Did you find the IP address that I was referring to? And were you able to set up a static IP at all (even if you weren't able to go through the whole port forwarding process)?

I know that it can be daunting. The first time I set up port forwarding, I was having head spins over the info & where to put it!

The key is to write down all of the info that you need to use for setting up the static IP & port forwarding. And just go through things slowly & carefully. I printed out every page of the static IP setup instructions & port forwarding instructions.

After having a closer look at your router's port forwarding instructions, it seems like they're not exactly easy to understand. So... don't feel bad if you fell to bits at that point!!

If you want to try again at some stage, we'll help you as much as we can

I have been using the limeware pirate edition just for about 4 days now and until yesterday, everything seemed be to be running OK. Not great because some downloads got stalled and others were very slow. But at least most of them worked in the end.

But then i don't know what happened, but all of a sudden ALL my downloads started to stall! I can't download any file anymore because they always stall. Please, i need help...What can i do to fix it?

I dont think my firewall blocks it so thats not the problem, but I do have a router? Maybe need to open a port?

Im not handy with the computer at all! So please help me, i do not know what to do...
Thanks in advance...

Go to LimeWire's menu bar and choose Tools > Advanced Tools. Top left of the window that opens will tell you your status. It will say if you are behind a firewall or not.

Sometimes re-searching the same topic you originally searched will help to get downloads working again. Do not do the identical searches too frequently though, otherwise ultrapeers around you will begin to stop providing results for the searches as they may consider your constant search and result pings as spam. You can vary your search terms if possible.

Keep in mind the network his highly dynamic. People come and go all the time. This includes ultrapeers. So searches can vary after a time. Also persons you were downloading from may have gone offline, or their upload slots have become busy. Unfortunately when people leave the network, their shares are still live in searches for up to about 15-25+ minutes after they have left the network. So sometimes you get search results where some of the persons are no longer available.

If you are concerned about dodgy search results due to being surrounded by bad hosts, open that advanced tools window and remove the first connected ultrapeer (the one that has been connected the longest.) After several minutes try searching again.

It says 'You are behind a firewall and support firewall transfers'
I have unblocked Limeware from my firewall so that cant be the problem can it?

Offcourse persons that i need to download from can be offline. But with me its really that EVERY file I try to download gets stalled and most of them at 0%. None of them is downloading right now. Sometimes the status shows that it's connecting but after a while is goes back to 'stalled'.

Is there really nothing i can do?

You can right-click any of your downloads and choose Try again, or use the Try again hyperlink to the far right.

But searching for fresh results has always been the best way to find more sources for the downloads that have stopped. The hope is that someone else also has the identical file. If not you need to be patient and the file may download at a later time or day.

There are what's known as fake files out on the network. Some of the anti-file-sharing companies spam these into search results. Some are bad files, some are files that can never be downloaded I guess because their upload slots are closed.

Was LimeWire blocked from the firewall before you started having this problem? Firewall issues usually only affect uploads but strong firewall set-ups might also affect connecting and maintaining connection with some hosts.

Yes Limeware was always blocked. You know I tried to download the files which I downloaded earlier(when i didnt have this problem) and even these are stalled now! I have really no idea whats going wrong. Could my router be the problem?

OK finally i've been able to download a few files which didn't stall!! The downloads are very slow and they tend to freeze up then continue again.....but it's better then nothing!

Btw i noticed that i cannot connect to more then 5 ultrapeers. At least till now it has never exceded the number of 5. Is this a normal thing to have or should i be able to connect to more?

Glad to hear your downloads have started again, or some. I don't know what might cause the freezing. Sounds like either a memory or cpu issue. If you are using Vista or Windows 7, Java should be set to Run as Administrator. This seems to help LW to behave better and connect more easily.

Inconsistent speeds is not necessarily unusual. Particularly if the uploader is also busy uploading to others. But it should not be too jagged in speed.

Try not to download too many files from the one person at one time. The uploader will probably only have a certain number of upload slots set to be available and some might be busy. If you try to download too many files from one person at once, some of your downloads will probably fail as they wait in queue then are unable to get a slot within a period of time. How to know if they are from same person? Right-click each of the files in the search results and check their ip or nickname and see if they are identical. Downloading 1-3 files at once from same person is usually a good and polite approach.
5 Ultrapeers is standard for being in Leaf mode. The original LW Basic only connected to 3 U.P.'s and Pro to 5. Only if you are running as an ultrapeer will you connect to more U.P.'s ... standard when running in U.P. mode is 32 U.P.'s and perhaps 40 Leafs. But you will never obtain that status if your LW says you are behind a firewall.

Chances are your router needs port forwarding. If UPnP is not working, ie: LW communicates with the router and requests a port to be opened temporarily whilst LW is running. Your router may not have UPnP or not very good UPnP, or else, you have not enabled UPnP in your router settings. Some routers/modems have UPnP enabled by default, some you need to manually turn on. If you wanted to solve that side of it, then log into your router and see if there is a UPnP option. It will probably be under the Firewall heading. Otherwise, port forwarding is the alternative.

Can you tell me how do you exactly run Java as adminstrator?

Ok I have a Thomson router and i've found the UPnP option (it wasn't under firewall heading but under advanced). The UPnP wasn't enabled so i have done that. But shouldn't my status change now, because LW still says that im in leaf mode and behind a firewall? And it doesn't look like im getting more U.P.'s. Also my Leaves connections are always at zero! Only the one which is called 'connecting' is often in large numbers. At the moment it's 2 ultrapeers and 9 connecting ones.

Yess i've got into the utrapeer mode! No more behind firewall. I just forgot to restart limeware after i enabled UPnp
The connections are boosting. Thanks for that!

It's only frustrating that my downloads remain so slow, freezing and many still stalling.
Im now doing almost 5 days to download a file of 1 GB!
Was hoping it would get better with the ultrapeer mode...