1. The net traffic is constantly varying as people log on/off or start/finish dwnlding material. This can affect connections. Make sure u have your LW properly configured for best results. If people are dwnlding from you, then you'll get better connection. This question has many variables to its reasons. It might also be due to local traffic on your local ip or the reliability of your ip itself.

2. (a) If you're using LW to play your songs, then yes there may be some skipping on occasions. It might also depend on the type of mp3's you're trying to play thru LW's player. Get a hold of another mp3 player to play your songs. (b) If you want to delete files you are sharing, there's 2 ways: Select the shared folder in the Library window of LW. The items inside will be displayed to the right. Then select the file u wich to delete & press the Delete button. Or you should quit LW 1st & then select the file & send it to the recycle bin.

3. No it won't do any harm. In fact, some users won't allow others to dwnld from them unless they are sharing a minimum no. of files. Sometimes this no. can be quite high.

4. That means nobody is uploading from you. Check your uploading prefs: go to LW's menu Tools-Options & Uploads. Check your settings for both Basic (speed to allow people to upload from you) & Slots. Make sure uploads is set to 'at least' one. Depending on your type of connection, you can have several people upload from you simultaneously. If people are uploading from you, your connection & search results will greatly improve! This can be related to your Q.1!

5. LW Pro users have the best options of chatting with other people! For LW basic, I 'think' u can only chat with people uploading from you. Go to your LW menu Tools-Options & Chat. Make sure this option to chat is ticked! Keep in mind: that not everybody has this option ticked, users are a mixture of pro & basic & other p2p apps, not everybody wants to chat, not everybody sits at their computer whilst using p2p apps. They might leave it on whilst they go out such as to work or overnight whilst they sleep.

6. I don't know about Q6. I'm not sure if LW has that option yet.