Why am I connected to so many hosts?
 

Hey, folks

Usually when I use Limewire, and I click on the Connections tab, I see that I'm connected to three or so Hosts. (I have it set to "Keep approximately 2 connections up.")

Well occasionally (like right now) I'm connected to about 60 Incoming hosts. Is this because I'm being used as an Ultrapeer host connection? If so, are users selected as Ultrapeer hosts randomly, or how does that work? And what's the difference between an Incoming and and Outgoing Host?

BTW, I have two or three dozen other questions about this P2P file sharing technology if someone's interested in answering a few?

Thanks in advance!

C

Re: Why am I connected to so many hosts?
 

Yes.

Only users with a fast connection become a ultrapeer by default.

An incoming connection if when a host/ultrapeer connected to you, an outgoing if you connected to him.

Ask if you want to know more, I try to help if i can! :)

Morgwen

Thanks, Morgwen!

Ok, (you've opened the floodgates) here are a few more questions about things that confuse me:

First, what exactly is a "Host". From what I've read in the Limewire knowledge base, my understanding of how Gnutella works is this: Computer A (me) connects with Computer B and announces to B that Computer A (me) has arrived. Computer B then announces to Computers C, D, E, and so on, that A has arrived.

Using this method, Computer A can request a given file from all the computers on the network. Once it finds one, Computer A establishes an HTTP link to that computer and downloads the file. If Computer A finds the file on a computer that's behind a firewall, Comp. A sends a push request, and if they choose, THEY establish the HTTP connection with Comp. A and upload the file.

Now with all of that in mind, back to my question: in Limewire, are the "Hosts" that I (Computer A) connect to actually Computers B, C, D, and E as described above? If so, than why would I need to be connected to more than one Host? Couldn't I have access to the entire network by connecting to one Host and let the chain reaction do its thing?

This has also been bugging me: Sometimes when I search for a file, Limewire won't find it, but it will list .URL, .HTM, .RAR, .EXE, etc. files with the same name I was searching for, but modified a bit. For example, if I did a search for "helvetica", Limewire would return with "!setup_helvetica.rar" or "!!!-helvetica.asf". Can you explain why this happens?

Thanks for any light you can shed on any of these questions!

C

Every user is automatilly a host, this is just an other name.

Yes its enough if you are only conneted to one host BUT every search query (a search request) has a limited time to leave (TTL), normally the TTL is up to 7, this means the query dies after 7 hops. Your client sends your query only to the host you are connected with and this host send the query to the host he is connected with and so on... but only up to 7 times! After this the qeury dies.
When you are connected to more hosts your query is sent to more hosts, so you have a higher horizon and will find more files! Note that every host cost you bandwidth, ultrapeers cost you more bandwidth.

Hope you understand it! :)


All these files include your key word, Limewire is able to search for similar files too.

Morgwen

Thanks, BP

You know, I've never been praised so highly for knowing so little! God, where were you when I was in college!

Anyway, sometimes when I compliment my seven-year-old daughter for doing something cool, like doing a cartwheel or jumping rope, she then does that thing over and over again in an effort to get more of that delicious praise. And then the cartwheel demonstration goes from being cute to being, well, annoying.

So I hope any future questions that I post don't become, well, annoying.

The fact is: I get frustrated when I don't understand an issue, but I hear people discussing it intelligently. It's like when you're on the subway and a foreign chick looks at you, and leans over and mutters something in Spanish or Farsi or Greek to her friend, and her friend starts laughing.

I just think that it's amazing that I can type the name of a song or something into Limewire and within seconds, I can get a copy of it from some dude in halfway around the world! (Of course I'm sure the RIAA isn't as excited by it as I am.)

Anyway, I still have a bunch of questions. On an unrelated note, if anybody can steer me to a site that'll explain how the cartridge on an inkjet printer gets all those little dots of ink placed perfectly on the page so quickly, I'd appreciate it.

Rock on,
C

There are NO stupid questions, only stupid anwsers... ask if you want.

Morgwen

Morgwen, again you made it crystal clear - and I can now cross "TTL" off of my list of "Capital Letters that Confuse Me."

But you brought up bandwidth, and that opens a whole new can of worms for me.

Now, this I understand: I have a fast DSL connection, and it's logical that the speed at which I download a file is limited by the speed that the person I'm connected to can upload it. (Incidentally, if I'm downloading from someone who's uploading, which of us is the "Client?")

...but back to bandwidth: I've noticed that sometimes I can download a file from someone with a 56K modem faster than I can from someone with a fast T1 or Cable/DSL connection. How can this be? I assume that it's dependent on how many files each of us is uploading and downloading at the time, right?

But sometimes I'll notice under the Monitor tab in Limewire that I'm uploading a file to someone and it's only going out at .09Kbps. Is there a way I can tell how fast that person's connection is? Or is there a way for me to find out on my computer how much bandwidth I have, and how it's being used?

The reason is that sometimes I'll want to disconnect from the network, but I feel guilty because I don't want to interrupt their transfer, but, ugh, it can take so loooong! Is there a way from me to free up bandwidth on my end to speed up the process?

And finally, sometimes I'll find a file I want, but don't have time to download it. So I write down that person's IP address and figure that I can later connect directly to them and get the file by entering their IP address manually through the Connections tab. This never seems to work, however. Why not? What is that box under the Connections tab for if not what I described above?

Thanks again, Morgwen. You're a real mensch!

C

The client is the prog you need to access the net, Limewire, bearshare, Gnucleus etc.

Yes and no, DSL connections are "normally" full duplex, this means that there is no affect to your download speed if your upload speed is at maximun - so you have FULL bandwidth in both ways... only modem users 56k and less are the unlucky people here, if they upload something the can´t download "fast"!
The speed is limted by your ISP and how many people are downloading from you... if you offer one slot (only one user can download from) this user has your full bandwidth, if you offer 4 slots your bandwidth is shared by them...



You can send a ping but this isn´t very reliable...

Your bandwidth is limited by your ISP, my connection for example has a speed of 768k down and 128k up (8k = 1 kb).

How your bandwidth is used... Limewire shows you exatly for what and how much bandwidth is needed...



If you are using other Internet applications you can close them. But you shouldn´t feel guilty because the most clients have multi-source-download, so if you go offline he will find an other source to download from or can resume the download next time you are online - I don´t want to stay online for 24 hours too...

Because the most users have a dynamic IP address, this means every time you go online your IP change at least every 24 hours (in Germany), and its possible that the people are not online anymore...


Some people have a static IP address. You can also get a static one you need only subcribe to such a service:

http://www.no-ip.com/

The free offer is enough.

Morgwen

As long as we're asking lots of questions...

(using LW 2.4.4, W2k, cable)

1) I see lots of people talking about the number of hosts they have connected, but any time I look at my connections tab, all I have is a bunch of questions marks in the "Hosts" column. Somebody said that Morpheus ultrapeers will ruin the LimeWire host count, but even when I remove all the non-LW hosts, there is no count. Might there be a reason?

2) Since I'm behind a firewall, I chose to force an IP address. According to ipconfig, my IP address is 192.168.1.102. However, I see that address coming up in my searches, as well as .101 and .102 (which appear to be my roommates computers, but they are not sharing the files that show up in my searches). I would assume that this isn't really the right address to push, so is there any way that I can find a more effective way to get around my firewall?

3) Isn't TTL usually "time to live"?

4) Regarding Moe's question about adding a host IP, is there any way to set a particularly quick host to a higher priority or anything like that? I just tried adding a certain IP to my hosts list, but I guess they weren't set up for ultrapeer capabilities and it couldn't establish a connection. It's rare for me to acheive 60 kB/s, so when I find a good connection, I'd like to be able to keep up with it.

Thanks in advance,

Brandan L.

Hi Brandan!

1) Good question, I have to ask too...

2) You can open the port 6346 in your firewall but this will tricky without the permission of your admi!

3) Yes, I described it above.

4) As I said this is not so easy, this GOOD connection need a static IP address like you.

Morgwen

Morgwen, you're amazing.

I think I've mined your mind enough for the time being, so I'll keep my mouth shut for a while and give you a breather.

Well, I guess I do have one question: What do you do there in Germany? Do you teach on this subject, because your explanations are so precise and to the point.

If you ever write a book on this kind of stuff, let me know so I can pre-order it on Amazon.com!

Cheers,
C

No! :)

I "translate" what I have learned, nothing more. ;)

Morgwen

Also you may want to consider that a user's reported connection speed may not be the best indicator of how quickly you can transfer files with him/her. Downloading from users with a four star quality rating will help you find the best connection speed possible.

since someone is on the answering mood...
 

I'll ask only one more question. :)

Does Limewire keep track of my broken downloads by the IP of the host?

If it does, this would be the answer for why I don't seem to resume downloads from some hosts.

In the meantime: thank you guys for the anwers for the questions I did not have to ask... Just now I begin to understand how this P2P thing works.

Oh, just one more question: why is the TTL of the query so small? Would a larger TTL clog the network?

Thanks.

Ajutagir,

Thanks for your response!

And as with most responses, it leads me to yet ANOTHER question:

What does Limewire do to determine if someone is a four-star rating? Do you Ping them somehow as Morgwen suggested? If so, Morgwen said that that's not always reliable. Couldn't they be a four-star rating one second and a one-star the next depending on their activity?

The reason I ask is that this dovetails with my question on how can I determine the speed of someone with whom I'm uploading or downloading a file. Can I rate the person myself? (By the way, how do I refer to someone I'm uploading or downloading with? Are they a "host" or...?)

Thanks!

C

Kind of off topic but....

I was wondering about Ethernet connections. Namely, 10Mbps vs. 100Mbps and Half-Duplex vs. Full Duplex. Are these two things independant from each other? What I mean is can you have four different combinations like 10Mbps Half Duplex, 10Mbps Full Duplex, 100Mbps Half Duplex, and 100Mbps Full Duplex?

Or is it only two? Like 10Mbps is only Half Duplex and 100Mbps is Full Duplex?

Thanks in advance...

I think I know a couple of these...

Moe:

Yes. It's just like the requery function. If a few thousand users really were sending 5 or 6 requeries every 300 seconds, and queries were allowed to hop to 15 hosts, there would be a ton of congestion.


I'm not sure about that, but it could very well be that a four-star host suddenly filled his upload slots or signed off before you got a chance to connect to him. Napster's ping results were always very reliable for me; however, I think a DOS ping command doesn't follow the same route to the pinged host as your file transfer will, so it won't be an accurate estimate of speed.


Sounds good to me. :D


mdouma46:

10 Mbps and 100 Mbps are bandwidths, just like a 56 kbps modem (except a few thousand times faster). It means 10 million bits per second, or 1.25 million bytes per second (8 bits in a byte). Your nicer university networks run 100 Mbps, and home networks are usually 10 Mbps. You can say "ten mega baud" if you don't like "ten million bits per second."

You have an maximum upload speed and a separate maximum download speed. According to this speed test, I can run 350 kB/s on uploads and about 1.5 MB/s on downloads. If your network card is capable of full-duplex, you can upload and download something to and from a host simultaneously. In half-duplex mode, you can be sending or receiving, but not both. I was under the impression that under full-duplex, you were guaranteed both your maximum upload and download speeds at any given time, whereas in half-duplex, a heavy download could deplete some of your upload bandwidth. I may be misinformed.

Hoping there's at least one truthful sentence in this post,

Brandan L.

Thanks, for the response, Brandan!

I'm not sure, but I think that reading this thread can get you college credits at most Universities!

To all you guys who have, politely and without smartypantsness, helped us rookies understand the mysteries of file sharing, thank you so much!

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm done asking questions...

C