I guess it depends on the particular system. My clock/date time can take a little while to change back but it does change back. Double-check it from time to time to see if it's changed back.

How long to leave BearShare running? The longer the better! This helps build up a good bs connection list and also lists your client as being a client that connects for good periods and is more inviting to connect to. I see clients that stay connected for many days non stop. But they run as Peers. And they are invaluable to the network, especially for other BearShare users. BearShare shares its own list of best BearShare hosts to connect to. Some of these run as Leafs from time to time.

The same is true for any gnutella client. The longer you leave your program running, the better you are seen overall on the network, and the better the program should run after it's been connected for some time. If running as a Peer (ultrapeer), then UDP host sites will list you highly if you stay connected for long periods. Thus you would find it easy to connect and others would seek to connect to you. The longer a gnutella program has been connected to the network, usually the better the search results. (Unless you are unluckily surrounded by spam peers/hosts.)

* An important note about those who use BearShare is to connect to the network at least a couple times a month so your connection list stays up-to-date. I have noticed that 90-95% of the BearShare host addresses change over a 2 month period.

There are 'flash in the pan' users who try BearShare out for the first time but do not return. There are some who are casual users. And of course, there are dynamic hosts who change their address, some frequently. And there might also be some who only occasionally connect as Peers but connect generally as Leafs.

As for my experiment to attempt to create a connection list concentrating on static hosts, it is a little too difficult since there does not appear to be enough static bearshare hosts out there that connect as Peers and are consistent users of BearShare. I will keep trying for the time being. The idea of my list is to help those get connected for the first time or if they have not used BearShare for some time and are having connection problems (ie: connection list out-of-date.)

And as mentioned in my previous post, the longer you stay connected to the network per session, the better you will be seen as a good host to connect to. BearShare records the amount of time each user stays connected to the network and the GWebCache host sites will keep a rating system for the most reliable hosts to connect to, transferring the time they have spent online etc. If a user has not been online in over a week then their rating might go down.
Edit 5 March 2014: the above rating system only applies if you are not firewalled. BearShare will not cache the connection details of BearShare 5.1 Beta users who are firewalled. I've been manually adding such hosts to the connection file to keep the list as up to date as possible, even if that means firewalled ultrapeers, which is not good for the network. But keeping them listed below the non-firewalled ultrapeers. Obviously the BearShare ultrapeer population is not very large.

Peerless commented to me that if you cannot connect to BearShare hosts first time, restart BearShare and (hopefully) you will find them easier to find and connect to.

i can vouch for what Peerless says about restarting bearshare and the computer. the only issue that still remains a problem for me is the date change.

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Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

The date-change is something File_Girl71 would need to fix. I know it can be slow to change back for some people and maybe not change back at all. It may take some minutes. It is only supposed to take 10 seconds or so. It might depend on a particular person's system set-up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord of the Rings The date-change is something File_Girl71 would need to fix. I know it can be slow to change back for some people and maybe not change back at all. It may take some minutes. It is only supposed to take 10 seconds or so. It may depend on a particular person's system set-up.

i did find this: Make Windows synchronize time more often . but it only works for the time and not date.
Anyone know if a program that syncs the date?

__________________
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

With a BearShare ultrapeer population of only about 20, I find it a little pointless continuing with the updated connection installers. To my knowledge, BearShare reserves 18 connection slots for BearShare peers out of a total of 26. I doubt I've ever connected to more than 15 BearShare peers at any time.

About 3/4 the peer population have dynamic addresses. And over half the peer population use the BS 5.1 Beta & are firewalled because they're too lazy to port forward their routers (BS 5.1 beta 'requires' port-forwarding.) A TCP firewalled ultrapeer is very damaging to the network. Because the BearShare peer population is so small, I feel obligated to include these firewalled peers on the connection file despite no other program including BearShare does this.

I spend much of my time arranging the non-BearShare connection hosts. But this seems almost totally irrelevant because BearShare concentrates upon finding hosts via GWeb sites. Hosts from the connection file are given very low priority.
As for the BearShare hosts on the connection list, many stay there in hope they might return 'lol'. Because otherwise the host size would only be about 20 hosts.

It's not only the very small & always changing BearShare peer population that's disappointing, but probably much more-so all those hosts who are firewalled ultrapeers. That just makes me feel ill and want to walk away. "!" "."

I realise the connection list is not only for ultrapeers, but also for leafs.

There seems no lack of BearShare leafs, in fact I've spent many a long session (4+ days) trying to help out catering for their needs to connect to at least some BearShare ultrapeers. BearShare's 38 reserved leaf slots for BearShare leafs out of 45 are always filled rather quickly whether I run one or even four BearShares. BearShare v.4 apparently would only connect to other BearShare hosts. There just isn't enough BearShare ultrapeers now, nor is there enough good ones who are not firewalled & blocking everyone's search messages.

Time for me to move on. Perhaps someone else might volunteer a connection list periodically if you care for their community.

(I have a very high respect for those BearShare ultrapeers who are relatively long timers & are not firewalled. I love your dedication!)

The connection installer is now packaged with a gwebcache file set to Read Only. BS has a built-in default list of almost 40 GWCs where most no longer exist and the few that do are not compatible with BS's out-of-date GWC request approach. Whilst BS might still occasionally dig into its default internal list, this is still better than total failure. Upon testing no errors were recorded either in BS console or program functioning on Win 8, XP or 2k.

Some people are unaware that the BS 5.1 Beta is not a simple plug-in & run program, but instead it requires port forwarding your modem-router before general use. This is not an if or but, it is a MUST do scenario. Firewalled ultrapeers do considerable damage to the network. But this is so easily fixed by port forwarding.

Port forwarding is not some complex scientific mathematical formula! In most cases it is actually quite easy and you will realise this after you have done it.

Whilst Port forwarding is a must for BS 5.1 Beta, it is also beneficial for those running any other version of BearShare. BS's UPnP adopted in later versions does not work for everyone. After port forwarding you will notice the dramatic difference and improvement in BS's performance.

Port Forwarding steps:

1. Set up a Static internal ip address (no this is not your external ip address.) The internal address is what your computer uses when communicating with the router and other computers on the same network (such as your partner or children's computers.) Internal addresses might be something like 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, etc. or 10.1.1.2 where the modem-router's address would be the first in line, example: 192.168.1.1 or 10.1.1.1
Guide on setting up a static internal address:
How to Setup a Static IP Address in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Game Consoles

2. Forward a port.
The default port to use for gnutella is port 6346 (or 6348), however the BS 5.1 Beta we link to on the forum has its port set to 6348 which would be the easiest for you to use.
Using another port? Some ISP's that filter file-sharing content might monitor or filter these ports. A safer port range to use would be anywhere between a five number port of 20000 and 60000. Examples are ports 23835 or 37140 or 53192, etc.
If you should choose a different port, you will also need to make adjustments within BearShare's settings. ie: BearShare's menu bar, Setup, Connection, and change the port number in the box at bottom of that window to match the one you used for port forwarding. A restart of BS would be required.

Port Forward guide:
Router Port Forwarding Guides
(1) Choose the brand of modem-router you use (click close to the advertisement top-right of screen.) (2) Then choose the model of modem-router you use. (3) Then choose the program you are port forwarding for. Obviously BearShare in this case under the B menu portion so scroll down to that part. Now you can follow the instructions with the variations I have suggested earlier about which port to use.

In regards to setting up a static ip address, if you do not do this before the port forwarding process then the port forward rule will be designated to a particular internal address that rarely matches your computer in future. Here's an example of someone who forgot to set up a static ip address http://www.gnutellaforums.com/host-c...tml#post373809 and just recently saw them non-firewalled again 18 months later (that's how long it took.)

I am presently connected to 10 BearShare ultrapeers and 17 BS leafs. Out of the 10 BS ultrapeers only 3 are not firewalled. This simply should not even be allowed to happen. Please try to not be one of the damaging firewalled ultrapeers. How to know if you are not firewalled? Check the Light-like icon top-right of BearShare & it should be green, not yellow or red. If you are an ultrapeer then you should be connected to 3 or more BS leafs and a total of 11 or more leafs. (If an ultrapeer & connected to less than 3 leafs after an hour, you are firewalled!)

Do not forget to set BS to be allowed through your software firewall.

Hostiles: I removed the full-Japanese hostiles from the hostiles installer because the majority of BearShare users need as many hosts as they can to try to connect to. Japan represents one of the very best countries for the best of hosts to connect to. I am still hosting this particular hostiles but not at mediafire. If you are an experienced BS user and insist on the full block then you can find it at 4Shared (need to be registered at & logged into 4Shared to download the designated file.)

BS host-file bugs: I know I've commented about the BS host caching system before. But just to show how poor it is, two BS ultrapeers: one with uptime of 14 days and other with consistent uptime of 24 to 48 hours consecutively, have average uptimes of 38 mins and 80 mins respectively. Resulting in the best BS hosts at the bottom of the host-file. Obviously a severe bug with BS's host-file management.
There's other bugs also, such as multiple host listings, disregard of the hostiles when adding hosts to the host-file, and adding BS ultrapeers also to the non-BS list. The host-file also seems to obtain out-of-date host data with BS ultrapeers that have not existed for years (this might be due to a rogue BS ultrapeer.)