I looked for my question in other threads but didn't find it. I apologize if it's already been asked and answered.
I just downloaded and transfered a song to my mp3 player. Since I have dial-up, I downloaded the one that had 'modem' under the speed list. Should I do that with all my songs or does it matter if it says modem or not? Thanks so much in advance.

doesnt matter cus youll be downloading at your speed. but i would go with cable/dsl/t1 for download

Instead of looking at speed, I would look at

1. # of sources
2. bitrate (the higher the bitrate, the better the quality, generally)

Good Luck

Thanks so much for the replies!

...the Speed column indicates what connection the source you are downloading from has, rather than your connection.

All types of connection are compatible with each other. How fast you can actually download depends on a number of variables, but broadly speaking a download from a modem source will be slower than one from cable/DSL.

This is where the number of sources becomes important: if a file has (for example) ten sources, then LW will download one tenth from each source. In theory this means that the download is ten times quicker.

So you can see that the number of sources is usually more important than the host's connection speed: a modem connection with several sources could be faster than cable/DSL with fewer.

Additionally, downloading a file from more than one source gives you a greater chance of success: if one source drops out you will continue to receive the file from the remaining sources (but more slowly).

One final note of caution: spam will be hosted by many sources (say fifty or sixty) whereas a genuine file is not normally to be found being hosted by more than ten or twenty sources at any one time.

Regards.

Thanks Jim! That helps me alot!

Christi the speed does not mater, as was said you will down load at what ever your machine is capable of. If you are on a modem download 1! item at a time other wise you'r bandwidth, speed, will be cut accordingly to how many you are trying to download from. This is a hard lesson to learn, and most people do not understand, If you are on a modem, or hi speed, you can only download at the rate of your equipment. If you are one a modem you should be able to download at approx 5.6KBs if you try to download 2 divide the rate by 2, at 3 divbide by 3, ect. Same goes for hi speed.

YOU CANNNOT DOWNLOAD ANY FASTER THAN YOUR EQUIPMENT, no matter how many you try to download.

Also. beware of uploads, they are consuming your bandwidth.

Thanks!

...at Limewire.com, so you could consider it the definitive answer:

"Q: Why do some things take so long to download?

A: The speed at which a download takes place is limited by both the bandwidth of the downloader and by the bandwidth of the uploader. A file cannot by transferred faster than the uploader is capable of sending it, nor can it be transferred faster than the downloader is capable of receiving it. If you have a T1 Internet connection and you are trying to download a file from a person with a 56K modem, your transfer is going to take place rather slowly. Furthermore, some clients limit the speed at which they will upload files for the sake of saving bandwidth."

Best regards.