Leaf vs. Ultrapeer & connection flooding
 

I am experiencing a problem with either too few connections (in Leaf mode) or to many (in Ultrapeer mode).

But first let me say that I have read the FAQ at limewire.com. Regarding connections it says, "For more information, check Options under User Guide." Well I can't find an "Options" section in the User Guide. And all the User Guide says about Connections is:
That's helpful ...

The Status column always says "Outgoing" and the Protocol column always says "Ultrapeer" whether the servent is in Leaf mode or in Ultrapeer mode.

What is the "Dropped I/O" column and why is it only the LimeWire servents that seem to have such high percentages? Is it because they are all suffering from the same problem as mine? That problem being one of feast or famine.

I am running LimeWire 2.9.11 on Mandrake 9.1 with a cable modem connection. When I first connect, I connect as a Leaf node. LimeWire maintains a minimum of three connections -- very seldom more. And so I starve for fruitful search results and downloads.

After a while the servent automatically switches to Ultrapeer mode, and then I am flooded with connections. So many that my poor, little 200MHz processor just can't handle it, and everything slows to a crawl. I have to use short-cut keys to activate the File menu and Disconnect. I should add that these connections are more aptly described as connection attempts; very few of them "stick" and thus new connections are constantly being attempted.

It seems that most of my uploads have occurred during Ultrapeer mode, and I would rather not disable Ultrapeer capabilities as there may be some who could use at least some of my bandwidth. And while in Leaf mode, I would like to maintain more connections.

Isn't there some sort of compromise between to few and too many connections -- other than Ultrapeer or no Ultrapeer?

How can I change the minimum number of connections for Leaf mode and the maximum number of connections for Ultrapeer mode? Is this buried in the code somewhere?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Terry

Hi Terry
There is not currently a user pref for setting the number of connections, but searching as leaf is currently very good. Search for posts by "trap_jaw (he's the poster who could answer your questions about editing the code). See also this thread for more on the Ultrapeer questions http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...hreadid=20260.

If that's not enough, post back and I'll see what else I can find that might help.

Re: Leaf vs. Ultrapeer & connection flooding
 

In recent versions, the limewire network has a higher percentage of ultrapeers, hence the many ultrapeers. when running as a leaf, you connect to ultrapeers exclusively, when running as leaf, I usually have around 30-50% 'normal' hosts, the rest are ultrapeers.

I know this is irritating. Limewire has a misleading interface. The point is that the messages are supposed to be dropped. In recent versions, limewire ultrapeers filter out search requests for stuff that their leaves don't have, so, if somebody searches for, say, popular artist X, and you don't share any such file, the ultrapeer doesn't forward that search request to you, and limewire reports it as 'dropped'. this keeps more bandwidth free for more useful stuff.

Again, one of these things where limewire does a real bad job at making the user feel things are running smoothly. things actually are running smoothly. as a leaf, you should not have more than 3 connections and having more would not drastically improve your search results but waste bandwidth.

As an ultrapeer, limewire should mainly function as a router of messages, hence the many connections. However, you machine just seems to be too slow for that task. I suggest disabling the ultrapeer feature in options/speed, your machine is no good to the network if it can't keep its connections.

I had the opposite experience. More uploads as a leaf as more bandwidth is awailable. If you keep sharing the same files and have a static IP, you should very soon be passed around as an alt-loc for the files you're serving and from then on, you will have uploads without even getting hits.

IMHO, Considering you use a 200 mhz machine, I suggest running as a leaf. There's plenty of ultrapeers out there lately, and you won't really lose any functionality, if anything, you will contribute more to the network.

Hope that helps somewhat ;)

That helps very much osu_uma.

And thank you, stief, for the link to that very educational thread.

I had gathered from that thread that I should be more kind to my antique hardware and just let the rest of you have all the fun. ;)

So what you are saying is that I'm searching for the wrong stuff, right? :D

I had seen quite a few posts by trap_jaw/2/3 and, given their very informative and useful nature, wondered what anyone providing such service could have done to get banned. Still can't figure it out. But, since I won't be hacking on any code any time soon, I guess I won't be needing to find the Phantom of the Phorum.

I hope others find this thread as helpful as I did. Thank you.

Terry

You're welcome.

As for your hardware, you might be OK (I'm on a Mac) in future versions as the code gets improved. So much changes that one week's advice is easily outdated and becomes irrelevant, kinda like the banning--whatever happened in the past seems irrelevant now.

Keep on searching--I saw as much if not more success searching as a leaf.

Cheers

it is the other way round: other people search for the wrong stuff (i.e. stuff you don't have)

if you observe the 'dropped' column, it should show a high percentage of incoming packets dropped. However, the percentage of dropped outgoing packets should be fairly low.

I'm not sure if queries will ever be counted in the dropped column. In any case most of the dropped packets will be pongs. -

I've found that especially with the new search architecture I don't see many uploads (although I'm not using LimeWire very much lately - there are not enough animes and movies on gnutella).