Do you see a firewall icon?

BTW if you are still an active LW Pro 5.5 user you can still use LW Pro up to LW 5.5.10. LW 5.5.8 & 5.5.9 pro mac links are provided on the forum.

Generally it's an ultrapeer issue. For LW 5 that would be to go to your Advanced Tools menu & remove the longest connected ultrapeer. Wait a few minutes. Do another search. If same issue then remove next longest connected ultrapeer.

BTW the longer you are connected to the network, generally the better any gnutella program works. Spam OR dud ultrapeers (dud meaning like a black-hole, do not respond to search requests; suck in the information but do not respond) are often quick to get you connected to the network initially.

For now, remove any 5.5.8 Limewire connections you see in your connections window. All were spam or dud ultrapeers in my test tonight. For FW it's the connections window under view menu from memory.