I am running the first 2.0-beta and I'm still seeing the poor performance mentioned by many people with 1.9-beta :
As soon as I find an Ultrapeer, I drop all other connections in favor of the Ultrapeer, even though they aren't a very good Ultra.

Specifically:
- they only have 3 hosts
(are they reporting Connections rather than horizon?)
- there are no searches
(though I figure that's by design, right?)
- there are almost no search results
(I set my options to show all Quality of search hits but still get only 1 or 2 on popular searches, e.g. video "star trek")
- I have a T1 connection, so I really don't need to be a client to an Ultrapeer, rather, I expect to *become* an Ultrapeer after I've been on-line long enough.

So, it seems to me that the software still needs to account for the following:
- only become a client to an Ultrapeer if your own connection is via modem (or, add a user-selectable option)
- make sure that Ultrapeers report the size of their Horizon, so that modem users don't get freaked out and think they've lost their own Horizon-size
- there has to be allowance for high-bandwidth users (like myself) to not get "trapped" in Ultrapeer-client mode. If I stay connected long enough to an Ultrapeer, will I be "promoted", ever? FYI - I usually run for weeks at a time.
- make sure that the requested Search/Quality settings function, even after connecting to an Ultrapeer and then changing your settings. For instance, do Ultrapeers request and cache your initial Search/Quality settings?

Tony in San Diego

(I'm the original poster, replying to my own post)

Well, I've been on-line for 48 hours now. I'm still running in Client mode, and I've only uploaded a handful of files. Basically, I'm wasting money on unused bandwidth. I've been handed-off from Ultrapeer to Ultrapeer (at least 5 that I've noticed), some of whom report "0 hosts". So, I would have to say that the Ultrapeer technology needs some more tuning!

When I run Bearshare and maintain 4 connections, my upload bandwidth is max'd, my upload slots are full (15), and I'm turning away people. With Limewire 2.0-beta, I've never had more than 3 uploads and I'm only averaging 1 upload.

The specific problems I've observed:
- servents with high-bandwidth and high uptime are not being promoted to Ultrapeer
- servents that are operating in Ultrapeer-mode are not reporting many hosts or forwarding many requests, i.e. they don't seem to be well-connected servents
- Ultrapeers should report the size of their horizon, rather than their hosts/connections
- servents with less than 4 connections should not be promoted to Ultrapeers

Tony in San Diego

Hi Tony. Thanks for the feedback. The assumption is that even high-bandwidth users would rather be leaves than ultrapeers if possible. That gives you more bandwidth for uploads and downloads. There is actually a hidden, unsupported way of preventing LW from becoming a leaf: just set the EVER_SUPERNODE_CAPABLE and FORCE_SUPERNODE_MODE properties to true in the limewire.props file in your limewire install directory. But obviously we're trying to make this all transparent to the user.

When in leaf mode, you will see very few incoming queries in your monitor, as the ultrapeer filters out most of them. The number of hosts reported in the connections tab is actually only the number of other ultrapeer hosts reported within the last few minutes; it is not an indicator of the horizon size. (Horizon estimates have been disabled for months; that's why the connections tab is disabled by default.)

However, we are aware that leaves sometimes do not get as many search results, and we're working on ways of making sure that leaves get high-quality, well-connected ultrapeers. Do note that result "quality" has nothing to do with ultrapeers.

Again, thanks for your help.

-Christopher Rohrs

Well, it took about 3 or 4 days, but I'm now running as an Ultrapeer. My upload slots are full and I'm getting good search results. Now, I just need to decide when to pull the plug and upgrade to LimeWire 2.0 Pro (which I just bought).

So, I'm happy now but my experience was that leaves don't get good searchs or uploads (assuming they have the bandwidth to support it).
- Tony

I just made myself an Ultrapeer. Oh man did I find another Ultrapeer!! I connected to a host with 76 other ultrapeers and I when I took the snapshot he had 122. As I'm typing this he has 182 ultrapeers!! So Ultrapeers do work!!

snapshot:

http://24.37.161.8/images/ultrapeers.jpg

Unless you're supporting a lot of servents in Leaf-mode, then you're not really using Ultrapeer -- you're just continuing to use the "full peer" mode of the original Gnutella protocol.

It also appears that the reported horizon size is different depending on whether you're in Leaf or Ultrapeer mode. Leafs are only told the number of "regular" hosts (Gnutella 0.4 servents) their Ultrapeer is linked to, rather than the larger Horizon number. But once you become an Ultrapeer, you can see the horizon size of other Gnutella 0.4 hosts and of other Ultrapeers.
__________________________

Your screen-capture clearly shows your connections:
- 4 hosts acting as regular Gnutella 0.4 servents
- 2 hosts acting as Ultrapeers
- 3 hosts acting as Leafs (clients to your Ultrapeer)

So, all you've managed to do is remove the excess traffic of 3 people.

By comparison, I can't even do a screen-shot of my Connections page because it's so long. To summarize mine:
- 6 hosts acting as regular Gnutella 0.4 servents
- 0 hosts acting as Ultrapeers (they come and go)
- 50 hosts acting as Leafs

uhh no...I'm an Ultrapeer. I'm
connecting the other Ultrapeers connected to me to each other. Otherwise (leaf-mode) this could not happen.

same as above.

uhh yeah I know that, if you'd read any other threads/posts about Ultrapeers you would see I clearly understand the simple concept.
Leaf-mode shows the horizon of the Ultrapeer or Ultrapeers you're connected. Say you're connected to an Ultrapeer which is connected to no other Ultrapeer. It would show the horizon for that Ultrapeer. Yes, then if you're an Ultrapeer you can see the horizon of 0.4 hosts like before.

and.......?? I only had Ultrapeer status up for a couple of minutes when I took the snapshot. When I woke up this morning I had a lot more leafs and ultrapeers. Anyways why are you acting childish as if yours if better than mine? Also you can clearly see I was prviding a hughe horizon to those 0.4 hosts that had 40+ other hosts connected to them.

yeah ok....big deal. so shutup. You also said you have a T1 connection while mine is only cable and you've had yours running longer than mine. Thats why you have more.....

I just took another snapshot of an Ultrapeer that I'm connected with 345 Ultrapeers connected to him. cool stuff

forgot to post the url

http://24.37.161.8/images/ultrapeer2.jpg

This is all so cool. I'm glad the UltraPeer thing is working. It's going to be so awesome when the official release of LW 2.0 comes out! Can you imagine the scale (size) the network can take on then?
:-)

Greetings,

__________________
~TruStarWarrior~
LimeWire Forum Moderator

It *did* come out! It's LimeWire Pro 2.02 and costs $6. Go to the company's web-site, http://www.limewire.com

Is there something good about Ultrapeer which I don't know about? I was an Ultrapeer as soon as I logged on, and I can't get rid of it, I only ever have one host connected and my uploads are non existant, I have an adsl line, not sure if that is too slow for ultrapeer or whatever. Basically even when I disable ultrapeer it doesn't go away!! Someone tell me why I am not getting lots of nice connections please.

Chris

Chris,
I think you're setup is ok but that you're experiencing some of the early bugs in the new Ultrapeer system.

Questions:
1. Which version of Limewire are you running? The latest version is 2.02 (i.e., no longer a beta version!).
2. Can you see your Connections screen? If not, click on the View pull-down menu and enable it.
3. In the Connections screen, what number is plugged-in to "Keep approx. __ connections up"?
4. In the Connections screen, along the bottom and to the left of the text "Keep approximately...", what mode does it say you're in, e.g. [Client], [Leaf], or [Ultrapeer]?
5. In the Tools / Options / Speed settings, is the checkbox unchecked for "Disable Ultrapeer"?

Now let me repeat back what I am understanding from you (from your post):
- in the Connections screen, you see only one connection and it is labeled "Ultrapeer"
- you're getting fewer search results and upload requests than you're accustomed to

So, I think what's happening is that you're in Leaf mode (meaning you're "slaved" to another machine running in Ultrapeer mode) and that the Ultrapeer isn't doing a good job. This has been my impression of Ultrapeer so far. The only 'solution' is to avoid Leaf mode or to become an Ultrapeer yourself.

Solution:
- in Tools / Options / Speed, try clicking on the checkbox for "Disable Ultrapeer"
- shutdown Limewire and restart
- you should reconnect to the network and get as many connections as you've requested, eg. 4 Hosts (though I think this might be another bug; it may still act like you're a Leaf and limit you to one host)

Long-term, ie. once Ultrapeer is fixed, it's sort of a toss-up whether or not you want to operate in traditional servent-mode, in Leaf-mode, or in Ultrapeer-mode. Since you're on an ADSL line, you probably want Leaf mode though you could also do traditional mode; Ultrapeer requires more upstream bandwidth than your ADSL provides.

Sd,

I am in Client mode, and now I know I wasn#t an Ultrapeer. Um, what is the difference between Leaf and Client mode?

I am keeping up 6 connections and I am running version 2.02, not the beta version. Yes I can see the connections screen and I have not disabled ultrapeer.

Because I am in client mode (Which I don't know why it is different to Leaf mode) I guess I might be connected to an Ultrapeer who wasn#t doing a good job.

Today I was connected to four Ultrapeers at once, how does that happen? I got good search results today anyway so I suppose it doesn#t really matter too much.

Thanks anyway.

Chris