Because it speeds up the downlding process for everybody. If one person has a file to share. Then others can downld the same file at the same time by downlding parts that have been downlded by each other. So that means you can downld from multiple sources more easily. On a larger scale it helps the entire gnutella network. Otherwise people would get busy hosts much of the time.

This is not the same as sharing the incomplete folder. That is different & should never be done.

I'm not sure about your issue. Go to the LW menu bar, Tools>Options>Sharing & make sure the quarantine folder (whatever you titled it as) is not listed. If it is, then remove it. In the LW Library window you can unshare files & folders by right-clicking them. So right-click the quarantine folder & choose stop sharing folder.

I presume then that your Shared folder is not your download folder & is a custom folder called Shared. I ask because the default name for your downld folder is called Shared unless you changed the title.

Thanks for getting back to me and for the clarification.

I understand the principle of 'swarming' but am dubious of the benefits of sharing a file when it is only partially downloaded.

Will it affect the network speed that greatly if I only share the finished download?

On the face of it I would have thought the fact that I am only sharing authenticated files outways the benefit of sharing partial downloads.

Anyway, I have checked what you suggested but have found nothing amiss. I download straight into 'My Documents', which is not shared; once the files have been verified I move them into 'My Music' (contained within My Documents), which is shared.

Anyway, it's an annoyance rather that a problem, so I wouldn't bother about it too much.

Regards.