We need to get rid of that brick wall.

Can you give us a total description of your set up:
1. Which OSX version do you have?
2. Is your OSX firewall turned on?
3. Modem & router brand name & model numbers?
4. Where are you trying to connect from (home, school, work, etc.)?
5. What version of Limewire (LW) & Java do you have? (Go to LW's menu Help>About LW...) Will show both LW & Java version.
6. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? If yes, please give details of set up.

7. BTW it wouldn't surprise me if your speeds are affected by your isp. Do a speed test whilst LW is not running; choose the nearest one to your location from here: http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/speedtest/#T & do a 2nd one from a different location & note the speeds: http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/speedtest/

ok, here goes:
1) Mac OSX 10.3.9
2) OSX Firewall : dunno how can I check? under system profile there is a FireWire Bus with Speed 400MB/sec ... is that what we are looking for?
3) Modem & router:
under System profile under Modems:
Driver: MotorolaSM56K.kext (v1.3.1)
Hardware Version: Version 1.0
Interface Type: I2S
Country: 46 (Greece)
Modem Model: Jump
Modulation: V.92
Plugged into the phone line & airport - Brand Asus ADSl Router. there are a lot of numbers on there and I don't know which is the serial number (they are all on stickers) here they are:
0015F298A98B
AAM6010EV/M (this one appears twice, on 2 stickers)
A02EMAS1
5CB0AC036247
BTW not clear on whether the 0s (zeros) are in fact Os (letter O)
4) connecting from home
5) LW: 4.10.9 Java 1.4.2_09
6) none - that I know of! ;-)