It is probably me rather than the rest of the world but... is it really this hard now to download a song? If I do a search do the results suggest to me everyone that has that particular file or just the ones that happen to be online at the moment of my search? If so, then why am I denied the download having just searched the file? It is frustrating (assuming of course, that the search results are for online peers with the file) to see the file go instantly to stalled. What!? Am I being singled out? Is this a conspiracy? Is everyone out to get me? Is the entire world in on it? OMD!! "you oughtta know not to stand by the window somebody see you up there".

OK. Seriously though. Do I need to be logged in? Every time the pop-up comes up I populate the fields with the information I had written down (ok, typed in to an Excel workbook) and every time I am denied stating incorrect something or other password or user id. May be if I'm logged in I will get the mutual reciprocated respect I so desperately long to have and share "with those of my kind. Libations, sensations that stagger the mind".

So, in conclusion, apart from breaking a ton of English Writing do's and don'ts to include rambling on and on about something which will probably turn out to be quite simple and easy to fix I turn the floor over to euences. Brow beating is frowned upon as I should have started this monologue with..."I am not IT nor BCIS or CIS for that matter so if I have missed something obvious or easy or something that I should have known but did not then the brow beating is far more severe than the crime and thereby inappropriate." This goes along with the following: if you are going to explain it to me in IT or CIS lingo and short cuts you will most likely be talking over me so may I please ask you now to recall those thrilling days of yesteryear when you knew nothing about computers but wanted to understand them. Talk to me in that regard. Thanking you in advance for your kind attention to this post and for your considerate reply.

I am guessing you are using WireShare?
If yes, go to the program's toolbar and choose Tools -> Advanced Tools ...
This will bring up the host Connections window. Does it say "You are not behind a firewall" on the top-left of the tan-yellow section?

Possible reasons for the failed downloads from search results:

1. The host is a particularly large file-sharer and your download request is beyond the total request total they have set. ie: Your download request is unable to be queued in their uploads because they are too busy and their queue total has already reached maximum. For many hosts their maximum upload queue is relatively small. Though just recently seen a download sit queued/waiting in 62nd position.

2. The host has already gone off-line. But the shared file is still cached on the network.

3. The host's file has been removed from their shares but the shared file is still cached on the network.

4. The host sharing the file has your ip address on a personal block list. (If this is true it is most likely a large ip range block.)

As for point 4, I'm aware my own ip was not on any ip block list I work with when the exact same thing happened to me.

There are some other reasons not listed above. Such as the host has upload slots set to zero. Or the host is using LimeWire 5/Pirate Edition which has an upload bug where the greed code occasionally conflicts with the queuing code. In this case the host that attempts to download the file is auto-banned for an hour. (Even when only a single file is requested. Has nothing to do with downloader's client version.)

A DHT problem:
Both 2. & 3. can be worsened by DHT. With DHT, DHT capable ultrapeers cache shares of other hosts they are or have been connected to. This means faster and greater search results for hosts that are DHT capable.

But the question is for how long DHT is retained. I suspect for as long as an ultrapeer remains on the network during their session.

The problem I have noticed in recent years (yes I've had the same experience as you) is that with the gnutella population being a fraction the size of what it was last decade, DHT is beginning to become problematic. Ultrapeers might have sessions that last 30 or more days. Put two and two together, you start to realise that some search results are not just a few hours out of date but possibly weeks out of date.

Answer: There is nothing you can do about this except ignore those search results and use the 'Find more search results' if using WireShare or LimeWire Pirate Edition. Or simply do another search. You can right-click the particular search result and make a mental note of the host so you can ignore their search results.

If you are firewalled you will not connect to DHT.

I am glad to see someone complain about this issue. I had been considering for many months about the idea of mentioning to the GTK-Gnutella devs that the DHT process needs upgrading. They need to be made aware. I already had ideas put aside about how this issue could be fixed/reduced effectively with minimal additional network traffic.

"...in the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie." Apologies. It has been so long ago when I read the Trilogy plus The Hobbit and an attempt at The Silmarillion and your response is not only informative but concise and easy to read. Granted some concepts are beyond me but I did not feel excluded as I read your response. Thank you.

You are correct. I am on WireShare. I went through the process as an end user starting with LimeWire. Went through the witchhunt where we hemorrhaged members the majority of which never returned. Got back online with LPE and progressed to WireShare after experiencing some shutdown issues with LPE only to find an even sparser member population on WS.

"You are behind a firewall and support firewall transfers" is my status. I'm guessing I should somehow allow or exclude WireShare from the Firewall. I'll work on that after I connect a Rife Frequency Generator to my laptop, which I have been procrastinating doing for about two weeks now, and get that up and running. I'll post again if there is anything of note to report.

Thanks again for your response. Thoroughly enjoyed it.