When trying to find downloads on Limewire Pro (who apparently never answer their online support line) I almost always get a response to the search words with a file that contains 134.4 kb. This is always some puerile ad for freemp3.com. Is this a legitimate use of the Limewire format? If not, why doesn't Limewire do something about it? At the very least it is a commercially sponsored mislabeling. Anyone else out there as annoyed at this as I am? (Or at the fact that Limewire online support appears to be a fiction. Has anyone actually been helped by them?)

The Bearshare forums are not the Limewire forums...

Anyway, if you look around the forums, you'll quickly notice that files of that size are to be avoided. If you've downloaded such files then it would be a good idea to scan your computer for malware.
You can also add into your list of things to beware the T3 or higher sources: these are the ones that most often host these kind of files (or worse) so it's better to think twice before dlding from a T3 source.

As a side note, an acceptable quality video file of a full movie has an average file size of 700MBs, a 3 min .mp3 would be around 3-4MB and, while programs vary in size, they should be larger than a few MBs.
Taking this into account, there is no way that you could find a video/audio file that would be less than 500KB (unless of course it's the in the crappiest quality possible and it's like a video-audio of a couple of secs.).

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

For almost any downld (except documents or images), I'd recommend ignoring all files less than 1 MB or 1,000 KB as there's viruses known to be around the 700-800 KB size. So don't get confused with file sizes. When you do a search using LW, double-click the size column of the results window & this will arrange files with largest at the top. See these links to get an idea: 1. autogenerated mp3 spam results, & also
2. WARNING: Viruses on network you should be aware of!

__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
640 K [of computer memory] ought be enough for anybody. -- Bill Gates (1981)
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. -- Albert Einstein
When facts don't fit the theory, change the facts. -- Albert Einstein
Religion keeps the poor from murdering the rich. -- Napoleon Bonaparte
The important thing is not to stop questioning. -- Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -- Albert Einstein
"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." -- Frank Zappa
"Tobacco is my favorite vegetable." / "May your sh*t come to life and kiss you on the face." / "Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?" / "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." / "There are three things that smell of fish. One of them is fish. The other two are growing on you!" / "Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny." / "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese." / "Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over." / "The most important thing to do in your life, is to not interfere with somebody else's life." / "Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read." -- Frank Zappa
"The music business is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
The shy can light the dull dark room with life when their eyes mirror their inner sunrise - LOTR

Thanks to LotR and merci to Murakame for your answers. I don't have any trouble identifying the files I described. Mainly, I was wondering why Limewire tolerates them. I appreciate the other tips, though, and will watch for them.

Are there any other Limewire Pro users out there who have tried to contact the so-called "online help" that they advertise to persuade the small subscription (donatioin, really) price? I have now tried five messages and the only answers I have received are five 'bots' containing my message and the statement that it has been sent to the "online assistance team' and I should expect a reply shortly. As far as I can tell, the "team" must reside in a black hole because no communication from them ever appears to emerge.

In all, it's a pretty good service and I didn't expect much more for my $18.88 than I got for nothing. I sent it primarily as a donation, but I do rather resent completely false advertising if, indeed, it is such. Anyone else out there with experience with them?

D: hehehe I am aware that they have their hands full at present. Whilst sometimes they can be slow to respond, they're not always like that. At present they are much slower than normal.

BTW apparently LW is working on a spam filter so with any luck we'll see it before too long. Exactly when they'll complete it though is anybody's guess.

__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
640 K [of computer memory] ought be enough for anybody. -- Bill Gates (1981)
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. -- Albert Einstein
When facts don't fit the theory, change the facts. -- Albert Einstein
Religion keeps the poor from murdering the rich. -- Napoleon Bonaparte
The important thing is not to stop questioning. -- Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -- Albert Einstein
"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." -- Frank Zappa
"Tobacco is my favorite vegetable." / "May your sh*t come to life and kiss you on the face." / "Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?" / "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." / "There are three things that smell of fish. One of them is fish. The other two are growing on you!" / "Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny." / "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese." / "Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over." / "The most important thing to do in your life, is to not interfere with somebody else's life." / "Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read." -- Frank Zappa
"The music business is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
The shy can light the dull dark room with life when their eyes mirror their inner sunrise - LOTR

Thanks, LotR. Glad to hear that they are apparently real. I solved the main problem, anyway and the other questions were minor. Incidentally, I just re-upped BearShare. I haven't used them in years. What donation do they ask to stop the spyware? (Which, of course, isn't all that hard to deal with, anyway.) And are there any other advantages to subscribing aside from being a nice guy and helping supprt them?

AFAIK there's 3 BS versions. I can't remember whether it's one or 2 of them doesn't have the ad stuff. Definitely BS Lite doesn't: http://www.filehippo.com/download_bearshare_lite/ Otherwise ask Zinny on the BS forum how to stop it.

__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
640 K [of computer memory] ought be enough for anybody. -- Bill Gates (1981)
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. -- Albert Einstein
When facts don't fit the theory, change the facts. -- Albert Einstein
Religion keeps the poor from murdering the rich. -- Napoleon Bonaparte
The important thing is not to stop questioning. -- Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -- Albert Einstein
"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." -- Frank Zappa
"Tobacco is my favorite vegetable." / "May your sh*t come to life and kiss you on the face." / "Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?" / "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." / "There are three things that smell of fish. One of them is fish. The other two are growing on you!" / "Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny." / "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese." / "Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over." / "The most important thing to do in your life, is to not interfere with somebody else's life." / "Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read." -- Frank Zappa
"The music business is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
The shy can light the dull dark room with life when their eyes mirror their inner sunrise - LOTR

Almost all the time, when surching, a song title will come up with a file size of 134.4. This size file keeps popping up for all sorts of song results. Can I stop this from happeing?

It's not so much about "tolerating" as it is about "being able to do something about it". I think that if it was easy for them to filter these out some way or other, then they would already have (this problem is not new).
As it is, they seem to be cooking something to counter this as LOTR says so let's wait and see.

rodneyfox, read the rest of the thread. The answer to your question is there.

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-