4.0.5 and SLOOOOOW downloads
 

Sorry in advance for a long post, but I want to provide as much information as possible.

I've been a Limewire Pro user for a couple of years now, always upgrading to the latest version when available. I currently running 4.0.5 Pro on a G3 (G4 processor upgraded) 500 mhz Pismo with 512 mb RAM. Up to this point, I've had no problems with download speeds.

I recently installed an AirPort card and put a wireless router into my home network. This I did, unfortunately, at the same time as I upgraded to 4.0.5.

But, after tons of testing, both wired and wireless and also bypassing the router and connecting directly to my ADSL "modem" as I was doing previously, I've come to the conclusion that 4.0.5 just seems slow.

For example: I find a file I want, which has perhaps 50 users sharing, and start my download. Things go well at first with me getting a decent download rate and a decent number of hosts (with my earlier version of LimeWire I'd get maybe 5-8 hosts and between 30-80 KB/s). I will get this sort of connection to begin with, but as the download progresses, the number of hosts drops and the download rate will drop to about 1 KB/s. Sometimes the number of hosts will increase, but the download rate will stay very low. I've been amazed to see that I'm downloading from as many as 5 hosts and still only getting 1-2 KB/s.

I'm using the same settings I used on the earlier version of LimeWire and after testing I know it's not my connection.

Advice please, or someone do tell me where I can download an older (earlier than 3.9) version of LimeWire...

Thanks in advance!

Hi Techwomyn
(cool nic--and the details do help). Which OSX version, btw? http://www9.limewire.com:82/download/ has the oldest free ones I know of, but there are old jum versions available elsewhere--even though I doubt an older version will help.

I'd hoped the Airport problems would be fewer since Apple's release this week of another software upgrade for Airport, but I guess not in your case.

A few more questions: (sorry-- :( wish I could refer you to an easy answer)

Does your ADSL have any software controls, and can it connect via ethernet or USB?

Are you able to accept incoming connections? That's the easiest check for any possible connection blocks (network settings, firewall, router, etc). See the LW Preferences, bug reports and look for "received incoming this session=true"

cheers

Thanks for the reply. I'm using OS X 10.3.4 with all the latest patches and updates.

Now that I've had a chance to test Limewire on the office networK, I'm more convinced than ever that this new version is just slow - either that or no good shares are happening anymore.

With my previous version I would average AT LEAST 30 kbps on virtually all downloads. Now I'm lucky if I can maintain 10! And this is using my home network (ADSL both wired and wireless) and my T1 connection at the office.

I want my old Limewire version back - stupid me didn't keep a backup...

:(

Try using 4.0.6, released yesterday. We discovered and fixed a problem where LimeWire would incorrectly discard all partial sources. Much thanks goes to Gregorio Roper for pointing the bug out to us.

Thanks! I just downloaded 4.0.6 and will let you know if it helps matters.

ETA: Nope, no luck. I've eliminated everything else that could possibly be the problem (reverted back to my original ADSL settings and even did a speed test) and I'm still getting lousy download speeds.

One file I tried was hosted by 33 people. I got a connection to 8 hosts (one at least of which was a T1) and was still only managing 14 kbps. This, by the way, was with a "TurboCharged" connection to at least 6 Ultrapeers.

Please oh please tell me where I might download the older version of LimeWire!

Am also having problems
 

For the first two days I received excellet download rates via my cable connection - up to 350 kg/s. For the last several tries at using LimeWire Pro, I am lucky to get 5 kb/s and am finding absolutely no othr sources to aid in downloading. People attempting to doiwnload from me are experincing the same problems, very slow upload speeds.

I too have a G3, 500 speed, 500 mg ram, etc, etc.

I've tried everything suggested and nothing seems to work for me.

Anyone have suggestions?

You may both need to reconfigure your LWs. I recently upgraded to 10.3.4 myself and redld LW. If I had kept it's original settings then my dld speeds would be just about the same, so go to the Preferences and check the settings according to a thread in these here forums entitled :"need for speed".

Same problem... something's wrong
 

No. Something is going on here. I have the same problem. Had speeds up to 45K. Now, rarely get 5K even with 80 sources. I tried with 4.0.5, with 4.0.6 and even back to the version from last February... still same result.
I've tried tweaking every setting in the preferences, setting all slots to 1, etc.
The only clue I have is I used to be considered an ultra peer, but now it looks like I'm not (ie. I get the little message when I enable monitoring incoming searches saying I won't see much.).
Please someone who knows something, report this problem to someone who knows how to do something about it.

G4, 10.3.4, Cable connection 512/128

Tolman, tweaking the settings is good, but you haveta know what and how to tweak it: by setting every slot to 1 (I figure this goes the same for Max number of simultaneous dlds) will have you: -dlding from only 1 peer at a time= slow dlds
-uploading to 1 peer at a time= less connections= slow dlds
Revert all settings to default.
Set the Upload bandwidth meter under Uploads->Basic to about -5 of your max upload speed as specified by your connection.
Set a decent upload slots number.
Under Downloads, slowly increase the number of simultaneous dlds by one or two at a time while at the same time you download files to see the result of settings: you increase by one or two, click apply, dld something (preferably something with many sources), see the results and then change accordingly the settings again.
Important : do not increase the number of simultaneous dlds too high or it will slow down your dlds as LW will try to connect to more and more hosts and will end up using unnecessary bandwidth.
Now, test the results of the new settings and post back if they were positive.

Also, remember that 1KBps (which LW displays) equals 1Kbps (as the ISP sell the connections), so if you have a 1000Kbps cable connection, your max dld speed is about 125KBps.

I've tried everything! Just cannot seem to get above about 10k no matter what I do.

Contacted LW support and they say that the newest version works the same as the old so nothing should change vis-a-vis download speeds. If this is true, then I guess everyone is just setting their upload bandwidth limits really slow.

Who knows...

ETA: for example, I am now downloading a file shared by 54 hosts, connected to 8 hosts and I'm getting a whopping 14k!