i need to know exactly how this worked. i found a thread with peerless and lordoftherings (2 super smart guys) who posted some advice on how to get connected. i did copy that bearshare cache.zip into the db folder and also opened up windows firewall and added the bearshare test exception and the TCP/UDP ports in there, but my windows firewall was turned off anyway, I use zone alarm. and i didnt touch zone alarm at all for this, i just made those changes in windows firewall. i also dropped some type of zip file that aaronwalkhouse quoted in the 'bearshare is sabotaged' topic. what i would like is maybe some info so that i can make my own troubleshooting guide for just my setup, so if this happens again years down the road, i can just open a word doc and follow the instructions, and get this working again. thanks to all who read and help out.

Glad to hear! Updating the connection cache is important. Also Ultrapeer mode seems to help force the connections. You should also have firewall exceptions however for whichever firewall you are using.

thanks LOTR. its all but impossible to get a personalized answer to a question on ANY forum, but the advice you gave the other member went above and beyond and that kind of help is hard to find nowadays. ive been struggling with this bearshare issue for a while and even my wife was bummed out she couldnt use it, so youve definitely scored me some points with my old lady, haha. might seem like a thankless job at times, but your efforts dont go unnoticed man, trust that.