Firstly , yes in answer to question one of message one of this thread , i am having exactly the same problems as deadlyhead .

Secondly , i have double checked my firewall exceptions and wireshare is ticked so my firewall is not guilty .

I have been using windows for 15 years and to the best of my memory i have never seen that icon before in my taskbar ;
is that proof that bigpond is interfering in some way with wireshare ???

Check your Windows firewall, check the Exceptions list. Is WireShare on the list?
WireShare should be on the exceptions list.
If not, you can manually add WireShare to the list. This would also suggest the problem is firewall software related and not ISP related.
I've never heard of BigPond blocking P2P before, but of course that might have changed.

Attachment 6852

I checked my firewall ;

please note my message 12 .

I just realised the blocking appears to be related to computer boot startup items.
What shows when you choose the 'Show or remove blocked startup programs' as shown in the image of post #10?

If WireShare is open, go to the menu bar & choose Tools -> Advanced Tools ...
Does it say WireShare is firewalled top-left beside the connections?

Yes , i should have made it clear that the icon only appears after a reboot ;

Do you use port forwarding? If not, perhaps you can try it for WireShare. It needs to be a port no other program is using.
I recall you have had firewall issues when using the LW4 Clones.
I personally use port forwarding because I found it more reliable than UPnP for my router. UPnP seemed to fail after 2 to 5 days after which I'd become a firewalled ultrapeer. I think Bigjx also uses port forwarding instead of UPnP.