o k ....? I guess I don't follow....even if it DOES have a firewall, if the default it OFF, then why would that affect this?

No other inbound or outbound programs I have tried have any issues whatsoever. That is why it is hard for me to understand why LW is acting "different"

Would it be of any benefit to uninstall and reinstall a fresh copy of lw, in other words, would "fresh" defaults upon setup make any difference?

I logged into the wesfall maint. thing, and restored, (after I looked at all options---I see nothing in there that says anything about an active firewall....?)

I had THOUGHT this would be one of the benefits of having dsl in the first place, but I wonder? at least I'm not alone...seems like people across the gamut are having issues too.

Willing to try anything else if ideas surface!
cv