Aftere some experimenting with different and seemingly illogical methods to get a dependably stable connection while downloading MPG files, it seems I have stumbled upon a 'sometimes' remedy: after signing on to limewire, I disconnect from the network immediately after activating desired files, and the connecton, tho reading "disconnected", keeps downloading for sometimes as much as few hours, if I don't play around with previews or changing status of active files. It the modem connection is lost, I simply quit and restart AOL and the Limewire downloads begin again automatically. No sense of why this works.
NEW PROBLEM: After getting the full downlaod on a file, sometimes as large as 120MB or more, I cannot dependably get the whole file to play in Quicktime, where it is automatically placed. When I hit 'launch, I mostly get only a very short preview of the complete file. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

note that I am having the same problem!

AOL seems to have issues of its own. What type of connection do you have? What modem/router brands & model no.'s do you have? Where are you trying to connect from (home, school, work, etc.)? How much ram do you have? Which OSX version do you use?

For your video files, QT may have difficulty playing some. So might I recommend VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ (choose the nearest mirror site.) VLC will play everything except the odd wmv file. You would need to make VLC the default to open certain types files you downld. eg: I have vlc as default to play wmv, asf & if I have difficulty with any other I manually open it with vlc. To make a default, select a file & hold down apple & i keys & look at Open with & choose your app. Then choose always open with.

Note that in my case I tried both -- QT and vlc -- and still had the same problem (and am not an aol subscriber either).

Are you refering to launching a partially downlded file or one that has completed?

What type of connection do you have? Do you use a USB modem? USB modems utilise the computer's cpu & also use the comp'w power. My isp said all recommendations are against using USB modems for OSX!

Launching a fully downloaded file.

I have a DSL connection through ethernet (i.e. not USB).

thanks...

Launching a video file should not affect your connection. Can you describe what happens? ow much ram do you have?

pretty much what bassparks describes in his original post -- ie. will start to play, but just plays for maybe 20 seconds and suddenly quits -- every time and differnt video files.

Here's my computer info:

Machine Model: PowerBook G4 15"
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz

SODIMM0/J25LOWER:

Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM


SODIMM1/J25UPPER:

Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM

(I found the original post a little confusing. Even now.)

There is a chance the file is corrupt.

If it happens on a frequent basis, have you repaired your comp using disk utility from the startup disk. Also doing a safe boot & repairing permissions: help! limewire suddenly gone down, cant get it working.

For apps to misbehave like that sounds like either/both a repair & permissions issue.

I suppose you could also try alternative players. MPlayer is the equivalent of VLC. You could also try DivX Player. Also, enable all or most of your QuickTime MIME plug-ins; see: playing video with avi on mac

I have also found some videos don't reliably play all the way thru. Using VLC I need to let it play & not attempt to fast forward so to speak. I suspect it has something to do with the way it was encoded.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Thanks. I will try will try some of this -- I have tried M player and had looked at QT Mime options but will look at the other suggestions. Do note that it does not happen with ALL files, just some of them.