I've had limewire since August 2005. My files played great without problems. I have a Cable/DSL connection. About a week ago my computer got a virus and I had to reboot everything and reinstall limewire. Now most of my media files (using Windows Media Player) require me to connect to the Internet to download a codec. This never happened before, (I never had to connect to the net using WMP) and then my file won't play. I have the audio okay, but Windows Media Player is on randomization. Is this something new? What gives? Is this because of the virus or has Limewire done something different recently?

I'm not very knowledgable about WMP. But I would highly recommend getting VLC - (click on link) _ (choose nearest mirror site) as it has in-built codecs & is generally very reliable. Try it out. You can also downld extra skins for it.

Otherwise, you can get extra codecs & also codec identifier programs, see CODECs list and alternate players for Movies which is one of the Stickies at the top of this section.

BTW I can only guess that the virus has somehow affected the association b/w WMP & the codecs. Perhaps reinstall the codecs or check your WMP options & preferences to make sure the options are set to play certain files. This may have been affected by the virus. On a deeper note, the virus might have affected the system association of programs & files toward each other. This can/should be (able to be) fixed up in one of the system control panel sections.