Lately I will be donwloading and away from the computer, I find out that when I get back to check the status of the download it is in sleep mode, which results in either stopping or slowing the download down considerably. Any suggestions?

well the obviouse thing to do would be to see if there is an option to turn it off first...because to have something like that without an option would be pretty stupid.
sorry if this doesn't help...i don't really know that much about limewire, and just thought i'd point out the obviouse...

HA HA, yes I have already checked that option out and it does not exist, anyone else?

Have a fan blowing on your mouse when you're not at your comp. Set the fan to high & turns so it blows the mouse every 10-15 secs or so. lol Oh it's so damned hot here at the moment.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "The status of the download is in sleep mode"? There shouldn't be any such mode for downloads. What does the status of the download say?

Yes sberlin, in my limewire pro gui face where it normally says quality -turbocharged it says IDLE, and when you move your mouse on the application it says waking up.

Ahh -- that Idle status is not related to downloads. That just means LimeWire has noticed you're not using you're computer, so it disconnects from a few Ultrapeers, letting other users connect to the network easier. By releasing those Ultrapeers, LimeWire also needs less bandwidth so that more is available for downloads and/or uploads.

This is not a user configurable option because it is good for the network health. Allowing users to change the behaviour at will could be harmful.

I've on 4.6.0 Pro and have noticed the Idle function in the last couple of days however when in Idle mode it doesn't seem to come out of it even when I get back to using the computer normally? I always need to disconnect and then reconnect.

Does Idle mode affect my downloads at all? One slightly possibly related thing I have noticed is in the downloads box the symbol denoting file type disappears with Idle mode....

This means that I can only download when I am using my PC and I can't leave it overnight to download files. This programme isn't good then.

It still downloads & uploads, those 2 things are not affected. People seem to misunderstand what idle mode does. It simply reduces UP connections that aren't needed. After all, if you're not in front of your computer then you're not going to be doing searches are you?! I've happily downlded files continuously for days on end without interuption.