steif: would be interesting to know what the process is that makes a host into an ultrapeer.

my completely unrepresentative observation is: normally, limewire starts as a leaf. if I have it running for quite some time (like, a day or so), and quit, and restart it, it starts as an ultrapeer and usually remains an ultrapeer. it seems like the longer the downtime in between, the less likely it will start as ultrapeer again or it will drop back to leaf.

it tends to drop back to leaf if there are not enough connections after a while.

generally speaking, continuity is the key.

I am behind a router, ports forwarded, cable, with rare IP changes.