I know that my subject line of this post sounds like a rant from one of those...well, ranters, but it isn't.

Actually, I do have one rant:

As I type this on the Limewire Post New Thread form, there's that banner ad at the top of the page that flashes red and white saying "If this is flashing, than you've won!"

I'm not sure, but I think it gave me some kind of seizure, because I just woke up with my socks on my hands and I seem to have lost the last 15 minutes.

If anybody knows who invented the flashing banner ad, could you give him a nice kick in the crotch for me?

Anyway, the reason for this post is usually the problems people have with Limewire are connection, upload and download problems, and whenever you network geniuses (and I use that term in the literal sense) suggest a solution, its usually peppered with terms like dropped hosts, and upload slots, and port 6346, and firewall settings, and requery, and static IP, and I sit there and think: I recognize all of these as being words from the English language, but I have no idea what the Hell these people are talking about!

My question is this: Can someone recommend a book or something that explains the nuts and bolts of what it is that apps like Limewire do when someone wants a copy of **EDIT** from my hard disk?

I know that you network pros have spent years emersed in this stuff, and I don't expect to grasp everything, but I just want something like "Upload Slots and Dropped Hosts for Dummies" that can explain how all of this Gnutella stuff works.

And while I'm at it: What the Hell is a Gnutella?!

Thanks for any direction you can provide!

Chris

Kath,

That was great.

I've already gone through the Limewire FAQs and User Guide - I have no real problems using Limewire, I just want to better understand what the application does to get a file from one location to another.

But while we're on the subject, is it just me, or is the Limewire User Guide out of sync with the latest version (2.4)? In the interface description, the screenshot shows buttons that my copy of 2.4 doesn't have (Download Any, for example) and one section describes a button called Browse Host in great detail, and I can't find that on my copy either.

The Gnutella link you sent seems to have a wealth of information for me to pour over.

Thanks tons for you suggestions!
C

Kath,

I hope I'm not becoming a nudge, but I wonder if you can fill in the blanks on some of the information I've read about Limewire and Gnutella:

According to the Limewire description of how Gnutella works, Computer A, (me) and Computers B, C, D, and E are all on the Gnutella network (I assume that Morpheus works similar to and with Gnutella.) A announces to B that it's alive, and B lets C, D, and E know that A is alive. By this same chain-like process, I can search the network for files, and once someone announces that they have the file I'm looking for, I establish a direct HTTP connection to their computer and download the file. If they're behind a firewall, I send a Push request, and if they choose, THEY establish an HTTP link with me.

At least that's how it seems to work to me.

Anyway, back to how this ties into Limewire: When I click on the Connections Tab, I see three or more IP addresses under Hosts. If I'm Computer A (as described above) are these "Hosts" Computers B, C, D and E? If not, what are the "Hosts"?

Also, why wouldn't one want to be connected to 100 or 1000 Hosts? Wouldn't that maximize my chances of finding a file I'm searching for?

Thirdly, what is "Ultrapeer"? It's described in the User Manual as a way of helping users with slow connections. Does that mean that I'm helping someone with low bandwidth when we're transferring a file to each other, or is my DSL bandwidth going to some kind of "bandwidth wishing well" that slower users can draw from whenever they need it (regardless of whether we're HTTP connected and sharing files)?

Also, sometimes the Hosts display a Status of "Incoming" and sometimes "Outgoing". What does that mean?

Sorry to dump all of these questions in your lap, and I understand if it's more than you're willing to deal with, but it seems like every time I find a resource, it generates more questions for me!

Thanks again!
C

Kath!

Thanks for the reading material!

I read all of your links, and they're all actually starting to make sense!

I now know, however, why God made Technical Writers. These net-heads may know their material, but they sure don't speak the King's English.

I feel like a Bletchley Park codebreaker trying to decipher their meaning from their tangled mess of misplaced modifiers, dangling participles, improper verb tenses, and sacreligious misuse of pronouns!

Again, thank you helping for thanks the help. (The previous line was an attempt to imitate some of the sentences I've read in this forum.)

Rock on,
C

Hi, Moe Szyslak......

Listen! Get it right!
It's "Good Times Roll" without the 'Let The...'
Got it?


I am not arguing with your comments...... In fact, I support them very strongly.
The documentation for the majority of clients is garbage.
Is that a clear enough position? These are my personal views, of course.
Never let the designer write the user manual.
They do not have the capability to ask the correct questions because they cannot imagine a user-base with a knowledge level below their own. And, if you cannot imagine how to ask the correct questions, you cannot write a user's manual for people who will be asking the questions!

Have a look at the link for a Gnucleus manual...... There is some info included which applies to all clients and it is quite useful.
I am currently assembling a series of links which will hopefully help many people in having a greater understanding of p2p, Gnutella Network, digital music and the many other sources of files available for sharing.
It is not complete yet, and I wish to also have it examined by the powers above me here before I release it.
btw, if you are looking for the occasional 'high horse' to mount, might I suggest a full frontal assault on the "default" settings included with most clients?

High Ho, Silver!

p.s. I promise to do my best to never end a sentence with a prepos¡tion at the end of.

__________________
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Tomorrow's forecast:
Sunni in places, Shi'ite in others...

Hi, Ursula,

I certainly hope nobody thinks that I was complaining about any of the manuals or postings in the forum. I just feel, as a former technical writer myself, that I could poke a little fun at the network savants.

I'd love it if, when it's ready, you could reply with the list of links that you said that you were compiling.

I think that the information that I'm looking for goes way beyond the scope of what Limewire should be responsible for in its User Manual, but I find the whole P2P technology pretty fascinating.

Thanks again!

C