A Successful OSX Limewire Setup

[GefallenenEngel]

My first thread! I've been reading through these forums and can understand the frustrations of some users trying to setup Limewire to successfully work in OSX. Everyone's got different OSX versions running different apps, varying internet bandwidth, routers, modems, and so the list goes on.

I've been using Limewire with minimal issues for a LONG time so if it helps this is my setup. For those OSX users who have a successful Limewire setup at work or at college / university I'd shake your hand. It can be a real nightmare getting a connection from behind multiple proxy servers and firewalls. For those who can't connect away from home - good luck!

NB. The following setup is for a HOME USER: Jaguar 10.2.8 on a G4 1.25 Dual, 1Gb RAM, Built-in OSX firewall, Norton OSX Antivirus active, Ethernet Router, 2Mb internet bandwidth unlimited d/load, Limewire 4.0.8. I share only Limewire files and absolutely nothing else at all with anyone.

In Limewire Preferences: 1) I keep all my shared directories separate to my itunes directories (for security) and specifying only those extensions I want to share from my shared directories (ie. mp3, aif, etc.). 2) Ultrapeer and OOB is disabled - I have the bandwidth but found early on this was a bit unstable 3) Maximum downloads at any one time depends on bandwidth. At 2Mb I have 15 d/loads (music) with unlimited upload (the more you share the more you get back). When I used to have 1Mb I found 6 - 8 downloads was good. Any more, it would hang (bandwidth would drop to zero and I'd have to restart Limewire deleting some 'files in progress'). 4) Upload slots and max slots again depends on your bandwidth. 5) Maximum searches is set at 10. 6) I search on all qualities and speeds (better results) 7) All adult (sometimes!) content, html and vbs files are disabled.

In 'Advanced': 1) The number of files shared to not be a freeloader depends on how much of a miser you are. Hell, set it to 1, let everybody share! 2) Listen on port 6346 (Limewire / Gnutella default) 3) Enable 'force IP' on port 6346 (NB. I'LL GET TO THE OSX FIREWALL STUFF LATER). 4) Select 'no proxy'. 5) Preferencing is your choice. I use 3.

Ok, so that's Limewire but what about the OSX firewall setup, which is the bit that seems to stump some OSX users. In 'System Preferences': 1) Select 'Network' and click the 'Proxies' tab. Disable 'FTP Proxy' and enable 'Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV)'. 2) Go back to System Preferences and select 'Sharing'. In the 'Services' tab disable everything! and ensure that personal file sharing is off 3) In the 'Firewall' tab make sure your firewall is on and that ONLY the 'Gnutella / Limewire (6346)' option is enabled. 4) In the 'Internet' tab I have 'Internet Sharing Off' with no other shared connections. This is not required for P2P.

Remember, the above setup is for sharing Limewire files from HOME on port 6346 only and absolutely nothing else in OSX. Your setup might be different depending on your personal circumstances. I've not come across any other apps (so far) that conflict with Limewire.

Problems I have come across are when I've been greedy and tried to download too many files at once by increasing the figures in Limewire Preferences described above. Also, if BT decide it's a good idea to start experimenting with the network at 2 in the morning and my connections go haywire.

As with all apps it's a bit of trial and error. Once you've got a stable connection you need to find out how much your bandwidth can handle before it crashes by increasing / decreasing your download / upload capacity. Don't get greedy and share responsibly.

Oh yeah, and finally, absolutely no thanks to those individuals who think it's really funny to name a file that's got absolutely nothing to do with the content.

Cheers.

[stief]

pretty good (I'd disagree though with turning off the OOB: it's quite stable and helps the network become much more efficient).

[murasame]

Originally posted by stief
pretty good (I'd disagree though with turning off the OOB: it's quite stable and helps the network become much more efficient).

Yup. Besides, in the latest betas, it seems the ddev guys have completely removed the choice of turning it off or on. It should always be on (that's what they say in the site)

When LW refuses to launch, the advice goven above is of no use because:

1) you can't set any prefs for LW if you can't get the app to stay open

2) your suggestions about the Proxies tab in the Network control panel are interesting. Somehow the word "limewire.com" was inserted in the panel in mine which is beneath the words: "Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains" however leaving it and removing it had no effect. Passive mode or not, the results are the same: the LW application simply will not launch and stay open no matter what.

If the people who build and sell this application know what they are doing, they should publish a comprehensive configuration page in the FAQ or support page and not make people go hunting through al these forums looking for the well-intentioned ideas of volunteer users. As application developers for the OS-X platform, they ought to be able to read the kernel panic error messages that users send to them and diagnose what is causing it.

Otherwise, everybody just wastes their time doing the hokey pokey.

[stief]

is it also bad advice for a user staring at a blank screen, if it doesn't say "turn your computer on" first?

Seriously, many of us are willing to help with your VERY unusual problem, but you've been advised to provided info and haven't. If you'd register, we could possibly look at your other posts.

In fact, unregistered users who ignore the forum rules are more like trolls just looking to cause trouble.

Read the rules, post the necessary details, and maybe someone will volunteer to waste some time.

[murasame]

What makes you say that the devs don't go through the kernel panic logs? If they didn't, the same kernel panics would appear from one version to another, right?
It's not like you send the bug report or whatever and they look into it and send back a way to solve the problem. That would be crazy! Just think: if there are a hundred thousand LW users in the world (I doubt that the number of LW users is that low...) and about 50% of them are OS X users (purely hypothetical numbers, but LW very probably is the Mac P2P app) then we have 50000 OS X LW for OS X users. If even 10% of them had kernel panics (or just about any other kind of problem) and sent a log to the LW devs, that's about 5000 log files to look at. And that's only from the OS X users... How do you reply to all that?