Ouch--welcome to the world of learning how to set up a home network. This is not easy to explain, but is actually much easier to do. This should be automatic, but isn't yet.

You need the router to talk to each machine separately.

So, each machine needs a static Local IP address, not just the usual automatic dynamic IP. Find a friend who knows how to set static IP's on those Dell's.


Once each machine has a static local IP on your LAN (local area network), you need to give each LimeWire it's own channel of communications (separate port for each machine).

In the advanced section of LimeWire's Options, there's a section for firewalls that allows you to manually set a port. Try 6346 for one, and 6349 for the other machine.

Once each LW has its own IP and Port, you just have to tell the router to forward those ports to those numbers. Search these forums for "Linksys port forwarding"--you should find the links and screenshots on how to do this for your model.

So, now messages can come in to the router, and will be directed cleanly to the right LW

However, all this will probably not work, because firewalls and other protective software so popular with Windows are probably interfering too.

For that stuff, you'll need a Windows expert.

cheers. I can't believe you suckered me into even attempting an answer here. Oh well, hope it gets you started