everyone who is connected to the gnutella network contributes to keeping it running. when you connect to the network you connect to several other hosts. this is you connection to the network and how all the traffic gets to your computer.

when someone enters a search query it goes out to all the hosts that they are connected to. the hosts send back search results and pass the query on to all the other hosts that they are connected to. these hosts pass their results back to the host immediately behind them who pass it back to you. then this host passes it on to another who passes back results etc etc. so, when you send out a search query it has to pass through lots of hosts and who all send information back.

however, you must remember that you are also a host, and that you have to deal with search queries. your computer receives queries and sends back results then sends the query on, it also forms part of the path back to the searcher for the query further down the line. it does not matter if you have no shared directories, you still have to act as a host, answer searches and forward them.

so, even if you are not downloading or uploading, you still form part of the network and you still have to send information out to all your hosts and receive information from them. kazaa and audiogalaxy were mentioned earlier as not having the problem of so much traffic. I'm not sure how kazaa works, and I'm a bit hazy on audiogalaxy but i think that all searches in ag are directed to a central database which then tells your computer where to go for the download. not sure but I think that's how it works - as you can see this leads to far less traffic but it also makes it easy to shut down. one major advantage that gnutella has is that it would be very difficult for anyone to ever shut it down - as xolox has shown

anyway, back to the point. the very nature of the gnutella network and the decentralised way in which it works means that you form an integral part of the network whenever you connect to it. in turn that means that you must sacrifice bandwidth for the benefits of the network. if you don't like it then design a better network that still has all the benefits of a decentralised guntella

sorry for the long post but I hope that it explains why you have so much traffic passing through your computer.

xg