can anyone advise me if there is something i can do in terms of configuring either my mac or limewire itself in order to speed up the download process. In most cases as it takes so long to download i end up with a lot of half downloads. Dont know if its coz people are shutting computers down in mid download or that the signal cant sustain long term but since i have broadband i would have thought it could be quicker than this. I have a mac and i am using osx. please help anyone!!

If the person who is uploading the file to you cannot upload as fast as you can download it, then the overall download speed is determined by the slower speed of the uploader. If they are on a dialup connection, then your download will be very slow.

much respect for your knowledge on all things limewire. as far as downloading could you please explain to me why if i am downloading a large file suddenly the connection breaks. is this because the person i am uploading info from has turned off their computer or is it something more than this like a dodgy connection etc etc ? its very frustrating to go a full days worth of upload to have the connection break and me go back to square one again.

Thank you for being so polite.

Yes, it's possible that a download is stopped because the uploader disconnected. It's also possible that you were not able to keep the connection because of the far distance you may have been away in the network. Also, although it's very rare, you can get file errors if someone refreshes their library.