Without reading your post in major detail before I disappear/retire, a well optimised LW should be able to connect to files by itself (given a certain no. of mins for the old incompletes to load & settle down - depending upon how many you have!)

By resume I meant hitting the resume or Find Sources option. Manual searching if needed is better. And no, LW should not always require baby-sitting. Just occasionally. If it's any more than this then perhaps yo should look at some optimising hints: http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...5&pagenumber=1

http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=27036 & also Search & dwnld techniques (some hints):
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...4545#post94545

With those xtra large files though, perhaps there's just no reliable outcome. There's too many factors to counter in. Applying certain techniques may help though. In all honesty, although it can be effective, I don't recommend it. It can have side-FX. Particularly if used on too many files!