We had this discussion a couple weeks back...it suddenly goes down, then comes back, then goes down. I'm on a home network w/ cable modem. My ISP does not block gnutella. It is not an issue with my home network, it is something external, but I don't know what. I was just mentioning the network dns issues because my tech friend asked me yesterday if I'd noticed anything unusual in my corner of the world and he said it 'could' be related. Limewire has been more down than up for the last month or so. Most of the time, when I start it, it will not connect to ANY hosts, yet it is still, sometimes, able to download pre-existing downloads. And then suddenly, it all opens up for a few hours at a time and runs smoothly.

The other thing is that items with even 30 or more sources aren't even connecting when usually I at least get a 'nibble' or trickle. I'm not generally downloading mp3s, but tv shows I try to keep up with from abroad.

JMRM: Are you still having intermittant connections? Some isp's will check the line/modem to see if there's a problem.

You can do a no. of checks of your connection here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/tools But to get the full range you need to become a paid member. I'm presently an unpaid member. lol

You use a nexswitch SD050s b/w 3 machines. I'm wondering if this requires port forwarding. Are you aware whether it can or not? All I could find was this:
Port forwarding for Unex IS050S which might be similar (same brand.)

I wonder if there's something failing in your network setup.

Have you checked your cable & wiring interfacing/connections to be sure none of them have ben bent or damaged in any way.

I'm not sure about the DNS addresses problems.

Although it's not compulsory to share, you can usually get better dwnlds if people are uplding from you & if you share more than a certain no. of files (some people filter out those that share less than a certain no.)

My net connection is fine. I've checked it with a local source. I have a 2 mbit line via cable and it tests out now as between 1600-2000 on speed fairly consistantly depending on what I'm running. I've also run the port blocking test...no problem. The bug report tells me that the port is stable, but I sometimes get a message anyway that the connection is NOT stable.

No, no port forwarding. IP is dynamically passed out by ISP and comes in as either a 62.xxx.xxx.xxx or an 80.xxx.xxx.xxx, not 192. Have also tried forced IP etc...but nothing is showing a consistant change/improvement. I also tested the connection directly to the cable modem/bypassed the switch...same deal...my cables are fine. Even went in and rewired the wall connection to make sure the ends of the wires weren't damaged (actually got some improvement on net speed, but no reall diff to gnutella)

At the moment, it's working again, but a few hours ago, it was hopeless....this morning it was working almost full speed. I've also installed 4.2.4 instead of 4.2.3 since this afternoon, so we'll see if it stays 'connected' over the weekend or if the same mess repeats itself.

I have sharing turned on, but have turned off partial sharing as to have control over what is shared. I try to limit it to tv shows as they are a bit less controversial to 'share'.