6;

http://www3.limewire.com:6346/ : result was your test worked!
no other computers
-there is a brick wall in front of the blue world icon however I disabled my firewall..if I have 2, thats new to me..any suggestions on how to find it?
- and there is only 1 green bar..never moves from there...read the instruction on that and it didnt change.

Thank you