When someone's uploading from me and I see the chat sign, does that mean they pressed their chat function and are trying to reach me, or is it automatically on. When I press chat the panel typically has no message from them. Should they type something first to prevent me from hanging up? When I type something anyway I either can't reach them or they act like why am I calling. I've only had one good chat.

The chat is a strange thing, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't...
It can depend on the person at the other end , they may not be at their comp...I've only ever had one chat myself, it was with another person from the forum and we arranged it lol...
So try it but if you dont get a reply dont worry....

In your LW options you can enable Chat. When you see other people with that icon it means they also have chat enabled. People who have chat enabled you can chat to, & it's also easier to browse them than those who don't have it enabled.

Many people leave LW running whilst they're at school, work, etc. or overnight. Or in the background whilst they're working on other programs. So they may not see your message. It's often difficult to find people who do see it before the chat invitation goes stale.

Oh ... now i'm getting slow if WW beats me to an answer.

lol...But your answer is better....

If someone does try to send me a chat what will I see? A popup panel? Or just the chat face by their upload?

You will see the pop up panel....

A popup window with a chat. Sometimes you initially see an empty window but after a little time they have sent their 1st message.
It will show their ip no. But your replies will be titled: You (I think from memory)

I have my chat enabled, and see the smiley of others, but it doesn't do anything when i try to chat. What am I doing wrong?

When you see a file with a smiley icon, right-click it & choose chat. Then type in what you want to say to them & press Send. Here's some more clues with images: http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=31572 How do you receive a chat message in Limewire?
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=33584 chat setting up

I don't use the chat function I disable it. I block it because I don't some sicko to talk to me. So I don't want to take a chance.