You already have this capability.


Most people are using ADSL connections to host files. Upload speeds tend to be slower than download speeds for these types of services so managing upload bandwidth is an important issue to a FSP (File Service Provider)

Take a typical ADSL connection 768kbps-down/128Kbps up

First we will address the issue of hardware limits.

By default your communications media (ie dsl /network) connection will divide up that bandwidth based on the user load.

So, without using the throttling feature in limewire

(if 2x user are connected to a 128Kbps each user will receive apx 64Kbps throughput AND IF 4x user are connected to a 128kbps each user will received apx 32kbps throughput)

The functionality is built into the hardware and is not dependant on the application.

Next the throttling feature in limewire.

The throttling feature in Limewire lets a servent administrator
take a percentage of the bandwidth and allocated to the Limewire program.

So In addition to the hardware speed limitations you are now placing software limitations on your available upload bandwidth!

(if my connection speed is 128Kbps for uploads then use 50% or 64Kbps of that connection for my available upload slots.)

This does the following thing to your connections.

(of 128Kbps connection reserve 64kbps for non-limewire upload stream traffic. Squeeze all upload slots into 64kbps data-stream)

With this configuration your limewire uploads will perform in the following manner:

Upload_Slots/Throughput
=================
if upload slots is 1 then tp = 64kbps
if upload slots is 2 then tp = 32kbps
if upload slots is 3 then tp = 21.3Kbps (this is the default setting for upload slots.)

The more upload slots you make available the smaller the throughput to remote users.

My Recommendations:

1. Give each user 100% of the available upload bandwidth and let your hardware manage the resources.

or

2. If you are going to reserve upload bandwidth for non-limewire upload-streams then goto option/uploads and change all those values from the current settings to 1. This will only allow 1 person at a time to connect to you and that person will only be able to download 1 file at a time--everything else will be queued until that upload slot is free.



Regarding Download Times:

If you are using limewire to throttle a 128Kbps connection down to 64Kbps and the AVG file is is 5MB (5.000.000) x 8 for Datacom rating = 40.000.000bits then you can expect the following download times by users.

@ 64kbps or faster (10.4 minutes)
@ 56Kbps avg (11.9 minutes)
@ 33.6kbps avg (19.8 minutes)
@ 28.8kbps avg (23.1 minutes)

In my mind it's a simple equation either you want people to
A = Get the files fast as possible.
B = Limit the Number People Who can connect at one time.
C = Give as little bandwith as possible to limewire uploads as to reserve some of it for other uses.

You have the ability to set your configuration to support any two combination of the above options but not all three.

Building this funtionality into limewire is counter-productive.


hope this helps.

__________________
Lee Evans, President
LeeWare Development
http://www.leeware.com