Just downloaded Limewire and I am still unclear on quite a few things.
Under the options tab in the Limewire proram, what does "TTL- time to live" mean? I'm not sure how to set that option. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure how to set most of the options for optimal speed on downloads. I am running a 56k/V90 modem. Could you tell me the best way to set my options for optimal download speed. I have read all the support pages and am still not clear. I thought I had it set correctly, but I can only download at the speed of 1.48 at the most which I know is too slow. At that rate it will take me hrs. to download one song! With Napster, I was able to download at 4., most of the time. What's wrong?
Please help!

When you send out a search request, attached to that request is your TTL number. After each computer sends back results to you and then forwards it to all the computers that its connected to, the TTL number is decreased by one. So if you have a TTL of 3 then you can only get three 'generations' of hosts and results. The reason this is limited at all is so the network doesn't become clogged. I'd recommend a TTL of 5 or so. Increasing it will give you more search results, but will put a greater strain on your modem.

As for download speeds, you must know that the Gnutella network is very decentralized, and as such very unreliable. Also because it is so decentralized, you are very likely connecting to computers far away (as in other continents) and it can take a while for the data to travel that far. This might be helped by connecting to the group that corresponds to your continent in the Community tab.

Try tinkering with the amount of connections up, in the connections tab. Maintaining a connection can take a fair amount of bandwidth on a 56k, so you might get better speeds with less connections. You will get less search results though. Or you could try this: searching for something, and after you get the results, pressing the disconnect button. Now your bandwidth can be concentrated on the downloads, instead of the connections.

Hope that helped,
David C-M

>As for download speeds, you must know that the Gnutella network is very decentralized, and as such very unreliable. Also because it is so decentralized, you are very likely connecting to computers far away (as in other continents) and it can take a while for the data to travel that far. This might be helped by connecting to the group that corresponds to your continent in the Community tab. <

Thanks for the insight David!
Once I click on N. America (in my case), in the "community" tab, do I push the connect button from that page and then go back to the "search" tab and start my search? I'm also wondering if that cancels out the default host? I really appreciate your help!
Jessie

You should be fine without connecting to any specific community.

If you would like to connect to the "North America" community, however, you can simply double click on the North America line in the Communities tab, or you could select Noth America and click the connect button in the middle of the page.

OK...Just one more question (I hope!),
From what I understand, the closer location that I am, compared to the host that I am downloading from, the faster the download speed. So what I need to know is, how do you determine how far away the file is coming from by all of those numbers under "location" in the "search" tab area? (ex: 130.13.82.188) Same thing in the "discoverd Hosts" area on the connections tab. I don't know how to read them.
Hopefully this is my last question. I did download 2 songs but they took over an hour per song!

Well, there's no easy way to "read" the IP number, that set of four numbers separated by periods, to figure out where it is. You can use other programs to find out generally where that computer is, but it's not really important. It'd be easier to just try many different downloads of the same file from different locations, and keeping the fastest one. This may take some extra time, but it's just the sad truth about Gnutella. Sometimes, you can't get a good speed. The key is being patient with downloads. Set them up and then read a book, and check back on them later. If you have an unlimited time contract with your ISP and you don't mind the extra cents on your power bill, try leaving them going over night.

-D. C-M

I was afraid you were going to say something like that! Oh well, I do have unlimited minutes on my ISP so I guess I'll just have to put up with it until they come up with a faster way. Downloading with just a modem, I know, is the slowest way and I don't like to run any other programs while downloading because I know it will slow it down even more, so I guess I'll have to do my downloading at a time when I won't be using my computer for other things.
I really want to thank you for all your help and time. Your a very patient person!
Thanks again!
Jessie