The download speed issue has nothing to do with Limewire. You can try any Gnutella client and achieve essentially the same results. There are a lot users who apparently share files across a slow connection. I have tried 5 different gnutella clients and find Limewire no better/worse than the others with regard to success rate in downloads or speed. Your 4-5 out of twenty is typical of my own experience. The nature of the beast - I occasionally get downloads at incredible speed 100-120 KBs but these are the exceptions.