I have a host running Limewire 4.0.8/Windows XP with a public IP address on a 768k upstream, 1500k downstream DSL line (no ports blocked).

This machine quickly became an ultrapeer, and after about a day of uptime, in the connections tab, it says that I have: (0 Ultrapeers, 28 Peers, 29 Leaves, 0 Connecting, 0 Standard).

It is my understanding that an UltraPeer is also supposed to connect to a few other UltraPeers in order to provide a wider view onto the network for the leaf nodes that the UltraPeer is servicing. So I started wondering why my UltraPeer on the DSL line doesn't have any connections to other UltraPeers.

To investigate further, I connected my laptop (Limewire 4.0.8 on Mac OS 10.3.5) to my housemate's Comcast Internet connection, again with a public IP address and no ports blocked. This machine also became an UltraPeer fairly soon. After an hour or so, it had 29 Peers and 29 Leaves, and no UltraPeer connections.

I then manually instructed my laptop to connect to my desktop's IP address. The connection was established quickly and remained connected, but on both the desktop and the laptop, Limewire's connection window showed that the connection between my two UltraPeers was actually a "Peer" connection using only the "Peer" protocol.

I am wondering whether this is some kind of a bug in Limewire, or whether I just don't understand something about the way the protocol is supposd to work.

Thanks,
DrDeke