Well ..... uninstalled both Limewire & Zone alarm, rebooted & re-installed Limewire ... IT WORKED !! Re-installed Zone Alarm ... IT STOPPED .. closed down ZA no change, uninstalled ZA & Limewire worked again so switched to Windows firewall and so far so good.
Thanks Birdy ... sanity partly restored ... now if half my other programmes would run with VISTA ... but that's another story.