Last updated 31/05 - 09 ___ (NOTE: this advice applies to VIDEOS also !)

If you have useful links to add or good advise regarding the topic feel free to send me a PM Remember to give a good description and point to this thread if you do.

Also please do not post a reply in this thread asking for help. It will most likely not be answered if you do. Make a new thread in the best fitting forum subsection instead.

As most know by now, Limewire LLC has been forcibly shut down, so there are no official updates anymore. Working versions new and old available here: LimeWire installers - Forum thread including download links

In case you run into trouble when trying to install Limewire or getting it to run, here are some fixes: Fixes for Limewire

Note: Limewire is no good for BitTorrent. If you want to download BitTorrent files, please do use a proper client intended for that purpose. I would recommend either getting Vuze - (Download Link) or µTorrent (Download Link) (both are free and very good)

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Before even starting here. Does your Limewire even work right? Try downloading a magnetlink from this site. They should start downloading at high speed if it works.

MagnetMix Click Me

(Only if you have trouble getting more than a few KB/s or you can't seem to get any files to actually start downloading)

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Trouble downloading something has two main reasons if properly connected

1. The license problem. If you can't seem to get any file to appear in the download window, this is most likely the problem

How to fix the license problem click Me

(Only if you suspect you have this problem)

2. Spam results, ads and malware which we will be taking a look at how to take care of here.

I have split this up into points mainly because of the many fixes and tips, that as a whole will make your experience using Limewire much better. There were many before you that had to learn this the hard way.

The links that say Click me are important and should be used in conjunction with the guide. The ones that say Information Link are not as important.

Before we get to the points on how to search, there are a few things that make it blatantly obvious that you are getting spam results

1. If you get thousands of results on a search just close the search window, because most likely not a single one of them is legit. This happens mainly with video but on occasion also with audio. This means that a word or sentence in your search phrase is a trigger for spam results

2. when you hover the mouse arrow over a result and the box popping up has a hyperlink in it. I don't mean eg. BlahBlah.com under comments. I mean eg. Now on to the fun stuff. Please read the whole post and follow the links. While reading point number two already makes it easier, the other points are also very important to really get good results on almost every single search you make. This is of course up to you, but don't come here complaining about spam if you don't read it all !!!

ways to recognise fake files Click Me

Another almost sure thing is if it says (New Single) or (Full Version) in the filename that's exactly what it's NOT

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The TechNutopia Fullsize Hostiles List

Before even starting to try and find god files, we need to block out as many bad files as possible. Limewire has the ability to use a IP blocklist and there is a good one available on TechNutopia, that gets updated several times a year. We need to add this list to Limewire. (This hostiles list is only compatible with LimeWire versions 4.13 to 4.18 and is not compatible with LimeWire 5 or Pirate Edition. LW 5 and LPE users can get a list here instead.)

Thread on how to do this - Click Me

I strongly suggest you bookmark it and check back regularly if you have the newest update.
Edit: Best to use the LimeWire Security Blocklist installers instead! Uses much less memory and more efficient. The Technutopia version may prevent your LW from even connecting.

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1. When doing A Search

When searching for music use the Audio-tab and not the All Files-tab. If you don't find what you're looking for then feel free to try the All Files-tab, but there is very rarely anything to be found which would not be found using the Audio-tab. ___ Advanced Search options sample image (click to see sample image)

Same goes for video, where you use the video-tab.

(note: If you try the All Files-tab add .mp3 or whatever format you're looking for.

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2. The Keyword Filter

Add .wma to the keyword filter along with words like Sponsored, Unlimited, Afford and any other specific words that keep popping up in your results.

How to add words to the keyword filter for LW 4 Click Me and LW 5 Keyword Filter

More words to add for both audio and video Click Me I really suggest you read this !!! - This post is updated whenever new words/terms start making trouble (A downloadable Notecard includes both those words & more: Direct instructions to eliminate porn & other marketing junk from results)

Autogenerated Spam results - Information Link

Sponsored Results - Information Link

Info about .wma files - Information Link (provided by Raaf)

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3. Search Keywords, This is NOT Google you are using!!

When searching for specific song. Do not search for both Artist- and Song name at the same time. This tends to bring up a lot of spam results often flooding the search so no legit results show. (Especially when searching for popular Artists). Instead try just searching for either the name of the Artist the Song or the Album.

Results that have (*) at the end, * being a number from 01 to 99, tend to be bad results. (Also especially true when searching for popular artists). There are some legit results that have the (*) at the end, but very few, and always a low number. This is when people download multiple files with the same file name and have Limewire just add a number at the end.

Another thing to try is mixing up the words e.g. Instead of looking for Up The Creek, look for Creek Up The etc. Any result that comes back with the title mixed up like you searched for... AVOID! The real file will show up in your results with the title words in the correct order. (Thanks to Locomule)

(note: When searching for rare or old recordings, this can be ignored as they rarely bring up spam, unless a new song has the same name. Thanks to Dreamtech)

Important:
Sometimes it is virtually impossible to find a legit result by using any of these methods because every phrase brings up spam instead. If this happens try to vary your phrases to maybe half the title or even one word in the title. Just exhaust every possibility. Even one word of the title and one part of the artists name may bring up the right result when all else fails. (thanks to tanaeem for bringing this to my attention)

Newer versions of Limewire have a Get more results option. Even if you have bypassed some spam infested title by using the above advice, you can then right-click on the result you want and choose Get more results, without fear of triggering the spam again. This is especially handy when wanting high bitrate and the only result you find is low bitrate. You can also click on the searchtab that contains the results, which will bring up more results for everything in the results. You can do this as many times as you like, if not happy with the results.

What is bitrate? - Information Link

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4. Organize Your Search

Press the size column so that the largest files are at the top. The Higher the bitrate the more likely it's a good file. Also don't be taken by a lot of people sharing the same file. It does not mean that it's the best file. Unfortunately very few music files are rated at the Bitziweb-lookup, but feel free to try it. Some are. While there are not many audio files rated on Bitziweb, Almost all video worth downloading is, so use it if to avoid mislabeled, corrupt or just bad files, and look at all the comments, as sometimes people that have codec issues etc. will say good files are bad

How to use bitzi web lookup Click Me

BTW another Sticky is in this forum explaining more about this

Bitziweb is based on users contributing information on files, meaning you can start doing this also. By using the BitCollider available on the site (free) you can submit and rate files yourself. This will make the database grow even more.

Bitzi.com Click Me

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5. Spot The Fakes

Watch out for the small 134.4 KB files that all of a sudden pop up with a lot of hosts. (another good reason to rearrange according to size) Also make sure all audio files in search results show a bit-rate in the bit-rate column (if they show no bit-rate, they are not true audio files, ie: fakes.)

Autogenerated MP3 results - Information Link . and . Typical virus spam file sizes - Make a note of them

The mp3 spam 134 KB are very easily filtered out using the junk filter. Only 2 or 3 times (searches & junk filtering) & it's gone forever. eg: Search for something like oidhfhdjfjdjk.mp3 & that brings out the spam so you can filter it.

Just right-click on search result and mark as junk. Just don't be too trigger happy using this option as you will end up filtering good files as well. I personally don't feel the need to use the junk filter at all. In my mind it is far from perfect, and you have to be very careful when using it. I would recommend to keep the settings for it pretty relaxed. And if you start seeing files that you are sure are good turn up with high junk ratings, start over.

The settings for LW 4 for the filter can be found at Tools-->options-->Filters-->Junk. To reset it press Forget Training Data, then press Apply and OK
LW 5 users will find the reset Junk option at Tools-->options-->Search-->Search Filtering - Reset Spam Filter button.

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6. We All Want Quality, Right?

When looking for specific artists. Find a download that is good quality and downloadable. Try to browse the host that you are downloading from. They often have more than one song that you want. Also if you are downloading high bitrate there is a good chance they have many songs with high bitrate. People that are sharing 320 kbps are not likely to be downloading 128 kbps unless they have no choice.

To Browse Host - Right-Click on the file you're downloading or in the search result and choose Browse Host

note: when using the browse host feature. There are two reasons why you should not be too greedy and press several downloads that you want at the same time.

1. The host may go offline and you have several incomplete files for what might be a long time.

2. They might kill your downloads for being too greedy. If you send several requests for the same file the program might do it itself. (Banned Greedy Client: too many requests & that host is banned for the session until the uploader logs on again. Only the uploader will see this message in Upload window. Not the downloader whose downloads will simply show Stalled or similar message.)

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7. If in doubt scan every time !!!!

You have AntiVirus and other stuff on your computer. If not entirely sure about something, then SCAN BEFORE OPENING IT

Good luck with your downloading and I hope this helped a bit

Cheers


Sleepless

P.S. If interested in BitTorrent: More about BitTorrent (link)

There is no foolproff way to use P2P so be careful

Your right i tend to get 100% on the audio files i have downloaded about 50 songs for a cd compilation and one song wasn't what it said it was.Thats not bad going really i just pr-view the songs and if it's not the song i want or not the right version i cancel.The main problem is videos i keep getting the dancing girl video or on images the congratulations you have won picture annoying but it is free what do you expect?.

That's what Bitzi is for. Also look at filesize. Ain't familiar with the Dancing Girl video but if it is that widespread then I'm sure its on Bitzi.

In video it would be best to stick with .avi .mkv and mp4 files. Or on a few occations Mpg or Mpeg. The rest is 99% porn or currupt.

Good info Sleepless....

There have been some posts on the forum regarding Napster ad other pay for music sites opening up when trying to download.

This issue should be fixed in the never versions of Limewire which are 4.12.3 and later

Get it here:

http://www.limewire.com/english/content/home.shtml

Pro customers use your personal downloadlink

Filesize and Bitrate are the two most important things to check after the name of the song, once you work out what to look for such as putting your mouse over the song you want and wait for the properties to come up such as artist, album, duration, bitrate etc you shouldn't have any problems though once again nothing is fullproof.

Don't just dive in.

Ahh, but diving in is so much more fun. You know, like **** the torpedos , full speed ahead sorta thing .

__________________
If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!

this thread is really helpful...since i search for music all the time on limewire...and those spam results are just sooo annoying!

Sounds like sound advice. But I have two issues to raise.

Lime wire says the more specific your search, the better your results, but I find that the more words I search on, the more garbage I get. Is there any way to search for a specific string rather than a bunch of separate words, any of which might return a result?

Also, I have noticed that often the results of a search have seemingly nothing to do with what I searched for - what's up with that?

You can also add the _ symbol to block some spam results.