I know that my subject line of this post sounds like a rant from one of those...well, ranters, but it isn't.

Actually, I do have one rant:

As I type this on the Limewire Post New Thread form, there's that banner ad at the top of the page that flashes red and white saying "If this is flashing, than you've won!"

I'm not sure, but I think it gave me some kind of seizure, because I just woke up with my socks on my hands and I seem to have lost the last 15 minutes.

If anybody knows who invented the flashing banner ad, could you give him a nice kick in the crotch for me?

Anyway, the reason for this post is usually the problems people have with Limewire are connection, upload and download problems, and whenever you network geniuses (and I use that term in the literal sense) suggest a solution, its usually peppered with terms like dropped hosts, and upload slots, and port 6346, and firewall settings, and requery, and static IP, and I sit there and think: I recognize all of these as being words from the English language, but I have no idea what the Hell these people are talking about!

My question is this: Can someone recommend a book or something that explains the nuts and bolts of what it is that apps like Limewire do when someone wants a copy of **EDIT** from my hard disk?

I know that you network pros have spent years emersed in this stuff, and I don't expect to grasp everything, but I just want something like "Upload Slots and Dropped Hosts for Dummies" that can explain how all of this Gnutella stuff works.

And while I'm at it: What the Hell is a Gnutella?!

Thanks for any direction you can provide!

Chris