Search the word CHAT on the forum & you'll get an understanding. 1stly you need to have enable chat ticked in your LW Prefs. 2ndly, many people are not at their comp's when using p2p. Many leave LW running whilst at school, overnight, whilst at work, or running in the background at work. I'm not sure about the LW 4.0.8 but certainly with the beta you can control click onto the top of the columns in the search & dwnlds window panes & also in the lists to allow you to show more options such as those who have chat enabled & activate chat with them.