Ive had LW for 2 years and this has never happened. I have tried what LW said to do with the firewall by changing the settings in windows and also my disabling my norton. i even called my ISP to see if my modem had an internal firewall but it didn't. any more that i can do to get rid of this stupid brick?

Can you give us a full description of your set up:
1. OS version? (eg: Windows 98)
2. What firewalls you have?
3. How much ram?
4. Hard Disk space available?
5. Connection type? (eg: dialup, broadband, cable, etc.)
6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers?
7. Where are you trying to connect from (home, school, work, etc.)?
8. What version of Limewire (LW) & Java do you have? (Go to LW's menu Help>About LW...) Will show both LW & Java version.
9. Who is your isp provider (Internet Service Provider)?
10. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? If yes, please give details of set up.

BTW the newer versions of LW have firewall detection abilities to force people to configure their firewalls properly. In the bad old days when few people had their firewalls properly configured, it was very difficult to downld from them & impossible to direct connect to them. Have you seen this page: Connection problems? Check here first! (click on link) Follow thru the sections to do with software firewalls, & modem/router NAT firewalls. For your norton, see Configuring Norton Internet Security. BTW if you're running windows XP which has its own firewall, then disable it. http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...842#post178842

WinXP home
Nortons
256ram
59.9gb available HD
Cable
Motorola sbv5120
from home
LW-4.10.9
Java-1.5.0_03
optimum online

Ouch! Optimum! Use the search button above to search for optimum.

I just "hope" the same issue is not happening to you!

yea but i have had it for a couple of weeks and i used LW yesterday and the day before that. now all of a sudden.

They seem to apply some type of filtering/shaping/blocking to users who downld/upload larger quantities to normal. If you find threads on optimum, you'll see what I mean. Here's a search link (but the link will only be valid for a day or 2): http://www.gnutellaforums.com/search.php?searchid=15044

so has anyone cracked this yet....any OOL users get through. what other
p2p can i use that is decent?

Without re-reading thru, there's a mixed bunch. Only individuals are filtered. Some can connect, some can't. Some have changed ports to high ports & have connected. Some have used a special ip changer app/proxy. You need to check it for your self. Seems different answers for different individuals. It is probably regionalised in answers but I haven't so far researched this. OOL covers a very large area.