Help, i have just installed LimeWire. I went through the installation wizard and made guntella an exeption on my firewall. Then the Limewire search page comes up. I attempt to do an audio search and it tells me as i am still loading i may not get the best search. So i notice on the bottom left corner there is 5 bars, the smallest is green the 4 taller are red. Next to that is a world with a wall infront of it - saying the program has detected a firewall. Does it normally take so long to load the program or am i doing something wrong??? i have een sitting here for about an hour.

It shouldn't take an hour for it to load. But you should wait for it to load, connect to the gnutella network & settle before using. It sounds like you're not connected to the gnutella network because of a firewall such as a NAT modem/router or something.

Can you give us a total desciption of your set up:
1. OS version? (eg: Windows 98)
2. What firewalls you have?
3. How much ram?
4. Hard Disk space available?
5. Connection type? (eg: dialup, broadband, cable, etc.)
6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers?
7. Where are you trying to connect from (home, school, work, etc.)?
8. What version of Limewire (LW) & Java do you have? (Go to LW's menu Help>About LW...) Will show both LW & Java version.
9. Who is your isp provider (Internet Service Provider)?
10. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? If yes, please give details of set up.
11. 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?

I am using my work computer, it has Windows XP.
It has a windows firewall on it.
i dont know how much ram or hard disk space, i dont know how to find out. But i have only been using the computer for a couple months.
The connection is broadband and i have no idea about the modem.
I am using Java 1.5.0-04 and limewire 4.10.0.
My provider is mozilla firefox
I am not sharing any connections or programmes
AND went i did the test it said - your test worked.

I am so lost!!

So you're using a standalone computer connected directly to the internet? Or it's somehow networked to other computers ... perhaps via a router or network card? The reason I'm asking is I'm wondering if anybody at work may be able to control how much interaction you have with the internet.

Did you configure your firewall so it allows LW full access (advisable not to have 2 active firewalls b/c they can interfere with each other); Firewall configuration instructions (click on link)

Also check to see if there's any utility programs such as anti-virus, anti-spyware & anti-adware programs on the computer. 'Some' require a program permission to connect to the internet. If you do have such programs then check their options/preferences settings.