How much bandwidth goes in to an mp3 file? I like to save my bandwidth to surf the internet. Is there a way to buy bandwidth so it doesn't run out that much?

I don't care about the speeds. I just care about getting the file I searched for. How do I change it in bearshare?

Your ISP sets & controls your bandwidth. It all depends on who your ISP is and what they allow. Some ISP's don't even allow P2P. When I use Bearshare and Im on cable speed it takes me less than 2 minutes to download a MP3. Try not to download too much at once and try not to surf online while downloading. The more you multitask, the more bandwidth you use. Also, on Gnutella, you have to depend on the other users and what they allow for bandwidth and if they happen to be sharing the times that you are on. You could be downloading from dialups and going slow. I try to download only from cable speed to cable speed.

Garbagefan2

Spinx is right and you must also remember that what you can download is dependant on how fast a P2P member can upload. For example, Spinx mentioned "dial-up" so if you are downloading from a P2P user who only has "dial-up" then you cannot download faster than he can upload, which will be very slow.

Also, there is traffic, the more traffic on the internet when you are using it the slower your downloads will be. Traffic can also affect how many times your PC will have to request a packet of data (i.e. if a packet of data arrives that does not conform to what is expected, your PC will send a request for that "packet" to be resent).

And, of course, you have to consider distance (where is the data coming from), infrastructure (may not be as advanced or up to western standards) and quality of connection.

So basically, there is more to downloading via P2P than just getting a broadband line, in fact it can be said to be more complex than just downloading from a single web-site.



UK Bob

Also if you are using basic free Bearshare I think the host limit is 9? If you can get that many hosts that are sharing and active at the sametime you are, on a popular song file it should download in no time at all.

If you can get b25 running, it goes up to 50 files at a time and 50 streams per
file at a time, but is still limited to 50 download connections total. On a typical
DSL or cable connection you'll typically hover at around 35-50 connections at
a time but the lack of artificially imposed limits does eliminate the loss of
opportunities to connect to fast sources.

BearShare Pro is almost as good but the limit of streams per file is much lower.

Whats the host limit now in BS? Sometimes I can get as high as 14 once in awhile depending on how popular the song file is, but not much higher. I still think its faster than LW. I dont think Ive ever had that many connects at the sametime heh. 50?