Hi, davideves...

The comments re: reducing your volume of shared files, at any one time, is intended to actually increase the number of others sharing those 'rare' files - So that they cease to be 'rare' !

As I mentioned, it's only a matter of noting how many other 'sources' there usually are for a given file. If there are numerous others sharing the same content, than it makes sense to stop sharing the same file yourself and thereby improve the chances that you will have an Upload Slot available to someone who wants the 'rare' goodies.

It is quite amazing to observe the process involved in sharing something quite rare... After a short while you will begin to notice the 'sources' for that 'rare goodie' steadily increase - And, you know that YOU did that ! Nice.
It is all basically about increasing the total volume of material being shared, not increasing the numbers sharing the same material. (In only the past two years, the variety of 'content' available on Gnutella Network has increased enormously...
And, we all hope that growth will continue !)

On the 'hashing problem' - Perhaps there is some misunderstanding here and that the situation is not that your shared files are hashed again on every launch ?
And, can you check to make certain that your files that contain the 'hash data' are not being deleted for some reason or possibly being saved in an incorrect folder ?
And, as Peerless mentioned, check the shared files ratio which should also serve as an indicator of the status of hashing progress... That's the most simple way to confirm whether or not the hashing is re-starting at zero or simply continuing towards completion.

Last... The [Edit] up there... Not allowed to make specific references to copyrighted material.
(But, hey... At least I didn't do it in Red, as is normal !)

Sorry for mentioning a specific artist. Hadn't thought about that.
Have left LW on all day and all the files are now shared (about 7 hours). I'll leave LW live overnight and boot tomorrow. If LW starts to hash all the tracks once more then I shall think about my options. In truth maybe I shouldn't worry as it doesn't effect my ability to search and download and broadband allows me to leave LW live most of the time. Whilst it may be an issue I guess it's not a big problem so long as it isn't causing a problem for LW.
The chat has been of value and I appreciate the comments. Some of the forums on-line house some people who you might consider peculiar and arrogant if you were to meet them in a bar. Thanks for the support.

Naaaa !!!
Not true !

Where I live you would never think that about the folks you're referring to...

Cuz when you 'met' folks like that in a bar here they'd already be quite dead and on the floor.



p.s. davideves, don't worry... I can help you with international distribution of those videoes from the bar Peerless crawls to...
We'll make a fortune !

Yesterday I left LW is slowly hash all the tracks (c. 10,000) and this process took 6-7 hours. After another 5 hours I turned the iMac off and this morning booted up. LW is again hashing all the tracks (currently standing at 1600 out of 10,000 in 1 hour which is the same as before). What would be my next action or should I accept this is due to volume of tracks?

Hmmm... ?

As I posted above...

- "And, can you check to make certain that your files that contain the 'hash data' are not being deleted for some reason or possibly being saved in an incorrect folder ?" -

There is definitely a problem.
The hashing should take place only once unless there is some alteration made on a file, or possibly the 'location' of a file is changed.

You must be having a problem with the hash data file not being saved in the correct place... or
LW is, for some reason, not 'looking' in the correct place... or
The hash data file is being deleted for some reason, on shutdown or launch... or
The file is somehow being 'mislabeled'... or

Or, what ?

The files are stored on a firewired external hard drive but all appears to be the same. iTunes recognises the tracks on the external hard drive and would search if it was unable to identify immediately (as it does if I download a track from LW which I can then see in iTunes. If I move the file to the external hard drive to be with the rest then iTunes tells me it can't find the file and asks if I wish it to search. I do, it does and all is OK). What if I put a thousand files on the hard drive, add the source to LW and see if these are hashed just the once? I'm not keen to mess about with the iTunes files so I could just copy a load and delete later. I noticed that when I deleted LW and installed the latest version over the weekend all my preferences were retained so maybe I hadn't unistalled correctly. For the Mac I highlight the programme and move to trash. Is there a better way to remove LW completely for the Mac?
It must be very difficult to do your job when so much of it is blind and dependent upon the knowledge of someone else!

Ah... Possibly narrowing things down here...

Problem is probably related to the hash data files and your shared files being on different drives...
There must be a simple 'setting' to be changed.

I could easily explain what you need to do for various other clients, but not with LW... Sorry.

btw, forgot to mention it earlier... That [man with an 'interesting' voice]...
Believe it or not, I saw both him and Steve Goodman do their very first ever TV appearance...
Was in the studio with friends who were the producers of the program on WFLD in Chicago...
This was some months before Noah started building the ark... errr, sort of a long time ago !

davideves--were you able to find and look at the date modified of the two files

fileurns.bak
fileurns.cache

?
The dates modified should change if LW is saving those files properly on quit.

Stief - the fileurns.bak file is not in standard LimeWire. I added backing up the fileurns.cache file in the jum version after I lost my cache several times on crashes and got fed up with the long hash times. The patch was not accepted for integration into the mainline, though.

I can't find either files on the Mac.