Downloading rockin', then stoppin...
 

I've been reading the forum for quiet a while now and have gotten some really great info that has helped! So thanks! I haven't had the need to post till now. Maybe the info's here already, but I haven't found it.

Ok, so i've finally gotten to the point where LW is running great, connecting to plenty of sources connecting well, but now it'll only connect to sources for about 5-10 mins then suddenly they stop, the download goes to connecting... and when I search for stuff nothing comes up. I exit the program, come back and everything resumes awesome again, but for only about 5-10 min.

Has anyone heard of this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm using Windows XP Pro
LimeWire 4.9.37 Pro
Java 1.5 (whatever the newest is)
I'm on cable internet Cox Cable (possible culprit)

Oh yeah, and people can still upload from me when this happens, maybe that helps too!

Thanks!

It may be due to various reasons. One being traffic between you & them. Another being them using their bandwidth for others (which varies) or for another network. The net & gnutella are dynamic.

What I personally do is, if it's a recently chosen downld, I will stop it, then re-choose it from the search results. For some reason this seems to refresh it. Another is, if at all possible, I'll browse the host I'm downlding from. And I'll also try direct connecting with them. If you can browse them, you can obtain the ip no. & use that to direct connect. If it's a large file or/& they have more files you're after, you can make a note of this no. for the future. So next time you connect using LW, you can attempt to direct connect to them (that is after you've left LW on it's own to try to connect to whatever it can of your incomplete files & it's settled down.)

Both browsing host & direct connecting can both have the same effect as re-searching the topic again (sometimes even better than reselecting from search results since you may find extra hosts. eg: Those hosts may have connected onto other links to hosts with similar files in the meantime.)

Yeah, i've tryed connecting direct and browsing hosts and have never had any luck with that, it always tells me it can't connect to them. The files i'm trying to get are large ~350MB. Funny thing I noticed though is it'll only drop the download when there's more then 1 going. Like if I have 2 things downloading like I do right now, when that 10 mins hits, all sources drop in sync. I know if I try downloading more then 2 things the whole program freaks out on me! LOL As long as i'm sitting here and able to watch, it's no big deal for me just restart the program. Thanks for the info! Limewire's still the best thing since sliced bread! :p

Right click the top of the column headings on the download window & choose to show vendor/version. Now is it LW or RAZA users you're downlding these very large files from? If it's raza (shareaza) then they are guilty of using more than one p2p network simultaneously which means their bandwidth available can variate dramatically or completely drop. You may also be swapping between others in a cue for the upld slots of those hosts. Raza users are reknown for being unreliable for downlding from!

May I ask what your downld bandwidth is? as in what the isp offers, & have you tested it to see what it actually is? Remember isp's quote in bits per sec whereas LW shows speeds in (k) bytes per second.
8 bits = 1 byte or 2 nibbles. lol :D (nibble is very, very rarely used nowadays! 1 nibble is half a byte! Nibble before you bite! lol :D)
Choose nearest location for a speed test & only have your browser open: http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/speedtest/ (Don't do it whilst LW is open!)

And see if you have the same problem with a magnet link from here: http://www.magnetmix.com/video.shtml See how consistent your speeds are. Are they? What speeds do you get?

Ok, I checked the vendors and they were both Limewire on the two downloads I was getting. I was downloading from 10 Hosts on each DL so I assume the vendor column only was showing one of the hosts for each DL.... I don't know.

I checked my line speed: 4053 kbs DL and 440 kbs UL which are right on where they should be. 4000 and 400 adverstised. Thats funny about the nibble I didn't know that LOL :D

I tryed the magnetmix videos and everytime I tryed one (I tryed about 5-6) they would just say waiting on busy hosts...

Hopes this helps! Thanks for the quick replys LOTR!

[Edit] I was able to get a few of the magnetmix vids to download just now and they were both running around 60 kbs.

Stief just suggested to use a Stack Trace http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=41560 to see if the problem can be traced.


My only suggestion would be to try deleting your LW Preferences folder whilst LW is closed; instructions here: Point #2 in Fixes for Limewire (sample at bottom of page.)

I'm not sure about Cox. They have been known to shape some people's bandwidth. ISP's known to BLOCK or Filter p2p or specifically Limewire But if it was related to them, I would have thought it would affect uploads also. I could only guess their shaper software auto-detects LW use & after a set time is activated but is only active during that time for that particular user. (Perhaps the shaper's manually turned on.) But that's guessing. I suppose you could try another gnutella program like Phex (click on link) or BearShare Lite (click on link) to see if the same thing happens. If it does, then that would tend to point toward Cox as the culprit. Unless your connection devices are losing consistency & reliability somehow.