1. OS version? (eg: Windows 98) Mac OSX 10.3.9
2. What firewalls you have? OS X firewall is on, but Gnutella and Limewire are both allowed
3. How much ram? 768 MB
4. Hard Disk space available? 55.76 GB capacity, 11.88 GB available
5. Connection type? (eg: dialup, broadband, cable, etc.) Broadband
6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers? Modem: Alvarion BreezeACCESS SU-I & Router: Linksys WRT54GSV4
7. Where are you trying to connect from (house, appartment complex, school, student accomodation, work, etc.)? House
8. What version of LimeWire (LW) & Java do you have? (Go to LW's menu Help>About LW...) Will show both LW & Java version. LimeWire: 4.12.11 Pro & Java: 1.4.2_12
9. Who is your ISP (Internet Service Provider)? Casair.net
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? Connection timed out/server taking too long to respond
11. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? If yes, please give details of set up. We have a home network with one desktop and three laptops connecting through the router, but this has never been an issue before. I occasionally use Azureus but NEVER at the same time as LimeWire.
12. Is this a your 1st try at LW or is this a new problem with an experienced user. New problem with an experienced user
13. Do you see a brick wall in front of the blue world icon at the bottom of LW's interface? _ click here to see Sample image Yes (but always have, even when LimeWire worked)
14. For those using a modem/router, how is your modem/router set up...are you port forwarding or is UPnP enabled? I am port forwarding and UPnP is enabled
15. What security programs are you using (antivirus etc)? Some people might not be aware that their security suite includes a firewall Running only OS X's firewall
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

Except for a connection to one host about a week ago, I haven't been able to connect for around two months. I have replaced my gnutella.net file several times. I have deleted my LimeWire preferences three times. I checked to see I have only one copy of Java and that it has the latest update installed (update 5). I double-checked my router's UPnP and port forwarding settings, even changing the port I'm using twice to see if that would do anything (also adjusting the corresponding values in LimeWire's preferences and the OS' firewall allowance listing). I made sure the router has the latest firmware available for it (and what it has is the same version it used when I was able to connect). I simply do not understand why it was working fine one day and then suddenly couldn't connect the next. I do remember, though, that the program would cycle through connection hosts in the week or two prior to not connecting at all--I would often have just two of my connections remain while the other three would cycle, dropping and getting replaced by other hosts. I don't know what else to check or try, and I'm getting tired of banging my head against this wall.

I understand the move of my message, but because it was centrally about a connection issue I don't really get why it was moved. I don't see any of the same messages written by Windows users with connection problems moved to the 'General Windows Support' or 'General Vista Support' areas. I thought the 'Connection Problems' area was for those types of issues, regardless of OS. I did think about posting it in one of the Mac sub-forums, but I felt it was less an OS problem than a connection problem right now--I just happen to be using a Mac OS rather than the typical Windows OS. (Mind you, I'm not complaining or anything, I'm just wondering why my message was singled out when the subject did fall under the sub-forum category.)

Because there are so few Mac questions asked here, compared to Windows questions & so few Mac users who help here, compared to Windows users.

If your thread's in the Mac section then it has a much better chance of being seen by the 2 Mac users who help here. There might be an issue within your setup which is possibly causing a problem, that only a Mac user would recognise ( eg most Windows users wouldn't have a clue which Java versions Mac users need & I wouldn't have a clue about how to locate the LW preferences folder on a Mac). It was probably me who moved your thread & if it was, I did it so that you'll (hopefully) have an answer sooner rather than later

I could leave Mac questions in the Connection Problems section, but there's a good chance they'd sit there unanswered for a long time

Because Vista's a relatively new OS & there are no regular helpers using Vista at the moment, most Vista connection problems also tend to get sent over to General Vista Support...so that fixes posted apply to that OS. Up until a few months ago, we weren't getting too many Vista posts & so they could've got lost/forgotten/ignored within the general Connection Problems section.

Maybe we need to have a connection problems sub forum within the Mac & Vista sections & move the current Connection Problems to within the Windows section, to cover older Windows OSs.

10. Shows port 6346 is completely blocked. 13. Shows you are having firewall problems.

Perhaps you didn't set port forwarding up correctly. The very first thing you should have done is set up a static ip. How to set up a Static ip for Mac OSX (click on link) If this was not the very first thing you did during the port forwarding process, then it was not done correctly & should be started from scratch, removing the previous port forward rule. For port forwarding your device, you should do both TCP & UCP. Even better to do them as separate port forward rules but not necessary. Then after setting up your port forward rules you save settings & depending on brand of device, may need to reboot that device to properly save & get the device into action with the new PF rules. Steps are (1) Static ip. (2) Set up port forward rules. (3) Save settings & reboot device if it requires it. (4) Set port forward settings for LW; Manual port forward instructions & sample image.

* Do not use the same port to connect thru as any other computer on the network. If the others are using port 6346 then choose another & make appropriate changes to your settings in LW, port forward rules, and as an extra OSX firewall rule.

Ahh--and here I was thinking the opposite, that since the 'Connection Problems' area gets more traffic I was more apt to get help there. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.

My point was that, until it stopped working, I never changed anything pertaining to LimeWire anywhere. What you saw for my details were exactly as they were when the program WAS working (although, I can't verify that I always timed out going to the test link because I never tried it before). I always had a firewall icon, even when I could connect and download files (usually 20-60 KB/S, some near 100 KB/s). I have a static IP set, and my port forwarding is still set up as I first did it to use the program, and it worked then. I have only recently changed port numbers to see it that might help, but it hasn't. None of the other computer users are savvy enought to do anything much beyond answer emails and surf the web (and they don't know how to get into the router's settings to make changes). I have emailed my ISP to find out if they've begun blocking the Gnutella network, waiting on their response.

ISP reports they simply throttle the number of concurrent connections and bandwidth usage, not the ability to connect peer to peer applications.

Whilst you were able to connect before, you had a firewall problem, so either OSX firewall or the router were not set up correctly, else, the firewall was coming somewhere between your computer & your ISP. Having that firewall problem was not good. Now you can't connect at all, and port 6346 is totally blocked. How port 6346 suddenly became blocked sounds suspicous. Generally it's the ISP at fault.

BTW something I forgot to mention before is your model of Linksys is a "lemon" as it has a firmware problem which Linksys never bothered to fix. The effect is unreliable operation, thus occasional undesired firewalling & sometimes maybe loss of connection. Whether your router is at fault here I don't know. I'd be interested if you can connect with LW by by-passing the Linksys router & just using the modem. Try it & see what happens.

If it does connect, then the problem is with the Linksys. If so, then remove your port forward rules for it. Redo them but choose a port between 49152 - 65535 (a good one to try is often port 64049.) Add this port number to your OSX firewall setting, else do another LimeWire one. Also change the connection & listening port numbers in the LW preferences settings. If you "cannot connect" when "not" using the Linksys, then do above anyway.

Yes, I have learned of the less than stellar behavior of our router model from others' comments I've seen on the internet, but we've never experienced any such problems before. Guess we've just been lucky. *knocks on wood*

Anyway, I connected my laptop directly to the modem but couldn't get LimeWire connected by way of an Ethernet connection either. (I did get Azureus to connect and download files, though, both through the router and with a direct-to-modem connection.)

I redid the port forwarding as you suggested, rebooted the router, and was able to get ONE connection after a few minutes went by (usually my five turbo connections are made by that time). Normally I might start jumping for joy after all this time of getting no connections, but this is basically what I experienced a few weeks ago: one day it finally found something and then the next day nothing. I'll feel better if I can at least duplicate this behavior tomorrow or several days' running. But, any ideas why I can't get five? Based on getting multiple connections with Azureus (10+), I wouldn't think it is because of my ISP throttling concurrent connections as I previously mentioned.

Okay, got five connections now after about an hour, so maybe it just had to settle down a bit after getting up and running. Crossing my fingers that this will last. Thanks for all your help up to this point guys!