The beta for LimeWire 2.5.0 is now available. The free version is available from: http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/download_beta and a pro version is also available from your pro download page (for pro users only).<p>

The new beta includes several exciting new features and some "under-the-hood" improvements that will improve Gnutella significantly moving forward. The new additions include:

<ul>
<li> "Browse Host" is back by popular demand. If you're unfamiliar with this feature, it allows you to see all of the shared files on another user's machine, making sharing more convenient if you have similar interests. As more people upgrade, this version will work much better than the previous browse host implementation.</li>
<li> Parallel connect on downloads, meaning that you will connect to and start swarming from multiple hosts as soon as you start to download from a group, allowing you to get your download more quickly.</li>
<li> Full support for the "Hash/Urn Gnutella Extension (HUGE)", which assigns each file a unique "hash" and intelligently stores alternate locations for files on the network. If someone uploads a file from you, for example, you will store that computer as an "alternate location" for the file, and send that location to others when they download from you. This all makes downloading more robust and could reduce message traffic over time. It's also a first step towards a "Content Addressable Network (CAN)", one of the ephemeral goals of the Internet for some time.</li>
<li> Bitzi metadata lookup allows you to get more information about files -- right click in the search and library tabs to try it!.</li>
<li> German and French versions available -- thanks to Phillipe Verdy for all of his hard work on this.</li>
<li> The downloader now checks for corrupt files by looking at overlapping regions. </li>
<li> Loads shared files much faster on startup (though the first time may be a little slow).</li>
<li> Connects to the network more robustly.</li>
<li> Installer improvements to save your setting across installs, to correctly pick up the latest Java 1.4 and use it when it's available, fewer 1608 errors, etc.</li>
<li> Full support for HTTP HEAD requests. </li>
<li> Throttles outgoing bandwidth for ultrapeers.</li>
<li> Finally, LimeWire Basic will share the installer by default, even to web browsers (currently Windows-only).</li>
</ul>

So, as you can see, there's a lot of new additions. In fact, the code has changed so much that we really need users to help test it as thoroughly as possible. We've run it through our usual onslaught of tests here, but some always slip through. If you have the time to hammer away at it, we'll be forever grateful.

We hope you enjoy LimeWire 2.5.0.

Best,

The LimeWire Team

WON'T LAUNCH.....Aww man..this stinks


heres the error I get:



LimeWire version 2.5.0
Java version 1.3.1 from Apple Computer, Inc.
Mac OS X v. 10.1.5 on ppc
Free/total memory: 451576/2879488

java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError: java.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find resource for bundle java.util.PropertyResourceBundle, key SEARCH_PUBLIC_BITZI_LOOKUP_STRING
at java.util.ResourceBundle.getObject(ResourceBundle. java:382)
at java.util.ResourceBundle.getString(ResourceBundle. java:354)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.ResourceManager.getStri ngResource(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUIMediator.getStringRe source(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.search.SearchMediator.< clinit>(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.MainFrame.<init>(Unknow n Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUIMediator.<init>(Unkn own Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUIMediator.instance(Un known Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.Initializer.initialize( Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.Main.main(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at RunLime.main(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.apple.buckyball.app.LaunchRunner.run(LaunchRun ner.java:82)
at com.apple.buckyball.app.LaunchRunner.callMain(Laun chRunner.java:44)
at com.apple.buckyball.app.CarbonLibApp.main(CarbonLi bApp.java:76)

I don't know if this applies.... I had to completely uninstall 2.4.4 (Pro) before 2.5 (Pro) would install correctly - I realize we are on different platforms (Windoze 2k here) but this might be a plan of attack if you haven't tried it yet. I had tried the public beta with the same results.

Your MessagesBundle.properties file located somewhere in your LimeWire directory is missing a line. I guess it was some problem during installation of LimeWire beta. Try removing LimeWire and reinstall it.

Looks good. Keep up the good work.

1.
it happens often that a downloader is taking 2 uploads slots for the same file, one is active, the other sit at 0k/s, could Limewire be wise enough to not allow two uploads of the same file to the same downloader at the same time by killing the first used, now inactive slot??? This would mean more slots available on the Gnet and more downloads. Also, for those that limit the upload bandwidth like me the speed of the other uploads would be faster.

2.
another thig for uploads, when I specify the upload bandwidth to 15,31k/s, that bandwidth isn't used at capacity when there are more than 1 uploads. Would it be possible using something better than ie: two uploads, so the max speed of each is 7,8k/s even if one is taken by a modem user and is not reaching that 7,8k/s.

Hope you improve those things for the benefit of Gnet

Keep up coding!!!

I recieved the following error on launch twice during the first time I opened it, but it hasn't happened since. Clicking OK allowed the launch to continue
_________________________

LimeWire version 2.5.0
Java version 1.4.0 from Sun Microsystems Inc.
Windows XP v. 5.1 on x86
Free/total memory: 647552/6467584

java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
at java.lang.System.arraycopy(Native Method)
at java.util.Vector.insertElementAt(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.tree.DefaultMutableTreeNode.insert(Unk nown Source)
at javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeModel.insertNodeInto(U nknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.library.LibraryTree.add SharedDirectory(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.library.LibraryMediator .addSharedDirectory(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.VisualConnectionCallbac k$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierar chy(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarch y(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
-- listing properties --
MAX_UPLOADS=6
INSTALLED=true
DIRECTORIES_TO_SEARCH_FOR_FILES=C:\My Documents\Music Files
DIRECTORY_FOR_SAVING_FILES=C:\My Documents\Music Files
SAVE_DEFAULT=C:\My Documents\Music Files
JAR_NAME=LimeWire.jar
MAX_SIM_DOWNLOAD=8
CONNECTION_SPEED=350
_________________________

Other than that . .

1. Why is browse host always greyed out? This is when right clicking both single-host files and multi-host files.

2. I think that files should appear in the Library before they're hashed, it confused me as to why there was nothing in there until a file appeared (which was 50mb and took a while to show up).

3. The sorting bars still don't stay in their width/position in the downloads, uploads, connections and the library sections after the program restarts. Only the search's sorting bars get saved.
___________________________________________
| Name | Size | Status | Chat | Progress | Speed | <- These Bars

4. The stats box should contain a warning about its falseness.

5. Responsiveness seems a lot better overall, especially while recieving lots of results.

6. I hate to say it but a filter for the Morpheus 1.8.1 ultrapeers is becoming neccesary. Using the same search, it took six Morpheus 1.8.1 Ultrapeers to give the same results as one LimeWire 2.4.4 + one Bearshare 4.0.0 client. Six Morpheus 1.9.1 Ultrapeers yielded better results, but still below average, likely due to being connected to more 1.8.1 clients.

7. That parallel download thing is a huge help with the speed.

8. I'll think of more later . . . Great work!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I'm in the process of building a 2.5.1 beta based on this feedback, some other stack traces, and some catches by some of the LimeWire open source developers. The new version fixes the missing resource message that is likely disabling the current beta for almost all non-Windows users, unfortunately. It also fixes the problem with browse host always being greyed-out -- somehow the code to dynamically enable/disable it never made it in yesterday.

On the displaying files before they're hashed issue, we've gone back and forth on that a couple of times, even in the code itself. I think we'll keep it this way for now, as it's only an issue the first time LimeWire is started, although we may change it in future.

As far as preverving the position of tables, we actually have an open source developer working on a generalized way to accomplish this task, including turning columns on and off in all tables.

Morpheus UltraPeers -- we've done some statistical analysis of query results coming back from LimeWire UltraPeers in comparison with Morpheus UltraPeers, as we were concerned about precisely the same issue. To our surprise, the Morpheus UltraPeers actually returned more results on average than the LimeWires, although it's always possible that the tested nodes had an atypical network structure as far as the files available. We can run those tests again.

On the duplicate uploads, we'll look into that. It sounds like another client is being sneaky. We'll also look into the issue of maximizing bandwidth when throttling.

The Pro beta is up now, and I'm uploading the free version as we speak.

Thanks again. As always, any feedback on 2.5.1 beta is much appreciated.

That last post was from me -- I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in.

I assume the 'browse host' feature will only work with other hosts running 2.5.x as I have yet to encounter a host I could browse. - If I am mistaken, can you clarify what conditions must exist that would enable this feature... and THANKS for 2.5.1 ... it is working quite well.... and for whatever reason I seem to be getting much greater numbers of results on my searches

Win 2k / 2.5.1 Pro Beta