Best "Options" setting
 

What should I have my Limewire set to for best results (# of downloads allowed, uploads, etc.)?

I normally have it on 6 downloads + 1 upload.

Probably no "best" option
 

Don't remember the user or the name of the thread, but one I read, said to check your connection first.
As for myself, I have a 1500/400 kbit/second. This means you divide 1500 by 8 to get the maximum KiloBYTE/sec theoretically available. (Other users, programs, distance from ISP's connection box, etc, will diminish this) Using myself, I will get 187,5 KB/sec maximum.

In Tools > Options > Download you can then adjust your settings according to your theoretic max. It's advised to take the speed you get and subtract 5 from the end result to begin with. Then start with 4 simultaneous downloads. If it's working and you don't reach max without any of them being severly slow all the time, increase by one until you find what's right for you.

Same goes for upload. Don't go all the way to max on the speed, but slightly under. Here it's probably good to start with just one download. If that one works OK without reaching max, adjust by one more if you wish. Continue until you find your right setting.

The "right" setting may, depending on time of day, other people using your line, your ISP, etc, be off somewhat. Just adjust like previously described, and you will be fine.

I am running 8 simultaneous downloads, never going below 90 KB/s except for when a file is finished and it connects to another host for next file. And my current uploads is 5. This however never uses the full bandwidth I have assigned to it.

your getting 90kbs per download from just generally downloading from LW or are you talking direct peer to peer. cause im lucky if i get a 40 kbps download. usually there like 1 or 2 kbps it seems no matter what my settings are. or is there some secret to it. my connection is 260 kbps.

twisteddman,
If your speed is 260 kbps, then the best LW download speed you can expect is around 30-35 KB/s.
The thread below has some good tips for setting up LW, have a read through it:wink:
Configuring LW for best performance

Try downloading a file from here & see what speed you get
http://www.magnetmix.com/video.shtml

Do you see the firewall icon (brick wall in front of the blue earth)? Who is your ISP?

i tried every thing on that thread it didnt change anything. i just installed a earlier version as suggested and it made no difference either. its odd it seems like i can only get 2-3kbps per host. but sometimes all my downloads just suddenly pick up speeds going up to 15-60kbps per download. my connection to Lw is always at 4 bars. when im downloading from LW i download files from other sources at speeds ranging from 45-160kbps per file without any effect on LW downloads. it just randomly picks up speed on rare occasions. and of course my firewall has Lw as an exception. im downloading files on LW right now from 4 sources each at 5 kbps to 8 kbps. how annoying

Did you try a magnetmix file?
Who is your ISP? Some ISPs apply traffic shaping if a user's doing lots of downloading, or at certain times of day.

the files on that site would not download. its experiencing some problems. im not sure what the point is i know what my download speeds are. i download all the time and im not confused by kilo bits and bytes.my isp is clearwire its a wireless isp. my speeds are not effected by the time of day or anything else ,unless its only effecting p2p, as like i said i download on a constant basis and my speeds are always the same. i dont recall if my LW speeds picked up at certain time or not.