Purely as a side note. I had to open up xtra upld slots to allow GeoFan49 to Direct Connect with me. (However I've had others DC with me before without doing this.) I tend to have a busy upld list & added to my personal limited upld bandwidth (256/64 kbps) this was necessary to be sure of his success. Fabion (T3) apparently also had same success 2 ways.

As noted by LOTR I had no problems establishing a dc with GeoFan49. The image LOTR posted is similar to what I saw. GeoFan49 also had no problems dc with this machine, d/l, or chatting. I had no problems d/l from GeoFan49.

LimeWire Direct Connect AOK with SBC DSL!
 

Dave and I just got setup and we've tested LimeWire Direct Connect.

RESULT = AOK!

Setup:

• 2Wire DSL modem / NAT router:
  Forwarding TCP + UDP port 6969 to PC.
  
• LimeWire Tools... Options... Firewall...
  Listen on port 6969
  Manual port forward 6969

Thruput today :: Geo<>Dave :: 24KB/sec peaks, 12KB/sec avg...
(each using SBC-Yahoo!-DSL at 160KB/sec DL, 56KB/sec UL)

Thruput yesterday :: Geo<>fab (T3) :: 90KB/sec peaks, 45KB/sec avg...

I was anticipating better thruput with Dave, but it does work...
After all, we can download POP email at 140-160KB/sec!!!

Thanks for the help, y'all!

For anyone who cares, the problem was most likely that if you've set up your router yourself, you must tell LimeWire that you've done a "Manual Port Forward". If not, LimeWire won't know what's going on. Most often, this shouldn't be necessary because the router should understand UPnP.

Can I just clarify something, I think one of the posters touched on this above.

My initial setup of LW was automatic port configuration by LW using UPnP. I have been able to DL and UL with no problems but it would be impossible for anyone to connect direct with my computer. This is confirmed in both Search -> Direct Connect (message reads "Your computer is behind a firewall or router and cannot receive direct connections", plus the Bug Report test reports ""Recieved incoming this session" False.

Following the instructions about manual configuration, I added TCP/UDP for Gnutella, opening the ports. Upon restarting LW, and clicking Search -> Direct Connect instead of the firewall message I get instructions on how to get friends to connect and in the bug report it now reads "Recieved incoming this session" True. The main thing though - downloading appears to be MUCH faster - at least 3 times faster, probably more. Am I imagining this bit or has manually configuring the ports done this? It was downloading before but it was quite slow at times (perhaps I couldn't download from all sources because I was firewalled?).

I haven't changed the "Use UPnP" router configuration. Should I change this to Manual Port Forward?

Is the way I've now configured LW a better option. Can someone tell me if opening ports like this is safe? I'm using Zone Alarm and all that ever asked me when I first set up LW was whether I wanted LW to both access the internet and to act as a server - I clicked to permanently allow both.

Again, sorry for the lengthy post, I'm really new to all this. Is my computer safe with the current configurations?

Robert

It's only advisable to have one firewall otherwise they can interfere in odd ways with each other. So disable all firewalls except your prefered one such as Zone Alarm here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/firewalls.shtml

I attempted to direct connect to you without success. Perhaps you were too busy at the time who knows. I hope you saw this: How to Direct Connect, Browse & Chat & it helps if you enable chat.

I was changing the config settings back to see if I really was imagining the increased speed, so it's possible I'd gone behind the firewall once more at the point you were trying.

Could you try once more and see if you can connect? It's 2:10am UK time here, so i can only be around for about another 20 minutes or so (work in 6 hours!).

I've enabled chat too.

I'm not sure what to do about the firewall situation, DLs are definately faster with manual port config, but I don't want to disable Zone Alarm as I'd be worried about the security of my computer.

Robert

(btw, how can you tell a person's IP? Is it a feature of the board or are you a mod? Just curious!)

I am a moderator. No need to disarm your firewalls just have one & configure it as in here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/firewalls.shtml

Looks like I'd left the forum when you posted back.

It suddenly occured to me when I was a t work today that all I had to do was to disable Windows' Internet Connection Firewall, leaving Zone Alarm enabled. I've just done this and clicking the Search -> Direct Connections tab shows the legend "When your friends want to connect to you, they should enter (IP address)" rather than the message that says my computer is unable to accept direct connections as it is behind a firewall. The bug test report also now says ""Recieved incoming this session" True".

Thanks for your help, hopefully I've now got LW configured for optimum performance!