3 instead of 6 connections
 

In the connections tab I have set to hold about 6 connections but Limewire holds only 3 connections. I have to write a "6" again into the little text field (where the 6 is already) and THEN Limewire connects with 6 hosts.

I restarted Limewire a few times but it has no effect on the problem.

I use Limewire 2.8.6, Java 1.4, Linux.

That behaviour is intended because the number of ultrapeer connections should not be set to a value greater than 3 by default.

6 connections down to 3
 

I realize that the number of connections should be 3 but to disable the ability to go higher is kinda lame. It was there before and now they take it out altogether? Adding in additional connections was about the only way for me to get any decent search results. That and if do a search with 3 and then again with 6 the result set was much better. There were a number of times that 3 would return _nothing_ and 6 would return _something.

Also the the total files goes up to 800M for me at 6 and < 120 with 3 connections. So yea the return set is low if at three.

Bottom line, I disagree with taking it out. I wish I knew that before I upgraded otherwise I would not have done it. Now it is a useless tool.

I USED to be a paying customer......

The idea was, that if all leafs have 3 connections, you could search a lot more leafs although searching the same number of ultrapeers.

In addition LimeWire is increasing the number of intra-ultrapeer connections to 15, so you should already see more results than before.

The number of results returned by an ultrapeer is limited now. The more exact your search is, the more ultrapeers the search will effectively reach. Searching for "eminem" should not return you more than 300-400 results, but searching for "eminem song title" could easily return 150-200 results for one song alone.

I agree
 

I get much less search results than before. I don't know that it is worth the time using!...(I am using 2.9.8 Pro)

same here
 

Same here, I took two machines, one running 2.9.8 and the other running an earlier version. Earlier version comes back with 30-40% more results. I like the program a lot but after this connection reduction thing, I doub't Ill continue with it.

The number of results returned by LimeWire ultrapeers have been limited to about 80 per ultrapeer and search. However it is very likely that a search will return more results if it is really popular.

the keyword "if"
 

The operative word "if" is the key here. One of limewires greatest attrations was the ability to find the "not so popular" items that are out there. Yea the "wishlist" did this to some degree but I usually kept the setting on 3 connections unless I was trying to find something that was indeed hard to find. I found that I had a higher chance of finding it with 6 connections and letting it sit for 30 minutes so that the number of files it can see goes up. This greatly increased the possibility of find the "rare ones".

I hear you on the connection improvement but tests says otherwise. One machine at 3 connections only show on average ~800M of files where as the earlier version running at the same time on a different machine with 6 connections found 2.4G of files.

I don't think it makes much sense to argue with you about it, but let me tell you this much. Increasing the number of leaf connections from 3 to 6 increases your search horizon only by some 30%-50% because each of the hosts you are connected to will probably search the same set of hosts.

The reason searches would return more results was that the pre 2.9.x network was so overloaded that many searches would be dropped before they could reach the whole reachable network. With more connections the probability of one search surviving long enough to return more results was just a little greater.
Since LimeWire has reduced the traffic and the number of dropped searches, there is no need to increase the number of connections anymore because you will always be stuck with the same set of searchable ultrapeers +/- a few dozens.

So why can't we find anything......

... because of all the freeloaders.

there must be a ton of new freeloaders then because my results have gone WAY down....

LimeWire ultrapeers try limiting the number of results to 240 (although you might get more results at times).

But the average OpenNap user is sharing ~ 20GB for example, the average Gnutella user is sharing ~ 200MB. So much about the ton of freeloaders.

I have to agree that the search results have suffered since upgrading to 2.9.8. previously with 2.8.x, if I upped my connection above 6, I would generally find what I'm looking for. Now I get almost nothing. Even on the simple searches. I seriously think you need to revisit the connections option.

Get this: I have 500+ files shared on my computer. It's up 24x7. My freind does a search and does not get a hit for anything on my PC. Is something wrong with this picture?

The new LimeWire ultrapeers stop the search once they have returned 80 results (50 if you are using an older version of LimeWire). Maybe your friend's search wasn't specific enough - or the distance between the ultrapeers you and your friend connected to is too big to be crossed by a search. (If your messages have to cross 5 or 6 ultrapeers before they reach your friend, you will never find a file from each other).

I'm not a freeloader - I keep TONS of stuff to share in my Limewire share folder and rotate it periodically to have fresh sharesies. But I'm with the other guy here: 2.9.8 sucks. I just d/l'd it and was VERY pissed off to find I cannot reset the number of connections higher. I don't pretend to be able to argue all the leaf vs. ultrapeer vs. whateverwhoosywhatsits and I'm not even gonna try. All I know is before I could find anything & everything & almost ALWAYS got a live d/l. Now even though my search results are fairly OK (not as good as before), I can't d/l ANYTHING. I keep getting this crap about "waiting for sources". Waiting my *** ... they are right there in the search results.

Fix it or put it back, but do something, folks, this sucks compared to before. Like I said, I don't pretend to understand how it is *theoretically* SUPPOSED to work. All I know is the RESULTS ARE NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE. And that's all I care about here: performance. It's gone down. End of story. No amount of logic over how it is SUPPOSED to be better is going to erase that. No amount of debate is going to make those downloads appear where they used to be but now are not thanks to 2.9.8 - and here I upgraded to be a good Gnutella citizen, too. *snort*

Next version is going to connect to 2 ultrapeers instead of 3. The number of results will be limited to ~100 and older versions are heavily disadvantaged by new ultrapeers which will only return ~30 results to older leafs.

Hello!

I also read about this in the mail by Adam. Does this mean that the next version will never give out more then 200 hits from a search?

Or are you talking about per UltraPeer in total meaning a potentional of well over a thousand hits?

I am a bit confused about this!

No, it means that the most you can get in total is maybe 150 or 200 search results. But it's very likely that, if you repeat a search, you will receive different results.

if it is broke, don't break it more
 

I wasn't holding a grudge against LimeWire for the latest version. As best as I can tell, you guys honestly thought it would help the network.
However, what we now know is that it DOESN'T.

And now, although it should be clear that this is punishing everyone on the network, from freeloaders to UltraPeers, the fine folks at LimeWire have decided to make it WORSE.

My experience has echoed everyone else's - I was using 5 connections and usually had 800 - 1200 hosts. The highest I've seen it since I "upgraded" was around 650, and I haven't had a download connect in over a week.

If LimeWire continues to "improve" by taking ideas that failed and implementing them harder, my 2-3 gigs are definitely leaving the software, maybe the network. The 30+ people who downloaded from me today will have to go elsewhere.

Re: if it is broke, don't break it more
 

You are sick in your mind. You say there is a problem, I say there is
no such problem, the Gnutella network works better than ever. All
problems is sickness in your mind.
Decision? There has been no such decision. Freeloaders are bad and
LimeWire is making everything better for ultrapeers. I triple
guarantee you, the gnutella network is improving and LimeWire is the
one improving it.
This is a lie and everyone knows it is a lie. LimeWire is good. I say
so because I speak the truth.
Even those who live on another planet, if there are such people, would
not believe you are sharing anything. You only deserve to be hit with
shoes.

I ask all people here. Speak the truth that is evidenced in your eyes
and your hearts. Don't believe lies about LimeWire not becoming
better.

http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com

I would also like to point out that the statistics regarding network size, number of files available, etc. are far from accurate, and I would not look to them in any way for reflecting the performance of the network.

The changes we have recently made have, in fact, increased the overall efficiency of the network tremendously. If you are looking for rare content in particular, LimeWire works far better now than it ever has in the past. We will no longer return 1000 results for a search because it is simply bad for the network to do so -- returning that many results saturates Ultrapeer bandwidth and causes messages to be dropped. From a practical perspective, such high numbers of results did not give you a better chance of getting the file you wanted.

I would suggest searching for specific things -- this should improve your experience.