"search results being seen by the bad guys"? Huh, completely different movie. That's not my problem at all. I don't want to see or route results *from* the bad guys. The former isn't possible at all in Gnutella without a lot of modifications to the protocol and even then you can hardly expect to know all addresses of the "bad guys". I guess everybody has his own set of "bad guys" but with respect to this thread, your set has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

What I wanted to say is that there are several ways to apply IP address filters and most of them are inappropriate. The problem with LimeWire is that it doesn't even block the most obvious spam. Other programs do a great job eradicating virtually 90% of all spam not for themselves (in the GUI) but for the whole network - without resorting to arcane, draconian filters causing tons of casualties that occur if you leave this task to the common user who does and does not have to have a clue how the protocol works.

This may be an arms race, however, there's really nothing to
lose but a lot to win.