I'm not opposed to auto-requeries being implemented in Limewire in some form if the implementation doesn't flood the network, but for this particular feature (fixing the broken magnet download process) I'd be just as happy with a single-search based on the urn:sha1:### info to start. If auth find makes a comeback as a result that'd be great, but it not even having the single search occur seamlessly would be a great step forward since currently using only the
http:// host is only useful when the host is a stable system on the network (very few are -- almost every magnet link I've tested is not available in Limewire since it relies exclusively on the IP host, whereas they work just fine in other p2p programs that actually use the extra info to search.
Shareaza, for example, does a good job of handling magnets. When a magnet is used with Shareaza it displays a dialog box to the end user asking if they want to download the file immediately (via the
http:// host) or start a search (using the hash info).
Simply fixing the broken magnet download process (so that it starts a search at least once) would be a big step forward for integrating Limewire with the Web. Over this summer we're testing Limewire Pro and other P2P clients on a medical network that uses a Web-based front end to present doctors and patients with media (owned by the hospitals; no copyright issues). Currently Limewire doesn't work because it doesn't integrate well with the enterprise or the Web. To integrate with the Web it requires seamless downloading of magnets, and also the ability to hand-back the content it downloads to the client (serve to the client after processing the request to download a file). To integrate better with the enterprise we need some form of control over which nodes a given Limewire client will interact with. All of these are fairly straight-forward updates, and would go a long way toward making Limewire Pro suitable for enterprise (business) applications, and so I'm more than happy to do the extensive testing needed to help make that possible.
Aaron