AboutCarolyn Meinel Expertise I cover Windows, Unix, TCP/IP and Ethernet security questions. I do not cover Mac, Palm Pilot, or other networking issues.
Experience Books by Carolyn Meinel: wrote a chapter for The Hacking of America book (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567204600/happyhacker)
My article Code Red for the Web for Scientific American was reprinted in the book Best American Science Writing 2002 (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060936509/happyhacker). My book The Happy Hacker: A Guide to Mostly Harmless Hacking is now in 4th edition with a Japanese edition (see http://happyhacker.org/hhbook/).
Question My 6-year old son has a new MP3 player. I downloaded www.limewire.com, but keep getting the error message that "...a firewall is blocking access to internet or loopback connections on the machine". I am using Windows XP. Thanks in advance for any advice that you may be able to offer. Happy New Year!!!!!
Answer Arghhh!!! Please reconsider using any file sharing program whatsoever. You are lucky that you have a problem using it.
In particular, your mention of a new MP3 player suggests that you hope to use it to download music. Almost any music you download using Limewire or any similar "P2P" program is likely to be illegal to download. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.... for recent news on how expensive it is if you get caught, like thousands of others have been.
Another reason to never, ever use a file sharing program like Limewire is that many of the files you might download hide dangerous programs used by vandals and thieves. See the Federal Trade Commission's warnings of these dangers at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt128.shtm
Now for why your use of Limewire is blocked. There is a good chance your Internet service provider is blocking you at its firewall because many people who do illegal music downloads go nuts over stealing music and download so much that they clog up the connections. Some Internet providers solve the problem by canceling service to the offenders and others simply block all uses of file sharing programs.
If, knowing what enormous risks you are taking, you still want to go ahead, and if it isn't your online provider that is preventing you from using Limewire, your computer is probably protecting you from using LimeWire through your antivirus program. The Limewire site has advice on how to defeat your antivirus program's protections against it at http://www.limewire.org/wiki/index.php?title=User_Cant_Connect.
But unless you are super expert at handling the many dangerous things that could infect your computer through Limewire, and prepared to have your identity stolen, bank account emptied, etc., I don't recommend defeating your antivirus program's protections against Limewire.
