I have tried LimeWire, Morpheus, BearShare and iMesh; all with similar results. When I put my files in the "Shared" folder, they cannot be searched. I have used another machine, not on my network and with a different ISP and searched for my files, even by specific name and they do not come up in the search window.

I believe the Linksys router is responsible, so I have read all the documents I can find, about Port Forwarding, but can NOT find anything describing how to set up this router correctly relative to ANY Gnutella clients.

If anyone has a clue, I would very much appreciate your input.

Thanks!

There are MANY reasons why you might not be seeing your shared files:

1) Bad luck. You just happened not to have your servent in any horizon. This is the most likely scenario.

2) You are sharing executables, or extensions that are hidden by default. Check your local search options.

3) Bad keywords. Are you sure that you are looking for the right thing? Try running two instances of the servant on your local machine and connect them to each other using localhost then do the search, this will isolate the Linksys out as a potential problem

4) Not connected. Be sure you are connected to the Gnutella network before looking for your files elsewhere

The most likely reason you cannot share is due to the Linksys. By default the Linksys acts as DHCP server to the hosts (PCs/MACS etc.) connected to the 'private' side. This will ususally assign IP addresses such in the 192.168.1.x class. Several IP ranges do not route (by design) on the internet..... 192.x.x.x being one of them. The internet side of the Linksys acts as a host using the IP assigned to you by your ISP.... but it masks your inside PCs in terms of that IP address so the folks trying to share from you are seeing the 192.168.1.x address and are prevented from communicating with you since they cannot establish communication using that IP range. You can configure the Linksys to make one of you... by assigning one PC's IP (the one you want to use as a shared PC) to be in the DMZ (a configuration that will allow the internet to establish communications with you PC) -

Get your Linksys manual out -- here are the general steps

- Log into the router
- Http://192.168.1.1
- Use the user name and password as refererred to in the owners manual
- Click on the ADVANCED tab
- Click on DMZ host
- Enter the IP address used by the PC you want to be exposed At that point the IP selected should be 'visible' to the world

I wouldn't make it a DMZ host, because that opens up the entire PC - bad thing to do on a 24/7 Internet connection.

Instead, use the Port Forwarding feature, also found on the "Advanced" tab, and select port 6346 to forward to the PC where Gnutella is running.

Adding to that, the PC running Gnutella would need a static IP address, not assigned by DHCP. So, in your PC's network settings, disable DHCP and assign it an IP address like 192.168.1.5 (between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.99).

Good suggestion - now why didn't I think of that?? A MUCH better suggestion