Did you say you're at university or college or something? You didn't seem to read the instructions very well. It says at the top of point 4 that Repair does not apply to version 4.4 or later. If you have set up options for LW such as when you 1st installed LW, there should be some preferences somewhere. Either search .limewire or limewire.

Just because your friends can use some p2p networks doesn't mean Gnutella network isn't being shaped or blocked. Since LW is so popular nowadays, they might be only aiming at blocking LW. Most schools do this nowadays since they pay big money for bandwidth. p2p uses a lot of bandwidth.

*** Windows XP has its own firewall!!! So go to your control panel & open up the XP firewall & tick disable option. Then configure McAffee firewall as described by birdy's link. You need to do this!!!

Open LW, set the option under connections to not connect after system startup. Tools>Options>Connections. Make sure LW is not trying to connect. Go to menu bar, File>Disconnect. Then wait 10 mins or so, then go to menu bar, File>Connect. Give it lots of time to try to connect. If no good, close LW & try again.

If still no luck, change the port number. Try a port no. like 64049 or 80. ie: Tools>Options>Advanced>Firewalls & change both port options. You may need to set it to manual port forward to change this connection port. Try above again. If no good, try options below.

A Fix for those whose ISP's block Limewire pages 1 - 3 which have links to alternative instructions.