Sometimes when I am downloading files a pop up window appears asking for username and password. Since there is an IP address at the top, I assume this is from another computer but I don't know what it means or what to do. I have looked in the FAQ's and the Help places, no help.
Can someone please tell me what these are for and what I should do other than cancel?

They must be from a user. Check out who sends the msgs, and ban them in the preferences. Limewire never ever asks for any information like that from you.

Thanks.

This definitely sounds like a Trojan Horse. You should seriously consider installing some better protection for your machine if you have anything even vaguely sensitive on your system or about your job. There are a number of good products on the market that defend against specific Trojans but, before taking you down that line, you would need to confirm that it will be worth the effort that may be involved.

Yeah, it could be some nasty user just messaging people he/she's connected to. If the problem goes away after banning the IP, I think it would be a user and not a trojan.

Would you agree David91?

. . .to insert a dialogue box asking for passwords involves a deliberate penetration of the machine. This may have been a passive intrusion through a spiked download or, more seriously, it could have been a backdoor entry. If the former, this may be a simple fishing expedition and, by not responding, you preserve your system's integrity (assuming there is no automatic notification script built into the Trojan). If the latter, the intruder already has the target computer's address and "blocking" the IP will be ineffective. Hence, the question is how seriously we should treat the matter. If Michaellloyd runs a small system out of his home with nothing incriminating or sensitive on his machine (like his credit card details and handshaking routines for different on-line shopping sites), we could advise him to ignore the problem. Had the intruder intended anything malicious, it would more than likely already have shown up. But this could have been a crawler survey preparing to highjack his e-mail server for distributing spam, or he may have employment requiring him to process commercially sensitive information on his machine which should be protected. Hence, the point of my question.

... or the user is just running an older version of LimeWire that had some authentication features (that were never really turned on, but some people out there modified the code to turn it on, prompting dialogs on other people's machines). Upgrading to the newest version should get rid of it.

Thanks for that, Sam. I'll go back to the specs and try to work out the history of it.

David

I am amazed at the thoughtfulness of y'all's messages.
I have never used a forum before and I want to thank you for answering so quickly and professionally.

To answer the questions:
I am running a little iMac from home on a 56K modem.
There is nothing on my machine that I can imagine would have any value to anybody.

Because it is not an unusual occurrence (I get a box about once every half-hour) I think the last post may have merit.

I don't know what version of Limewire I am running but it is definitely not new.
I will find out and upgrade if necessary.

Thanks again.

All the boxes are the same.
They all look very appropriate for the screen.
All have different IP addresses at the top.

At first I thought they meant that someone wanted to see what songs I was sharing.

I am running Limewire Client 2.7.7 Pro.