tngray said: "I can direct connect to the host. Does this indicate that they are connected to the network at the time I direct connect?"
Yes
" Does this mean that the host is blocking the download?" Possibly. I have had a modem host trying with little success off me all day. I think they got 2 or three files, and I tried to download one file off them, just to see what happened. It is still waiting on busy hosts! the host is sharing 98 files ... not you I suppose
this just to show that there are all manner of reasons this could be happening.
As to your last two paragraphs , I am in agreement, as are most of the users of the forum. The majority of LW users do not use this forum and if a couple of people I know personally are anything to go by, could not care a great deal about the necessity to share helpfully, despite my attempts to persuade them otherwise.
but it must be also remembered that a number of isps are restricting bandwidth given over to p2p and that many people have firewall and other issues which prevent them from getting the best out of their equipment.
Back to your original question ... my advise is to re-search for the files, it may take quite a while and many searches, but the chances are someone else will have them, and you will get the files eventually! quite possibly from the same sourse that your unhelpful host got his/hers.