to ultrapeer or not to ultrapeer?
 

ok so i get it i can help the community by donating my connection speed and stability to those less fortunate than I and thus make it possible for more users to get on and share and search if i were to ultra peer. but what benefits does the ultrapeer get? other than those mentioned above. It seems as tho it would be better to be a leaf and keep all your bw. But is there a direct benefit i am missing for the ultrapeer? there are times i need every bit of bw i have between downloads ups and regular internet tasks and im not sure if its always best for me to ultrapeer.

thanks in advance for your insight.

--ummm

The later developed programs like LimeWire, Phex, GTK-Gnutella tend to use less over-head when running as ultrapeer. I think this is because they compress the messages sent to and from other clients that can also receive and send compressed messages, thus less bandwidth used. There's probably other reasons also.
I think the standard ultrapeer bandwidth is between 5 to 10 KB/s for the above mentioned programs, perhaps a fraction more.

Depends upon your overall bandwidth abilities I guess. I only have modest upload capacities since most standard ADSL2 upload abilities in my country are not especially high. Yet I choose to run as ultrapeer quite often. Some years ago I deliberately did not run as ultrapeer due to similar bandwidth concerns as you. I was only on ADSL1.

In the past, some people might have advised one or the other depending upon which way you wished to help the network the most (unless you had a very good upload ability.) But these days I think it is more dependent on your client and your bandwidth abilities and how popular your files usually are.

My personal advice would be not to worry too much about it. If you have 50 KB/s or higher upload capability, I think you can safely be a large'ish sharer and an ultrapeer.

Off-topic: If you wanted to attract attention to any particular shares. There's a few ways to do it. One is via file description (if it is not an audio file.) Another is to do searches of the same topic of your shares. This brings you in contact with those also seeking such similar file topics. A tip I picked up from experience. :D

I find that when I'm connecting as a leaf, I see way more uploads (others downloading my files).

And when I connect as UP, my search results sometimes seem to be better. So I'd say that there is a benefit to connecting as UP, in that you can see better search results at times.

I alternate. If I want to search for hard to find files, I'll conect as UP. But if I want to simply share my files, I'll turn off UP capabilities & connect as a leaf.

FWIW, my upload bandwidth is a bit sad... the best I can do is ~ 50 KB/s. So I have my max simultaneous downloads set at 5.

:)

i can only give at 50 myself. but LOTR hit my question on the head I used to have a hard time 5 10 years back with the draw it took as an ultrapeer. ive been ultrapeer the past two days and havent noticed any major issues. now one other question is when i am ultra peer i deliver or hold packets for leafs i believe to some extent and some of the search get shuffled through me as an ultrapeer so could i be liable for someone else dling a illegal file through me?

I'm not interested in trading actively i dl items i want to have copies of that i already purchased. I just don't want to be culpable for joe d'loader grabbing a bunch of kiddy porn while he is in my tree. Legally speaking.

I am not totally understanding of the way downloads work. But to my knowledge downloads go directly between the uploader and downloader, not via ultrapeers. Once someone begins a download, they become directly connected to the uploader to my knowledge.

If you used LW 4 you might have been aware of the Direct Connect search option. I believe downloads work in same fashion as DC. (DC search function was restricted to 'Friends' in LW 5.)

Ultrapeers help people to connect to the network. They are also the search hubs. They act as go-betweens for searches and help distribute searches.

Search results I am not sure about how they work. :confused: