very technical infomation can be found at
http://www.limewire.com/index.htm
check the developers section

MY PLAIN ENGLISH VERSION:

As I understand the "Gnutella Network" I am a Servant, my Servant is running LIMEWIRE (a Clone) on my MAC(ahh) connected to my internet provider(ISP) on a 56kb modem. The ISP connects me to the InterNet, to another ISP which can be my browser, other Servants, etc. Because of my speed (56kb) Limewire recomends 3 connections to other Servants, be they PPC or MAC running any Clone or speed doesn't matter. Auto Connection provides a list of Servants that have recently been on the network. My Servant tries to connect to IP address's of other Servants that have been on the network. When/if connections are made my Servant gets connected 5(TTL) levels deep. The TTL set the limit on how many servants my Servant msgs go through. My Servant tells the Servants I am connected to about my connection and they propagate it through the network untill the TTL expires (each Servant deletes 1 from the TTL of my msg). Then each Servant sends my Servant a reply msg about their connection, if their TTL had not expired my Servant sends their msg to the other Servants I am connected to (2) and they in turn pass it on untill the TTL expires. I can search for files on about 3(connection) 5(TTL's) deep, 3 to the 5th power (apx 250) other servants (assuming an all modem network). When I start a search my Servant tell the Servants I am connected to who I am (IP address), what I want, my TTL and other info. The search is propogated untill the TTL expires, if any of the servants has a file that matches the search they send a msg back to my Servant telling me the info about the file and their IP address, this may take three minutes to complete.

Didn't get any results from your search with 3 mins? Notice that the number of host (Servants) you are connected to has been changing! Those are all new Servants that may have the file you are looking for. Most other seaches we use tell us if their are 0 results THIS DOSN'T, it just tells you who has what you may want, with in your TTL.

If I find a file I want to down load my Servant connects directly (ISP to ISP) to that Servant and requests the load. If that servant doesn't respond my client assumes its behind a Firewall and sends a Push Request over the network. (I can't load it from you, please Push it to me) Many things can go wrong, don't be supprised if loads fail, keep trying different things, it will work

Terms:
ISP: Internet Service Provider, who your modem called (local connector to WWW).
TTL: , Time To Live, how many Sernavts Msgs proprogate through.
Client: A clone of Gnutella software
Servant: All the ISP's connected or trying to connect to a Gnutella Network. All are both host and user's, their is not a one cpu controlling the network, all the Servants are!

WE KILLED THE KING AND NOW THE SERVANTS ARE RUNNING THE CASTLE!!!!!!!!

Correction are welcomed! But KISS!
Walt

[This message has been edited by lightstone (edited 03-11-2001).]