Possible new feature
 

Maybe a giving us the ability to see how many users are online and how many files are being shared and how big the database of shared files is -

2,435 users - 214,356 files being shared - 4TBs available

And the ability to see who you're downloading from would be nice. Some people kill downloads on you and you don't know if the person who's killing your download is downloading from you themself, and what I mean by the ability to see is -

Status
+ - Currently downloading from IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
- Currently downloading from IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
- Currently in queue 4 waiting for IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
- User @IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx cancelled upload 4x

This would be most helpful knowing who keeps killing their uploads so we would know who not to share with or just being able to ignore the user so that user who kept cancelling download couldn't attempt to download from us anonymously.

I think this would make a good feature. I thought if we knew how many users were online sharing and who we were sharing with and who wasn't sharing that it would make our sharing experience more enjoyable. Maybe not, flame away.

I thought this would of been a good idea and that I would of gotten some feed back from Limewire users about this suggestion. I guessed wrong though, I noticed my post subject line had been edited by someone running or moderating the forum. I guess nobody wants to know what the size of the pool of shared files on Limewire is or how many users are sharing files at the time they started Limewire. Different times of day will bring different results, knowing how many users are online would be usefull. Same with knowing what position you are in queue and how many users have you in queue and who keeps disconnecting you. But I guess nobody cares about those kinds of things huh.

I would also like to suggest making minimum requirements for shared files. I've noticed a lot of people sharing files less than half a megabyte, a lot of their files are from their system files or their unzipped downloads and they shouldn't be able to be counted as shared files because those files are random and worthless. I share 300+ files and not one of them are smaller than 10 megabytes unless it's an MP3, but then again, that's an MP3. And that share feature that's already in effect " Allow freeloaders " I have that set to "50 files" and "rarely" and it doesn't seem to do what is intended.

I'm constantly sharing files with freeloaders, which really doesn't bother me, what does bother me is that after the freeloader downloads that file from me, he doesn't share it. I don't autoclear any of my windows so everything gets all cluttered with stuff, leaving IPs in history for me to go back and browse users files that have downloaded files from me only to find that them freeloading users aren't sharing the files they downloaded from me, so I hope that that freeloader option becomes more useful in the future.

Because not only were those users freeloaders, they were leaches sucking them files in for themselves. Those users knew before they downloaded those files they weren't going to share them after they downloaded them.

I would prefer the anonimity I enjoy and not worry about the RIAA or someone else trying to make a case against me, not that I am doing anything wrong. I could imagine a hacker feeling he has a grievance against me destroying my files or using the open port to attack me. I only share my true IP with friends.

Well, there used to be a feature reporting users and TB shared, but it was too inaccurate and expensive in terms of message traffic between nodes--space better served by searches and transfer. Check the network settings in Tools (part of the former display is still there). Better yet, click the spinning Lime to connect to the LW website, then click the hyperlinked "hosts online" in the upper right corner of LW's web pages to see the graph of user numbers. http://www.limewire.com/english/content/netsize.shtml is actually pretty interesting to follow.

As for anonymous p2p--it's still not widespread or mature enough yet. Google for ANTS or MUTE to find out more. The current thinking seems to be that a false sense of security is more dangerous. Being able to see IP's in the user interface is actually a very good thing IMHO, since anyone with a bit more than basic skills apparently can get that info anyway. It's good that us regular joes get to realize that our IP is easily visible on the net anyway. Proxies can somewhat hide your IP, but are often slow and only as trustworthy as the proxy.

As for freeloaders (leechers), I just let 'em be: it's just a stage and after a while users grow out of it.
IIRC, the freeloader controls have been ineffective for a while, and I suspect freeloaders are depreceated in other ways. No big deal--eventually all those downloads, if valuable, will find their way back into circulation on way or another.

So, share openly, and find the quality stuff you aren't ashamed to share. If that means "Britney" and the like get ignored--good.

And for big files, freeloaders normally join the mesh, because they share, what they are downloading at the moment (via the download-mesh). It's called partial file sharing.

Infos on that at http://gnufu.net - Gnutella For Users

I'd like to know somehow who I'm downloading from
 

When I'm looking for a series of files, say a series of tv shows, it would be good to know how many of the listings are from the same source, e.g. if I try to download two of the files, I'm just cutting the bandwidth for each in half.

I find large files are often cut off before I get them downloaded, then I seldom find them again, which gets really frustrating. I need to maximize the bandwidth on each file being downloaded so that my chances of getting a complete file are better.

One overly simple and temporary solution: Try leaving the search open and download one after the other.

Long lasting: go to preferences/options -> downloads -> set simultaneous downloads to 1 or 2.