Sharing large numbers of files - performance problem?
 

In an attempt to get a little more legitimate content on the Gnutella network (I fear without enough network providers will habitually block it), I put up a host running limewire latest (2.9.11) to serve out a collection of approx 10000 well-named fine art images of 100-200K each.

On startup CPU usage builds up to 100% after about 30 mins, at which point network activity begins to drop off. The application then typically crashes after a further hour in this state. The isn't box isn't particularly powerful (2x450MHz PII, 384MB, Win2K). Disk activity is minimal, no paging or thrashing.

Would I be right in thinking that the load (and subsequent problem) is the result of incoming searches ? If so, are there recommendations for how many files a single LimeWire instance should server out ? Or is it simply the case that the software has never been tuned for larger collections of smaller files ?

Any assistance appreciated.

The hashing is (I believe) complete - LimeWire reports the files as being shared, both in the summary indicator and in the library. Whereas the initial startup (disconnected) took a few hours to report all as being available, it now takes only a few minutes.

Ah, I think I may have found them problem. About 4000 of the 10000 images had 'nude' in thier title. D'oh! I've nixed the Boticelli and Modigliani collections along with a few others to see if this improves matters.

Failing that, I might try digging out a java profiler to see if there's a particular bottleneck. Are the developers open to feedback of this sort ?