Thanks for the reply David91.

I changed service providers when I went over to ADSL. My ADSL provider is a normal commercial provider (ozemail). It can't be anything to do with firewall as I didn't change anything in Norton's Internet Security - and I don't play around with port configuration anyway as I don't know much about that.

I am considering contacting my new service provider and putting the question to them.

What I have noticed is that if someone is trying to upload there is a timeout. And this often happens when I try to download, although occassionally I get a download connection. Generally speaking I am having less success with downloads since changing over from dial-up . The download speeds are much higher of course when they occur.

Hmmm

Well, if you are going to talk to your ISP, I advise you to ask only in the most general of terms about problems in peer-to-peer connections. Attribute your experience to apps with a less controversial image than Gnutella clients. ISPs get nervous if you actually tell them you might be breaking the law (something, of course, none of us ever do). But, it sounds as if it's a software problem at your end rather than an ISP problem. So, what hardware are you driving, which operating system and which version of Limewire? Perhaps, you have a version of Limewire that does not fit so well with your current operating system or you have not updated (which can cause real problems if an older client is trying to connect to the latest clients).

David91,

Following on, I am experiencing the same problems with WinMX, so it's nothing to do with your network. I am running Window XP and the latest edition of LiveWire as it was only installed a few days ago. I have been a user of WinMX for a few years. I must say that I had similar problems a few years ago when I was on a cable connection, that's why I went back to dial-up.
Will certainly take your advice if I end up communicating with my provider.
Cheers