Hi
This is my first post here and it covers all kinds of issues that I have read about here and on so many other forums that I can't clearly recall what info came from where. But I will try to put my situation down as clearly as possible. First, I have to say that I have been using limewire successfully for years and years now (mostly as an ultrapeer), but now I'm am finally at my wits end. She wont go anymore.
Lets see...could be bandwidth? Option settings? Firewall/router probs?, poor performing ultrapeers?, ISP limits?, crappy CPU?...too many to list. But I've tried everything to fix this problem: few search results, downloads wind up at zero, no uploads of the 300 files in the folder at present.

1) Not bandwidth prob:

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-07-15 23:51:58 EST:
5809 / 777
Your download speed : 5809 kbps or 726.1 KB/sec.
That is 44.7% better than an average user on rogers.com

Your upload speed : 777 kbps or 97.1 KB/sec.
That is 16.6% better than an average user on rogers.com

2) not CPU prob: 3.2 Ghz...etc

3) not application prob: Deleted all instances of LW and purchased 4.12.3
a few days ago. (came on strong after install and then took a dump to 0 or 8 or the like)

4) settings prob?: Have tried the various settings in the sticky things. Setting the speed, download file numbers, various filters, ports...etc.
another forum suggested changing the port to 1720 which is used by VOip.
this worked for a time but then quit. Someone here wrote a thread about using a proxy server, but still working on that one. its new to me.

5) firewall/anti virus prob?:I've worked the XP firewall from all directions with no luck. from allocating gnutella ports above 50,000 for both TCP and UDP to
port forwarding with numbers like 1720, 1755...etc.
Installing the new LW version got Norton worm protection all fired up and I thought I had finally figured things out....but no, was a simple fix with norton.

Have I missed anything? (banging my head on my desk now) And today I read elsewhere that my ISP (Rogers) has fixed it so port selection doesn't matter any longer because now they are using packet headers (or some such jargon) to detect P2P traffic and the only work around is to use bit torrent or some similar app that enables encription of the packets. Thats when my head exploded.

So now I am here. Perhaps one of you might have a dim light you could shine shine at the end of my tunnel. Cuz I'm fading fast.

sorry it took so long

Al.