I think the reason it's freezing up is the amount of ram you have. The bottom of this page http://www.limewire.com/english/cont...loadfree.shtml does say 64 MB as the minimum but you really are pushing it since it doesn't leave much over for your operating system or anything else (particularly using win XP.) Java is not very RAM friendly unfortunately.

Instead of going without a firewall. It's best to configure it/them to allow LW access. See instructions here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/firewalls.shtml

As far as your router goes, many wireless routers do have internal firewalls. If yours does it might be an idea to open a port (6346) for LW. But I think the number you gave me is a serial number & not the model number. I went to the Netgear support site & the no. you gave me is not a model number they have listed of present or past models. See Netgear Support page The model number might be somewhere else on the unit or manual that came with it.

May I ask who your ISP provider is? I just want to make sure it's not one of the infamous ones that block p2p file sharing use.

You've done all the right things & posted all necessary details so I'm impressed.
1. Configure your firewalls,
2. make sure your Java is up to date: version 1.4.x OR version 1.5 (take the JRE) (sometimes one version works better on some people's systems than the other version.)
3. Make a note of all your LW settings & then delete the LW Preferences folder. See my link in the earlier post called Fixes for Limewire. That will explain how to delete your LW Preferences folder.
4. Don't have LW set to start on System startup. Tools>Options>Advanced>System startup & make sure this is disabled. It might also be a good idea to manually connect. Tools>Options>Connections & untick this option & press apply.
5. After opening LW, wait a few mins before trying to connect. Then go to LW's menu File>Connect. Now give it over half an hour to connect.