limewire NOT working; i've tried EVERYTHING!

[jillian.kaye]

i honestly have tried everything you could think of: moved limewire into firewall exception list, enabled the uP2P on my Linksys router...

my Limewire still will not show any search results. it will open correctly and say it has a connection, but when i search it just says "connecting..." and then stops searching. i am so completely frustrated. i've used limewire for years before on this same computer, and now all of a sudden it stops working? i cannot say for sure, but i think it may have stopped working after a bought the linksys router, so it may be that? PLEASE help me...i'm so frustrated and i feel like i'm banging my head against a wall.

these are my system details:
1. OS version? (eg: Windows 98) Windows Vista, administrator account
2. What firewalls you have? Norton 360, but i have put Limewire in the exceptions list
3. How much ram? 4.00 GB
4. Hard Disk space available? 10.5 GB
5. Connection type? (eg: dialup, broadband, cable, etc.)
6. Modem & router brand name & model numbers? (eg: Linksys WRT54Gv4) Linksys WRT120N
7. Where are you trying to connect from (house, appartment complex, school, student accomodation, work, etc.)? apartment complex
8. What version of LimeWire (LW) & Java do you have? LW 5.5.14 Java 1.6.0_21
9. Who is your ISP (Internet Service Provider)? Charter
10. Click on this port test link & tell us what happens. If you see "Success" listed at very top left of screen, then at least this port is not blocked for you. If you cannot reach this page, then something is blocking this test page or this connection port. : i cannot reach the page. it just keeps searching.
11. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs? 3 other people go through the modem, but they are not using p2p
12. Is this a your 1st try at LW or is this a new problem with an experienced user. : new problem with experienced user
13. (a) Do you see a brick wall in front of the blue world icon at the bottom of LW's interface (only for LW 4 users)? _ (b) How many red or grey or green bars do you see at bottom left of LW's screen? (all red or grey or only 1 or 2 green bars means disconnected)_ : it varies, but most of the time i have 1-3 green bars.

[Lord of the Rings]

One option is to port forward your device. See PortForward.com - Port Forwarding Limewire on the Linksys WRT120N. Remember to set up a static ip address first before you actually forward a port on the router.

For LW 5's settings, see Manual port forward instructions & sample image. The one on the previous site shows a LW 4 example, not LW 5. If you download torrents also, you should probably make this port the same also.

[jillian.kaye]

i have the up2p so i don't see why i would need to forward my port, but i tried it anyways. it didn't work. now limewire won't connect at all, let alone search for things. so i changed everything back to the old ip settings, with the up2p still enabled.

[Lord of the Rings]

Did you disable Vista's firewall? Have you tried removing & re-adding LW to the Norton firewall?

Originally Posted by jillian.kaye

... i think it may have stopped working after a bought the linksys router, so it may be that?

The reason I suggested port forwarding is some Linksys routers can be a bit unreliable in UPnP mode. Wireless mode seems to make it more tricky.

If the problem is not the Linksys. And the problem is not Charter. Then perhaps the issue is other security on your computer. Something is possibly blocking connection/listening ports.

* There is a possibility your LW is connecting to dud or poor performing ultrapeers. However it seems unlikely this would occur every single occasion your LW connects. One trick would be to go to your LW menu bar, Tools -> Advanced Tools. Select the longest connected ultrapeer & remove. Wait until LW connects properly again. Then try a search. Repeat process.