I am new so if this is a dumb question so be it.
I entered a song to download -that's the way I like it-
Many listings came up. The top one had 54, the second 20, etc.
From the fifth one and down there was nothing in the # field.
Does this mean that there are 54 people trying to download the first item and that when it comes to the fifth item nobody is DL it.
If this is the case.. why are there so many people on the first item and nobody on the sixth or seventh.

Thanks, Ken

The # column represents how many people (sources) your search found are sharing that particular identical file. If there's no number it means there's just a single user sharing it.

It's easiest to downld from those with the most in that column. But make sure it's a safe file.

See: 1. WARNING: Viruses on network you should be aware of! (click on link)

2. (a) autogenerated spam results, & also (b) autogenerated mp3 spam results

LOTR- thanks for you reply.. but I must ask if 54 is the number of people sharing that particular file why is it that I find the same description 30 lines down with nothing next to it... It would appear that it is identical to the one above with the 54. what makes it different.
thanks, Ken

There might only be a few bits or bytes difference between them. It might be due to size or id3 tag or other type of file tag that makes it different, etc. In general LW tries to group them as closely as it can ... but if there's a different type of hash in the file compared to others then it will separate it.

thanks again.. I'm dl a song and it says "downloading from 8 sources". Could you please explain what this means.

thanks, ken

in case you haven't seen already...

if you are on hi-speed, you can download 1 song at say 30kbs(from 1 host). if you have 8 hosts, it increases the download speed to upwards of 200-300 kbs. (just general figures)

obviously if given a choice, download from the highest number you see that matches what you are looking for.

p.s. can't remember, does it make a difference with dial-up??