My LimeWire program absolutely will not connect to the Gnutella network no matter what I do; I've tried absolutely everything I saw in the forums, and still LimeWire doesn't work at all. Here are my system details.

1. OS version? Windows Vista, but the problem keeps happening even if I run LimeWire as an administrator.
2. What firewalls you have? Windows Firewall only.
3. How much ram? 1 GB
4. Hard Disk space available? 15.4 GB
5. Connection type? Satellite
6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers? HughesNet HN7000S
7. Where are you trying to connect from? Home
8. What version of LimeWire (LW) & Java do you have? LW 4.18.8, Java 1.6.0_11
9. Who is your ISP (Internet Service Provider)? HughesNet
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? "Your test worked!"
11. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? No.
12. Is this a your 1st try at LW or is this a new problem with an experienced user. I've been using LimeWire since 2005.
13. Do you see a brick wall in front of the blue world icon at the bottom of LW's interface? Yes.
14. For those using a modem/router, how is your modem/router set up...are you port forwarding or is UPnP enabled? My modem won't disclose that information.
15. What security programs are you using (antivirus etc)? avast! antivirus 4.8
16. What country are you living in? Sometimes there are ISPs with the same name in more than one country (eg Clearwire in the USA & also in Ireland). USA
17. Has anything in your setup changed recently? Have you updated your version of LW or Java? Have you added any new software or new hardware? Have you updated any software? Have you moved house, changed internet plan or ISP etc etc? I uninstalled LimeWire once to replace it with BearShare, but BearShare proved to be unreliable, downloading WMA files when I really needed MP3 files (and I could not even convert the WMAs to MP3s!). So I
trashed BearShare and reinstalled LimeWire, and that's when the big trouble started.

So should I just give up on Gnutella altogether? What am I to do?

Brandon Taylor

Have you tried an older version of Limewire, to see if that one connects? Some people have trouble using the new version.

If not then uninstall both your Limewire and Java (Remember to also delete the Limewire folder in AppData) and reinstall both (newest Java, older version of Limewire). You can find older versions here: Download LimeWire Basic 5.0.7 Beta - FileHippo.com

What older version do you recommend?

I always found 4.12 to be quite nice, especially the one in my signature.

FileHippo doesn't have 4.12.3... Now what?

the one in my signature (the limewire banner) is a direct link to 4.12.3 download

Other good ones, which are available at Filehippo are 4.12.6 and 4.10.9. But it really doesn't matter which version. Just try an older version than the one you already have.

NONE of those versions work!

I'm beginning to become more and more convinced that it's either my modem or my computer that needs to be restarted... or the Gnutella network may simply be down.

Well I'm pretty sure that the Gnutella network isn't down, since it's decentralized

If you actually are saying that you didn't even try to restart your PC and modem, then that would most definitely be a good idea to try now.

It could be that your ISP has started blocking Gnutella. Maybe try some other Gnutella clients, like e.g. Phex or the old BearShare (links in BearShare section)

Right, then, I'll try Phex and see if that works... I mean, I've tried FrostWire and that doesn't seem to work either... If Phex works, I'll use it; if not, I'll contact my ISP and see if they have begun to block Gnutella...

Which would make some sense, because ISPs are supposed to start cracking down on "illegal" file downloads, and if blocking Gnutella does the trick, then I guess I could see why all Gnutella programs are failing.

Boy, how dumb I feel right now! I initiated a system defragmentation today, and it was chugging along pretty well when it started to interfere with RealPlayer, and I was called upon to abort the defragmentation. Then, a bit later, I started LimeWire, and LimeWire connected right to one Gnutella host! Since LimeWire had already gotten one Gnutella host, it decided to keep going until it had three Gnutella connections under its belt. Of course, that took a while, but it eventually latched on to three Gnutella computers -- and now I'm at five bars again!

So here's a bit of advice to those of you who can't connect to the Gnutella network with LimeWire or any other Gnutella client:

When all else fails, defragment your HDD!

That's all from me!