Ok, so I'm a pathetic loser and I only have dial up (sucks to be poor) but does anyone know how I can get more out of my measly 56k? My downloads usually run about 1Kbps. Anything substantial takes 10 or more hours (ouch!). Unfortunately, getting a faster connection like cable or DSL is not an option.

-Smiley the snail

Sorry about your dialup affliction, smiley. I used to have that handicap too. When you say that cable/dsl is not an option, is that because of economics or location? If you HAVE to live with a dial up, be sure that your system is as up to date as possible. ie: windowsupdates, reg cleaner, a good utilities program such as Norton Utilities etc. Scan your system on www.pcpitstop.com and see what they say about it. ...It might not amount to a big difference, but it will give you something to do while you are waiting for those 10 hour downloads. Good luck.

If it makes you feel any better, I just downloaded 3 Linux ISOs on a 14.4k modem (long story) - and if you're really feelling slow, I still have two 300 baud accoustic modems I can let you borrow for while

14K ? did the puppy chew through part of the phone line? lol

Do you really think that dial up users are pathetic losers?
Many people use dial up because they:
- cant afford it
- dont need it
- cant get it

I'm using dial up too

1 kbps is really slow for a modem, I think 5 kbps download speed is normal using 56k. I have a ISDN and its maximum 7 - 8 kbps.

If you download from webpages or FTP servers use download managers like Flashget, they speed up the download by requesting the file several times (segmented download / swarming).

Using Gnutella you should try to download from fast hosts (dsl, cable, t1, t3) only. Many clients (limewire included) support swarming so you should get a better performance if you download one file which is available several times in the GNet.