Wasted downloading please help!
 

When I get into LimeWire before i start downloading anything limewire is already downloadin a never ending amount of data
This still happens if i search for somthing and click stop search and stop all downloads.
Please help me as I have a 3gb download limit per month for my DSL and find it very hard to keep to.
*not this also happens in WinMX, but not songspy

if you exit LimeWire while in the process of downloading files, LimeWire will resume the downloads the next time you launch the application. select the files you no longer want, and cick on Kill Download.

zbell:D

sorry, but thats not my problem
when the program is doing absolutly nothing (nothing has been selected to download at all and nothing is being resumed)
When the program is just ideling its constantly downloading crap
this doesnt happen to a friend of mine on dial up
could it be its updating or pinging the gnutella network server far to much or somthing?
please help

in what window do you see all those files being downloaded? could you be looking at the connections tab by mistake, or are you looking at uploads? i'm not sure what you mean. LimeWire will only download what you have requested

zbell:D

No, that's not it.

To answer this, I have to explain a bit about how the Gnutella network works. (This is actually a basic description of the basic Gnutella network... I'm not going into Ultrapeers or pong caching or anything.) First, there are no dedicated central "servers" as such. When you connect to the Gnutella network, your computer becomes both a client and a server on the network (which is why a Gnutella client is really referred to as a "servent"... SERVer, cliENT... get it?). You connect to others and others can connect to you (not so much with LimeWire anymore, but with many other clients this is still how it works). So, what you are seeing when you're noticing your DSL connection seemingly downloading nonstop is all the traffic going to and from your computer.

As an example, take a search for instance. In its basic form, when you perform a search, your client knows to send that search request to every one of the nodes you are connected to. Those nodes then pass that search on to every one of the nodes they are connected to and so on until the packet expires (which I won't get into how that's done). Even if a node doesn't have the file that the search is looking for, it has to pass that search packet on until the packet expires. The same thing goes for all other types of packets. As a node on the network, your computer is responsible for routing other peoples' packets even when you're not actively doing anything on the network yourself. That's the whole secret to the Gnutella network.

Normally, with any other client, this would amount to a lot of traffic, but LimeWire has a lot of other neato peachy keen features added to reduce the amount of bandwidth required (like Ultrapeers). I'd give you some idea of the bandwidth consumed in an hour, but it really does vary according to the number of connections you have to other nodes and whether you're doing anything else at the time (downloading, searching, etc.).

I'm in a similar predicament as you though... I also have a monthly bandwidth limit. I found a little program that helps me keep track of just how much I've transfered in a month. It's called "NetStat Live" and it's by a company called AnalogX. It's completely free and you can find it here.

As for your friend on the modem. It's entirely possible (and the LimeWire folks would be the only ones to be able to confirm this for sure) that modem users have too little bandwidth available to be able to function as a server... besides that, they're only allowed a very small number of connections to begin with. The more connections you have, the more bandwidth you need to service those connections.

Hope that helps.... let me know if anything needs clarification.

Modem users aren't allowed to become Ultrapeers. Becoming an Ultrapeer is much more likely if you have a broadband-connection. If you can't keep your limit otherwise, you can check the "Disable Ultrapeer Capabilities"-box which hides somewhere in the LimeWire-options (I believe in the 'speed'-panel).

Well, to qualify this even further, nobody automatically becomes an ultrapeer as soon as they connect. There's a rather extensive bunch of criteria that allows you to be an ultrapeer... most of it based on connection speed and the amount of time a system is connected to the network.

That's where ultrapeers modify the Gnutella network model slightly. Rather than everyone being a client and server, now nodes are categorized into leaf nodes and ultrapeers. Leaf nodes only maintain connections to ultrapeers. Ultrapeers maintain connections to leaf nodes and to other ultrapeers. Once you connect, you are a leaf node. LimeWire then evaluates your system over a period of time and determines whether it is suitable to be an ultrapeer.

So, to get to my point (ya, I know, I tend to ramble), you're probably not in danger of using too much bandwidth because of ultrapeer capabilities... chances are you're not an ultrapeer and checking the "Disable Ultrapeer Capabilities" box in LimeWire's options won't help conserve any more bandwidth. However, you can rest assured that LimeWire is probably one of the most bandwidth friendly clients I've seen. It uses probably 10 times less bandwidth than most other clients I've used.

Sorry offrdk5,

but that is normal when using LimeWire or any other program that uses the gnutella technology, because LimeWire normaly works not only as a client but also as a server or relay to transport packages for other users in the gnutella network.

Bad news for your account?

Regards
Hugo