i have only turned off the OSX firewall as i don't have any others! unless the macbook comes with other security software that might be blocking it, i don't know what else it could be...

Oops sorry I was confusing your with thedust2010. We need a few more details: System details - help us to help you (click on link)

oops! apologies... ok here we go:

1. OS version? OSX 10.4.8 (tiger)

2. What firewalls you have? OSX

3. How much ram? 1GB

4. Hard Disk space available? 11GB

5. Connection type? broadband

6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers? bt voyager-45

7. Where are you trying to connect from? home (a house)

8. What version of LimeWire (LW) & Java do you have? LW: 4.13.0 JAVA: 1.5.0_06

9. Who is your ISP provider (Internet Service Provider)? eclipse

10. Do this simple test for us. Using your browser go here: http://www3.limewire.com:6346/ The page should say 'Your test worked!'. What happens when you go there? it doesn't work

11. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? If yes, please give details of set up. 2 other computers (PCs) not sharing though. router is on one of the PCs.

12. Is this a your 1st try at LW or is this a new problem with an experienced user. first try really, although i tried on my old G5 and it didn't work on there, but it did work on my old PC.

13. Do you see a brick wall in front of the blue world icon at the bottom of LW's interface? yes.

other info...

- connection quality remains at 1 bar
- i have tried configuring my firewall and LW as instructed here but didn't work
- i then turned my firewall off and it still doesn't work.

Something is blocking port 6346 which is why the LW on your mac can't connect at all. It's most likely either a softw firewall, a modem/router's nat firewall (more likely) or your isp. I don't know the particular model of BT you're using. Have you ever logged into it (telnet)? Try typing http://192.168.1.1 into your browser & see what happens.

you were absolutely right! it was the BT firewall... thank you for your help. i didn't think that that firewall affected my computer, but thinking about it now it would be stupid not to!

thanks again.

Thanks for letting us know. In my experience on these forums the BT's are better port forwarded. But I wasn't sure if your model had that capacity.