Last updated 13/01 - 08
If you have useful links to add or good advise regarding the topic feel free to send me a
PM 
Remember to give a good description and point to this thread if you do.
Also please do not post a reply in this thread asking for help. It will most likely not be answered if you do. Make a new thread in the best fitting forum instead.
Limewire is being worked on always. The developers try to fix bugs and just make it an overall better user experience. Sticking to an old version just because of what you are used to is not all that great. You will be missing some of the newer options and fixes if you do. So I advise to upgrade if using an old version. Keep any old installers though just in case your computer decides it doesn't like the new version (it happens). Newest official version available here:
www.limewire.com (Remember to always use the offline installer)
In case you run into trouble when trying to install a new version or getting it to run, here are some fixes:
Fixes for Limewire One reason to not upgrade is if you like to use the chat function. It is working even worse or not at all in the newest versions. Hopefully something that will be fixed soon.
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Before even starting here. Does your Limewire even work right? Try downloading a magnetlink from this site. They should start downloading at high speed if it works.
MagnetMix Click Me
(Only if you have trouble getting more than a few KB/s or you can't seem to get any files to actually start downloading)
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Trouble downloading something has two main reasons if properly connected
1.
The license problem. If you can't seem to get any file to appear in the download window, this is most likely the problem
How to fix the license problem click Me
(Only if you suspect you have this problem)
2. Spam results, ads and malware which we will be taking a look at how to take care of here.
I have split this up into points mainly because of the many fixes and tips, that as a whole will make your experience using Limewire much better. There were many before you that had to learn this the hard way.
The links that say
Click me are important and should be used in conjunction with the guide. The ones that say
Information Link are not as important.
Before we get to the points on how to search, there are a few things that make it blatantly obvious that you are getting spam results
1. If you get
thousands of results on a search just close the search window, because most likely
not a single one of them is legit. This happens mainly with video but on occasion also with audio. This means that a word or sentence in your search phrase is a trigger for spam results
2. when you hover the mouse arrow over a result and the box popping up has a hyperlink in it. I don't mean eg. BlahBlah.com under comments. I mean eg.
Code:
http://www.blahblah.com
Now on to the fun stuff. Please read the whole post and follow the links. While reading point number two already makes it easier, the other points are also very important to really get good results on almost every single search you make. This is of course up to you, but don't come here complaining about spam if you don't read it all !!! ways to recognise fake files Click Me
Another almost sure thing is if it says
(New Single) or
(Full Version) in the filename that's exactly what it's
NOT
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The TechNutopia Fullsize Hostiles List Before even starting to try and find god files, we need to block out as many bad files as possible. Limewire has the ability to use a IP blocklist and there is a good one available on TechNutopia, that gets updated several times a year. We need to add this list to Limewire. Thread on how to do this - Click Me I strongly suggest you bookmark it and check back regularly if you have the newest update.
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1. When doing A Search
When searching for music use the
Audio-tab and not the
All Files-tab. If you don't find what you're looking for then feel free to try the
All Files-tab, but there is very rarely anything to be found which would not be found using the
Audio-tab
(note: If you try the
All Files-tab add
.mp3 or whatever format you're looking for.
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2. The Keyword Filter
Add
.wma to the keyword filter along with words like
Sponsored,
Unlimited,
Afford and any other specific words that keep popping up in your results.
How to add words to the keyword filter Click Me More words to add for both audio and video Click Me I really suggest you read this !!! Autogenerated Spam results - Information Link Sponsored Results - Information Link Info about .wma files - Information Link (provided by Raaf)
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3. Search Keywords, This is NOT Google you are using!!
When searching for specific song.
Do not search for both Artist- and Song name at the same time. This tends to bring up a lot of spam results often flooding the search so no legit results show.
(Especially when searching for popular Artists). Instead try just searching for either the name of the Artist the Song or the Album.
Results that have (*) at the end, * being a number from 01 to 99, tend to be bad results. (Also especially true when searching for popular artists). There are some legit results that have the (*) at the end, but very few, and always a low number. This is when people download multiple files with the same file name and have Limewire just add a number at the end.
(note: When searching for rare or old recordings, this can be ignored as they rarely bring up spam, unless a new song has the same name. Thanks to Dreamtech)
Important:
Sometimes it is virtually impossible to find a legit result by using any of these methods because every phrase brings up spam instead. If this happens try to vary your phrases to maybe half the title or even one word in the title. Just exhaust every possibility. Even one word of the title and one part of the artists name may bring up the right result when all else fails. (thanks to tanaeem for bringing this to my attention)
Newer versions of Limewire have a
Get more results option. Even if you have bypassed some spam infested title by using the above advice, you can then right-click on the result you want and choose
Get more results, without fear of triggering the spam again. This is especially handy when wanting high bitrate and the only result you find is low bitrate.
You can also click on the searchtab that contains the results, which will bring up more results for everything in the results.
You can do this as many times as you like, if not happy with the results.
What is bitrate? - Information Link
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4. Organize Your Search
Press the size column so that the largest files are at the top. The Higher the bitrate the more likely it's a good file. Also don't be taken by a lot of people sharing the same file. It does not mean that it's the best file. Unfortunately very few music files are rated at the Bitziweb-lookup, but feel free to try it. Some are.
While there are not many audio files rated on Bitziweb, Almost all video worth downloading is, so use it if to avoid mislabeled, corrupt or just bad files, and look at all the comments, as sometimes people that have codec issues etc. will say good files are bad How to use bitzi web lookup Click Me
BTW another
Sticky is in this forum explaining more about this
Bitziweb is based on users contributing information on files, meaning you can start doing this also. By using the
BitCollider available on the site (free) you can submit and rate files yourself. This will make the database grow even more.
Bitzi.com Click Me
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5. Spot The Fakes
Watch out for the small 134.4 KB files that all of a sudden pop up with a lot of hosts. (another good reason to rearrange according to size)
Autogenerated MP3 results - Information Link
The mp3 spam 134 KB are very easily filtered out using the junk filter. Only 2 or 3 times (searches & junk filtering) & it's gone forever. eg: Search for something like oidhfhdjfjdjk.mp3 & that brings out the spam so you can filter it.
Just right-click on search result and mark as junk. Just don't be too trigger happy using this option as you will end up filtering good files as well. I personally don't feel the need to use the junk filter at all. In my mind it is far from perfect, and you have to be very careful when using it. I would recommend to keep the settings for it pretty relaxed. And if you start seeing files that you are sure are good turn up with high junk ratings, start over.
The settings for the filter can be found at
Tools-->options-->Filters-->Junk. To reset it press
Forget Training Data, then press
Apply and
OK
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6. We All Want Quality, Right?
When looking for specific artists. Find a download that is good quality and downloadable. Try to browse the host that you are downloading from. They often have more than one song that you want. Also if you are downloading high bitrate there is a good chance they have many songs with high bitrate. People that are sharing 320 kbps are not likely to be downloading 128 kbps unless they have no choice.
To Browse Host - Right-Click on the file you're downloading or in the search result and choose Browse Host note: when using the browse host feature. There are two reasons why you should not be too greedy and press several downloads that you want at the same time.
1. The host may go offline and you have several incomplete files for what might be a long time.
2. They might kill your downloads for being too greedy. If you send several requests for the same file the program might do it itself.
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7. If in doubt scan every time !!!! You have AntiVirus and other stuff on your computer. If not entirely sure about something, then SCAN BEFORE OPENING IT Good luck with your downloading and I hope this helped a bit
Cheers
Sleepless
P.S. If interested in BitTorrent then
How to find music :)