A few things to consider while configuring Limewire for optimal performance...
 

Ok, so I noticed lately that more and more people complain about them having a high-speed connection but are seeing very low speeds in Limewire. I personally think that it's mostly due to people not having configured the application very well (if at all), mostly because that was my case too, so I decided to post in a new thread the few pointers that I followed when configuring my Limewire. Here they are:

a) First, make sure to know exactly what connection speeds you have, both upload and download. This may sound dumb but there are people who don't know (or maybe can't remember) what connection they are paying for. As a proof, many write in posts things like: "I have cable" or "I have a DSL connection".
While that's all good, you must know that there are different kinds of speeds, so knowing what connection speed you're on is more important (in this particular case at least).
Also, consider that DSL and Cable connection speeds are affected by the physical distance from the server, so if you have like a thousand kilobit connection but the server is, like, a zillion kilometers away (I obviously like exageration, huh?), then your speeds would still be incredibly slow.

b) Very, very important is also knowing the difference between bits and Bytes. When ISPs advertise their net connections, they use the data communications' measuring "system": the bit. You'll see things like: "1000 kilobits per second (kbps) connection available from, blah blah...". In data storage (includes most p2p filesharing apps I've seen so far) though, the Byte unit is used. The difference, which had me fooled at first, is that a Byte is 8 bits, which makes a 1024kbps DSL connection (like, say, mine) being able to (theoretically) run with 128 KBps speed (actually, it's 1000KBps as Morgwen points out later. You can go here to make a more accurate bit-to-byte-conversion). Don't misunderstand though: this is still pretty fast.

c) Now that you know a couple of things about your connection, it's time to get to configuring. The first step is to launch Limewire (duh). With Limewire launched, a Windoze user must go to Tools->Options while an OSX user will click Limewire->Preferences (for OS9 I heard it's Limewire->Options)
On the list to the left of the Preferences/Options window, click on Uploads, then Basic. If you know your upload speed (which you should), then drag the Upload Bandwidth meter so that it matches it. Done? Good. Now drag it down a little more, around -5 or so of your Upload bandwidth. Trust me. Just do it.

d) Now click Slots. I've personally set the uploads per person to 3, but anyway: the max upload slots should be decreased a bit as if you don't have enough bandwidth to satisfy all the demands, you'll end up queueing a lot of people and probably wasting your own bandwidth too.

e) Click Speed and make sure you've set the right speed (don't do things like setting it to T1 while you're on modem: it won't make you any faster).

f) Now for the good stuff: this will make you feel more like you're really fine tuning Limewire for better performance (despite the fact that the rest is probably just as important). Click Downloads. See the "Maximum number of simultaneous downloads"? You're gonna have to play around with that a little.
I don't know about others, but I thought at first that this was the number of active downloads (meaning the number of download slots in the "Downloads" window) I could have up at the same time. Well, it's not. This number determines the maximum amount of downloads you can have at the same time, but regardless of wether it's for the same file or not.
So, if you're on a broad-band connection, increase this number a little. Be careful: a little is really a little, meaning that you must increase this number by 1 or maybe 2. Increasing it too much (i.e directly setting this to 100) can have the opposite effect, as your Limewire will try to connect to more hosts than your bandwidth can handle. What you have to do is find a popular file (read: "a file with many sources") and download that. Remember the speed you downloaded it with.
Return to the Download preferences: if the speed you saw was near your max download bandwidth then click Apply and be happy, 'cause you're done here. If on the other hand it isn't, increase the number again by 1 or 2 and click Apply. Delete the download the re-download it.
Lather, rinse, repeat as needed.

IMPORTANT:
-Don't think that setting upload speed too low or completely disabling uploading won't affect your speeds, 'cause it will.
-Remember to be patient with the last step as going too fast might result in setting the number too high, which would have the opposite effect.
-DON'T forget to click 'Apply': every time you change something and are pretty confident that what you did was right, then click Apply. Don't forget it.

As a side note, I'm proud to say that any of my friends' Limewire's (including mine, of course) I've configured this way are going very fast, as in "going at 'Top Speed'", so I think that these pointers are not crap.
To any of the veteran members and/or connaiseurs of Limewire: feel free to make feel like an idiot if you think that what I wrote here is bull.:)

EDIT: If all else fails, then it's time to consider the possibility that your ISP is among the really "brilliant" ones who had the equally "brilliant" idea to throttle P2P traffic.
This is a link that shows some ISPs known to have chosen this course of action. Go there and hope you don't find yours on the list.

Also, here's a link to many helpful links (provided by Gnutellaforums' own Cleaning Lady :)). Among them you can find a "speed test" page. Just remember to run the test many times at different times of the day.
I hope this helps at least someone...

I just noticed something I wrote on the previous post which is kinda wrong: at step f) , every time you change the max number blah blah click 'Apply' for the change to take effect.

Kudos, But I would like to add something..
 

Although this cant really be set completely right unless limewire changes a bit, the uploads can be configured according to how fast you want a user to be able to connect.
Say you have tons of movies, you might want to dedicate uploads to few people, so they can upload at a faster rate.
Or if you had only music files you might want to allow more users to connect.
This way, a user doesnt have to try to upload one movie for weeks, that she can do it in a matter of days. Because music files are smaller, giving less bandwidth per user doesnt really matter as much, becuase uploading at 1KB/s may be annoying, but it wont take weeks.
I have mine set (I have lots of video files) so that if the maximum number of users allowed connect, they can have 8KB/s, assuming of course they can handle that.

Sure, as long as you upload it's all fine. If you don't upload, download speeds will suffer.

murasame,

In your post, you put to

"If you know your upload speed (which you should), then drag the Upload Bandwidth meter so that it matches it. Done? Good. Now drag it down a little more, around -5 or so of your Upload bandwidth."

I've tried sliding the Bandwidth meter, but it only goes up to 43.31 KB/s before it says unlimited. I'm new to this, and my DSL provider (Bell South) claims that my connection is:

"Up to 1.5Mbps downstream X 256Kbps upstream "

Please let me know if you have any advice. Thanks. I appreciate the guidance.

Hah! You fell for it too huh? (much like I did)
Read the part about bit to Byte conversion and do the math: 256Kb=32KB
Slide the bar to 32-5=27KB and you're set.

For people to which this little guide doesn't seem to help, then try contacting your ISP and asking them what the deal is: some ISPs slow down P2P traffic coming their way on purpose.
Also, for all of you people who think that setting your upload speed very low will increase bandwidth allocated to dld you've got it all wrong: Dld and Upload Bandwidths (at least in DSL/Cable) usedifferent, uh, "slots", so to speak.

i have been trying to d/l some things for several days, actually more like 2 weeks. i turned off my uploads thinking that this would help, and from what i read before it seems like everyones saying it doesnt help. i have cable interent, any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong thats making it so slow.

thanks:)

I wanna say thanks to the person who started this thread cos it made my downloads like 8 times faster, even though i cant seem to get it to match my upload speed i am still happy
thanks
ps: to all those people who can always seem to find something wrong about it, unless u know better, keep ur comments to urself

Evelyn, the reason that you cannot match your upload and dld speeds (if you mean that your upload speed doesn't get anywhere near your dld speed) is because:
-Dld and upload bandwidths use separate "slots" in cable connections
-the upload bandwidth "slot" is typically only a fragment of the dld "slot".
Check my signature. For a connection of over 2Megs of dld bandidth, I only have a measly 128Kb upload bandwidth. And what's even weirder is, before I upgraded from 1Meg to 2Megs, my upload bandwidth was actually greater...

Ok, I am new to Limwire and I'm not the most computer literate person in the world. My download speed is: 1485 kbps and my upload speed is: 357 kbps...What exactly does that translate to? I have roadrunner...Thanks a lot for any help!

Those are you download and upload bandwidths (respectively). Dividing both by 8 (to have them in Bytes because that's how LW shows them) you get around 185 KB (not Kb; watch out. Kb is for bits, KB is for Bytes) of dld bandwidth and roughly around 45 KB upload bandwidth.
What this means is that, theoretically, you can download from the net (including P2P, but not exclusively) with a 185KB per second and upload to it with a 45KB per second speed (considering an average quality .mp3 song is around 3.5 MB, then you should (again, theoretically) be able to get one in seconds (more like a minute or two).
Since that is all theoretical, in the real world (well, at least the real cyber-world) all kinds of things enter in the equation to mess it up. For example, look at your upload bandwidth: it is nowhere near your dld bandwidth. When dlding from P2P (such as LW) this matter a great deal because one dlds from anoter peer. If you only dld from one peer, and supposing that they aren't uploading to anyone else (meaning that they can give their entire upload bandwidth to you), you will get only speeds around 45KB (if we suppose that thyey have the exact same connection as you), no matter how big your dld bandwidth is.
And that is only one factor. You can add to that the fact that Cable/DSL connections are affected by the distance from the server, or that you won't be able to see absolute "Top Speed" because there are also messages (FTP, HTTP, blah, blah...)being sent to and from the network that eat up a little of your bandwidths, and a whole other mess of crap that affect internet connections (not just P2P).

Would like to see what users see
 

'kay....I've tried all the above, and I still have questions.

Can the "describe..." menu item in the library tab really help users find my files? There's virtually no documentation on this menu item anywhere.

Also, I've got Windows Server 2003 on my machine...I'd like to know what account Limewire uses so that I can tweak that account's permissions better...

Thanx in advance for anyone who replies,

deck

I'm trying to figure out what the original poster said
 

I am on Uploads basic, and do not see what he is talking about. This pc stuff can be very hard and challenges every brain cell I have. Im not an avg joe eithier. Just if someone could put this into laymens terms and state it in 30 seconds. Not a 5 paragraph expository essay. I get easy stuff if communicated well and in few words. God I want to make my LW work well, but I cant follow all that he wrote. Can anyone help?

deckerd26354, your questions have nothing to do with what I posted about Optimising LW. Please post them in a different thread (or just follow the thread you already started about wanting to see what others see)

MusicGuy2005, I understand that it is a long post, but if you are too lazy to read it then it's not my fault. I think this is one of the simplest ways one could have described how to optimize LW's performance: the steps are rather clear (if you ask me).

I found the explanation most helpful, and am grateful that someone took the time and effort to spell it out in great detail... but I'm just one person.

>>deckerd26354, your questions have nothing to do with what I posted about Optimising LW. Please post them in a different thread

'kay....Which forum would you recommend that I start a thread in, that's appropriate for my previous questions, and any other admin, tech-savvy-type questions I may have? By the way, I have purchased LimeWire Pro...

Thanx,

Deck

Open discussion or Windows Support (the first choice is probably more appropriate).

Remember that a KB is 1024 Bytes not 1000. ;)

A computer is using binaries, not the decimal system.

Morgwen

To calculate bits to bytes (or the other way around...)http://www.beesky.com/newsite/bit_by...00&kilobytes=1
1 byte is still 8 bits. It gets a little weirder when you start mutliplying the bits (or bytes) by 10^x.

Yes one byte is 8 bits, but you calculated with 1 KB = 1000 bytes and not 1024 bytes - check your result!

More info:

http://familyinternet.about.com/cs/c.../aa052401a.htm

Morgwen

Thanks for that link murasame. Looks like sometimes a kilobit is 1000 bits, sometimes it is 1024

True is that a kilobit is 1024 bits, as I said a computer uses binaries and not the decimal system:

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 etc. this are the possible meausures. This is also the reason why the memory can´t have for example 50Mb or 100Mb. meausures that you can divide through 10 are always rounded!

Morgwen

True: binary for computer architecture (RAM, HD . . . )

decimal for communications bits.

So ISP bandwidth (the topic of this thread) is measured in decimal bits.

I have never heard anything about decimal bits, do you have a link?

As I said if you can divide it by 10 is ALWAYS rounded. Its technically not possible to tranfer data as a decimal!

A bit is only one energy impulse, you need 8 bits to display a sign (a byte).

Morgwen

it's on the bottom of the page from murasame's link http://www.beesky.com/newsite/bit_byte.htm

Ok I see. But Stief if you notice the conversation we talked about Kilobytes!

Seems like a kilobyte is also for tranfers 1024 bits. ;)

Morgwen

Yes, I noticed.

The two standards give lots of chances for confusion, and it's hard to know (and not often particularly relevant) which system a program/ISP uses. Download speeds with BYTES might refer either to a casual abbreviation of communication speed OR to the speed it is being written to the hard drive. Only the developers know for sure :)

Just try working here in Canada with "ounces"! Caught between the British Imperial system and the US system, and confused by mass and volume "ounces", there is lots of room for confusion, especially with Grandma's recipes :p

er i have dialup any pointers?

If you want really specific dial-up pointers on how to search and what to do or what no to do, then ask LOTR. He just got out of dial-up.
Wait. I'll go get'im for ya.

YO LORD!

hey I missed what was going on here. Who can tell me how many nibbles = one mega byte? Who has the biggest mouth, lol. That's something I learnt back in my electronic days; just after they invented the wheel. (Reminds me of Monty Python & the square wheel.) As far as metric & Imperial, I went thru the changeover whilst I was at primary school so I don't have any probs with either. I still often convert back to imperial if I'm not sure depending on what it is. Some habits die hard.
Actually I haven't as yet got onto broadband (it's been ordered.) Should be within 2-3 weeks.

For dial-up b/c the upld & dwnld bandwidth is the same thing, you need to balance it so there's enough for both. Remember that using LW there's not going to be much more than about 6-7 KB/s available for both. One or 2 people uplding (I have it set to one so they're assured of a constant data flow. Though I generally have several people queuing up. I balance that out by only allowing 1 upld/person. Not sure if it applies here but anyway.) Upld bandwdth I'd suggest set to b/w 1.75 to just over 2. For dwnlding I have it set to 4 max dwnlds, however I wouldn't recommend that for everybody. I'd suggest starting with one/2 to see how that goes. I'd suggest use very high to max dwnld speed. You can make small variations of these settings for yourself to find what suits your setup the best. Disable UP capabilities. I once in a while increase my upld bandwidth to max to help someone out, but that's only after I've finished dwnlding something. Sharing 'really does' help with your your connection, etc.

What's important on dialup is to make greatest use of your resources. I share plenty of files (some people filter out those who don't share more than a certain no. - so with people uplding from me I can connect to more peers for better results & generally no probs connecting - unless they filter out dialup users.) Effective search & dwnld techniques are important (remember you don't have too much bandwidth to play around with) see this link for some hints. Try not to force resume files unless you really need to. If your LW backup prefs still recognise them, then their dwnld % will remain intact. Instead search Gnutella for resources & reselect the file to dwnld. Force resume will cause the file to continually search out for resources & if you have many of them, it will probably play havoc with your connection quality. I forgot to mention, if you attempt to dwnld too many files at once, of course they'll be queud. If you have your no. of dwnlds set too high, then you're going to get very low dwnld speeds. Steady as it goes with just a couple or so at once.
I hope these suggestions are helpful & points to keep in mind for contented LW use. We are very patient people. lol

thanks man but i never have seen a bar that lets u adjust dl and ul usage i use limewire v.4.0.7 could that be why?

bizzybone you'll find it under Tools-Options-Uploads & click the arrow & select Basic. For mac that's LW's Prefs-Uploads ...

Actually there's a difference b/w mac & windows here, mac refers to actual KB/s whereas win version LW refers to %.

For dial-up probably a setting b/w 10-30%

I don't think so. If I remember correctly, sliding the cursor will indicate the actual KB/s where it says Unlimited when the cursor is at 100%

murasame upon closer inspection, you're absolutely correct. I haven't' actually connected my win verison LW & hadn't adjusted the slider. But when I did slide it down it showed the actual upld bandwidth & the % didn't change at all so ignore that last post of mine!

Having more than 2 upld slots in a little bit crazy for dial-up. I used to have 2 or 3 but became tired of seeing them continually competing with each other & dropping off.

In general I only dwnld 2 files at a time, however having it set for more allows the chance that I might connect to that less common & 'more difficult to connect to' file I might have had sitting on my dwnld list for some time. But simultaneously dwnlding from more than 2 is putting them all at risk of losing connection whilst using dial-up. This is the chance & risk I play. It's safer to just have it set to one/2.

you can also use the arrow keys for finer control of the slider, but even then not all numbers will show. Just find the setting close to your preferred speed.

murasame
THANK YOU for this thread!!!! I went from 3KB/s to 62,75 or 84KB/s!!!!!!
Thanks again!!:D :D :D

Well, I'm glad to see it has helped someone, because some of the info might (or might not) be more or less false, as I am in no way a computer whizz.

upload speed
 

Hi, read all the thread and made the changes recommended. At least now I see upload activity. I have 256 upstream on dsl/cable, so made the change to 27, 3 per person and slots set at 8. As well my downloads I have set at 5. I can download just fine but I noticed that others are only able to upload at very slow speeds...anywhere from 0 to 3k/ps. A lot of the time they are at 0 or transfer interupted. Is there anything else I can do to help this?

Thanks for any advice so that my files are not quite so frustrating? As mentioned, they are able to upload but must be the most patient people in the world.....

Jacqui

Well, they don't necessarily have to wait: if another source has the files you serve and they are able to connect to it, then it's ok.
It goes without saying though, that the more sources, the better.
When I check my uploads, if there's only one user uploading, they'll usually get around 11KBps. More than one upload means less upload bandwidth for every user: how many users are you uploading to (on average)?

upload speed
 

thanks for the help. when I checked it this morning there was around 15-20 partially uploaded/transmission interrupted. There has been about 4 ips that have been trying for a while so I was wondering if there was a way to limit the upload to these ips until they have success?

Regards
Jacqui

upload speed
 

sorry, prob another silly question. I tried the chat option but it came up with host unavailable. Is the host another user or just a server?? is anyone likely to respond? There's now around 7 files in the upload to 6 different hosts...

Host unavailable is not at all uncommon. So many people leave their p2p apps running whilst they're away from their computer; be it at work, school, bed, out for the day/night or have their p2 app hidden in the background whilst they use other apps.

upload speed
 

thanks for the clarification. Is there anything else I can/should do to improve file access? Can I limit to a particular address, if so, how?

Regards
Jacqui

The only thing I can think of is to temporarily reduce the no. of upload slots. If they have the ability to upld faster you could consider increasing the upld bandwidth temporarily. I do this from time to time if one is struggling (& I'm present.) A more permanent solution might be better coming from Murasame.

Oh, with the latest LW beta 4.1.7 you can suspend particular uplds (& dwnlds also.) Perhaps not the prettiest of solutions but a solution all the same. There's also LW beta Pro if you're interested.

upload speed
 

OK, will try this. i dl lwpro and I can see the kill upload....sounds nasty If nothing else, well then people will have to be patient. will also monitor how many files I'm sharing etc.....thanks again.
jacqui

I must apologise about my last suggestion! I had the 4.1.7 jum build open at that time. The official 4.1.7 beta doesn't have the pause for uplds (only a pause for dwnlds.)

Thanks for this helpful post. I'll certainly try this when I get a response from the LimewirePro help about my main problem. Dumb question, but is there a way to print these posts without using up all my colour cartridge and getting all the stuff on the page? The I'll be able to read them and understand them when I'm sober.:D

OK. Just found "Show printable version". Now I feel really stupid. I'm sure it wasn't there before. Going to hide my head now.:rolleyes: