Which version of Java did you downld? It needs to be either Java 1.4.2 or 1.5
See
Fixes for Limewire & get the JRE versions & offline installer. Yes offline is the way to go. It might be wise to uninstall what you have & reinstall from scratch. There might have been some residual files left over from the original installation. To uninstall Java use the Add/Remove control panel. Trying to remove it any other way such as manually will probably cause problems.