Newbie question re: Network statistics

Hi. I apologise if this is posted in the wrong forum, I'm just finding my way around the forums, and LimeWire too...

(WinXP platform)

I have a question about the statistics that display in Tools -> Statistics. I;m trying to get my head around the terms "ultrapeer" "leaf nodes" etc, I've searched the forums and have an understanding of what the differences are.

Now in that statistics option, looking at Network there are two figures:

Current Hosts: 3
Total Hosts: 144

My Connection Status is showing as "leaf", I'm assuming the 3 "current hosts" referred to above are the 3 UltraPeers that show in my connections page? Is this correct.

Following on from that, what does "total hosts" mean? That there are 144 different ultrapeers or 144 people connected to the network? Would it be that there are 144 UPs and thousands more connected to the network?

Finally (sorry this is so long!) when I do a search on something popular eg "Song X" by "Group Y" and say the search shows a # (for example 45) in that column next to "Quality", under the heading "#", does that mean that there are 45 people connected to the newtork that have that file or there are 45 people that my 3 hosts were able to locate and a lot more than 45 poeple could be connected to the network with that file?

Thanks in advance for any assistance, I'm just trying to get my head around P2P

Robert

Hmmm Well the current hosts are the 3 connected as UltraPeers in the connection status window.

Now as for the total hosts from my understanding this figure is inaccurate do the constantly changing network enviroment. I believe it is supposed to represent the total number of hosts connected to the 3 UltraPeers. Another member may have a better understanding and explanation of this.

As to the last part from my understanding that number represents the number of hosts that currently have that file available from your search results. This again is constantly changing as hosts connect and disconnect from the network.You may receive a number of 45 for that file on one search, then 20 minutes later do another search for that same file and you may receive 5 results or 100 results. The network is constantly changing all the time, and different hosts have different files.

You just have to remember the network is made up of hosts. It is very dynamic and constantly changing, and consists of more than one client not just LimeWire.

Salut, the total hosts doesn't mean much. It only indicates known hosts very near you (UP + leaves). There is at any moment more than 1.2 millions LW...
The number under the Nb. colum indicates the known sources for one file. The total is composed of the hosts that send you the search results + the alternative hosts that are known to have the file. Remember that you don't search all the network so the number indicates more the popularity of a file (availability) than an accurate number of known sources. It is a lot likely that there are more hosts that have the file on Gnutella.

Ciao

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Thanks for the replies!

I thought it was a bit puzzling that only 144 people appeared to be connected to the network. Now I understand that it is the total number connected via the 3 UPs. Can I just ask et voila, do you mean at any moment in time there are at least 1.2 million peers / users connected to the Gnutella network? If so, that really is a lot of people!

Robert

And you'd be surprised how much connections & results improve if you're uplding. If you want to find something rare, then sometimes you need to have what those few (or group) users are looking for to get properly connected to them. That's why I share a wide spectum of material that I might not necessarily be interested in myself. The better you share you better your results will be. Yes Pro offers 5 UP's to connect to but even as a basic user (limited to 3) you are capable of getting to constant turbo connection quality if you're properly configured.