I have cable Internet service through comcast@home. Once upon a time, I could count on Limewire downloading files from other broadband hosts at a steady speeds up to and exceeding 100kbs. I would say this was the case up to a month ago. Now, however, my download speeds vary WILDLY, and usually cap out at about 4kbs, which is more like 36K dial-up modem performance. I'm seeing downloads and uploads randomly jump around between 0.0kbs to 4 and 4.5kbs, never staying at the same transfer rate from one second to the next. Sometimes, transfer speeds will stabilize and gradually increase, going as high as 20kbs. And then transfer rates slow back down and become again unstable, varying wildly as described before.

Has Limewire's new Java requirements ruined its performance? Are the newer versions bug infested? Why are others having these same performance issues, and why has no one addressed them?