I used limewire in the past, but could not bring it up yesterday. I am running Win2K. I tried to delete the .limewire folder in my profile, uninstall, and downloaded a new copy of limewire and reloaded everything. When I try to connect, I see a little green on the left quality connection bars. Nothing on my laptop has changed. Is limewire having server problems?

lol LW doesn't run on a server. LW is p2p; ie: sharing between you, me & others.

Have you updated your Java to the most recent version for your OS: Java 1.4.x OR Java 1.5 (take the JRE) LW is designed on & runs on Java & the most reent versions so it's very important.

Also, what connection devices do you use. If you use a broadband/adsl/cable modem then there's a reasonable chance that it uses NAT technology which blocks most of the ports. So if LW runs, it won't run very efficiently. Can you tell me the brand name & model number of your modem (& router)?

I downloaded the new java listed on the limewire site. It made no difference.
I connect several ways, (1) I connect to a company network that is using T1, (2) I connect to DSL, (3) I connect via my laptop modem (PCTEL 2304WT V.92 MDC Modem). All the ways do the same thing.

Change LW to manually connect not auto connect (LW's menu Tools>Options>Connection & untick option box & press both Apply & OK buttons.) Then go to File menu & choose connect. Wait up to an hour for LW to settle down. Any difference?

Your laptop modem is a dialup so there shouldn't be any problems there. If you have a lot of incomplete files & particularly if you use the 'Resume' function for them they can take a long time to settle down, resulting in queuing for much, much greater periods & also playing havoc with your connection quality. Resume means the files will seek out for resources every few mins & if can't find any will eventually give up, with a status of 'Awaiting Sources' (instead of the normal 'Need More Sources'.) Resume can be very effective though, if not used on too many files. It's safer to allow LW to settle down & search manually for resources.

I have already disabled the auto-connect feature, so I connect manually. But I have not waited an hour yet. Seems like a long time, but I will try it. BTW, I get the exact symptoms on a fast link(T1, DSL, Wireless Network card working via WIFI hotspots) as I do with the dial-up modem link. I'll try to "set it and forget it" for about an hour and report back. Thanks!!

lol an hour does seem like a long time I know. After that, if still no success go here: http://www3.limewire.com:6346/ & it should say your test page was a success. If not then we'll see what can be done.

OK, I tried to connect manually for about a hour via dial-up and a T1 connections. Neither was able to connect. The http://www3.limewire.com:6346/ thing did not work either (The page was never found). I'm about at wit's end. Any more suggestions?

That site was just a very simple way of checking whether you can get thru port 6346 which is what LW uses by default. Which OS do you have? Have you installed XP SP2?

You said you didn't have problems connecting befoe, was that thru all of those techniques that you said you always had success with?

Something is blocking you from having access thru port 6346. This might not solve the mystery but it might help, whilst LW is open do this: Force IP instructions & sample image

I'm running Windows 2000 SP4. Before, I downloaded limewire and installed it and it ran great. I tried forcing the IP in the firewalls section. Nothing seems to work.

You connect from work. Do you also connect from home? If from home do you go thru an independent isp or connect via your work's isp? Something is totally blocking LW. And it sounds like a new event. Perhaps from your work that you're not aware about. The isp or your work may have started to deliberately block p2p use. You could try the newest version of LW 4.2.5 else/& try an older version: http://www9.limewire.com:82/download/ & also
http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=limewire

I'm rather stumped. But there's something blocking LW that might not have been blocking it before. How about your own personal firewalls - have you double-checked them? http://www.limewire.com/english/content/firewalls.shtml