Hi WW my modem I guess is called Westell Wirespeed, that is the thing my dsl is right? I'm retarded when it comes to all this sort of thing so forgive my ignorance.

Hi LOR I did #1 already and my test worked.
#2 I did as well. I went to write down the Listening port number and then went to the control panel and into network connections and properties then to the advanced tab (please indulge me the step by step as I may have messed up in this process). There are two sections here - the top part says "Windows Firewall" and "protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the internet" and in that section there is a "settings" button. The second part says "Internet Connection Sharing" below that there is an unchecked box that says
"Allow other network users to connect through this computers internet connection" and below that there is a faded box that is checked that I can't uncheck cuz it is unclickable I guess and the words next to it are faded and say "Allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection" This also has a settings button but it is faded and unclickable too. BUT if I put a check in the second box that was previously unchecked, the faded unclickable stuff becomes bold and clickable. So I don't know how that is supposed to be but for now the second box is unchecked and the rest is unclickable. So this could be a problem?

Anyhow, what I did then was hit the first settings button at the top of the tab for Windows Firewall. The window that comes up tells me that my pc is not protected and my firewall is OFF. I then go to the advanced tab where it says "network connection settings" where it says right under that "Windows firewall is enabled for the connections selected below. To add exceptions for an individual connection, select it and then click settings" then there is a box that contains two selctions the LAN and the Wireless connection- next to them is the Settings button. I have tried it with both checked and with just wireless checked and I get the same results. So right now only Wireless is checked and you hit "settings" and the "services" comes up where I had added Gnutella the way the directions say to do. I did it once but it didn't work, so I went back and the listening port number had changed! I don't know how, and I know I wrote down the correct one. So I did the whole thing over again adding on two more gnuttellas with the new port number. I did just as the directions asked. Still no change. Now when I go back to look at the gnutellas I added, the IP address I put in there doesn't say the number they tell you to put from the limewire page. It says the name of my actual network so I don't know if that is a no-no too. I didn't type it in I did just as the directions asked as much as I could anyhow. I did both TCP and UDP. I checked my Linksys and it's p2p enabled.

So maybe somewhere in there I did a faux pas?

Also, when I do a search, my own stuff comes up in it all the time, is that common as well?

Thank you both and everyone else for your time and replies, I very much appreciate it.

Stonerosey