how do i get a better connection?

[LOVEMETWOTIIMES]

everytime i try using limewire i always get the lowest connection, with just one green bar. and i dont know how to make a stronger connection. i only had a full connection once and it only lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and then it started reducing back down to one bar. how do i make a stronger connection?

[Grandpa]

What type of connection do you have? Dial-up, DSL, Cable

[LOVEMETWOTIIMES]

i think i have dial up

[Lord of the Rings]

1. After LW's been open at least 15 mins, do this test: Bug Report instructions & sample image Is the result True/False?

2. Did you configure your firewall so it allows LW full access (advisable not to have 2 active firewalls b/c they can interfere with each other); Firewall configuration instructions (click on link)

3. For dial up, you have limited bandwidth & your uploads & downlds share this. Go to LW's menu bar, Tools>Options>Speed & make sure Modem is selected, & also tick disable ultrapeer capabilities & press apply. Then go to Uploads>Basic & reduce upload speed to minimum or about 2 KB/s.

4. After opening LW, wait 10-15 mins or more before using.

5. Don't use the Resume/Find Sources on all your downlds. This will cause havoc on your LW connection quality & may affect your net connection. If you use this function, just use it on one or perhaps 2 at one time. No more!

6. Try not to downld too many files at one time. Just one or 2 is all dial up can safely cater for as active downlds. In fact it might be an idea to reduce simultaneous downlds to 2-3 slots under Tools>Options>downlds. Also don't do simultaneous searches. You don't have enough bandwidth to do this on dial up without it affecting one thing or another. ie: wait for one search to finish before starting another.

[Grandpa]

You can use the below instructions as a guide for setting up your Dial-up connection it should help.

I have recently been doing some testing with Dial-Up connections. Thought this would be a good place to post the conclusions of the test I have run. From what I have seen allot of the problems people are having are the results of configuration LimeWire needs to be configured for dial-up.

#1 the first thing a person needs to do is a speed test and find out exactly what there connection speed is. Make sure when you do the test that if the results are in kbps that you dive the results by 8 to get Kb/s. Thus 50kbps/8 =6.2Kb/s which would be a good 56K connection. The link below will take you to a sped test for the US if you are not in the US do an Internet search for speed test.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I am going to explain the results of the test I did as I go. Thus explaining the reason for the recommended settings. If anybody gets different results than I did they will be able to post there result on this thread to correct any settings that might help on different setups.

Now that you have the sped test results you can begin configuring LimeWire I will use the above results for this thread.
I found while monitoring my connection with task manager that if you use too much of your capabilities you create an unstable connection and have frequent short term disconnects. Not a complete disconnect but enough for LimeWire to detect thus the disconnect warning. When this happens you will normally drop to 1 connection and if you are using all of your bandwidth for downloading LimeWire finds it almost impossible to reconnect to more Ultrapeers.

Also if you have your Download bandwidth set to high you are only hearting yourself do to the fact that when downloading LimeWire has to be able to communicate with the sources you are downloading from to let them know you have received X amount of the file and are ready fore more. If you are using all of your capabilities to download then you have nothing for communication thus creating a bottle neck and fluctuating speeds 5Kb/s drooping to 0 or 1. If you see this you will need to lower your settings.

#2 Using the above example 6.2Kb/s X 75%=4.65Kb/s this would be a good starting point. I have found that LimeWire performs pretty well at this setting. So you will need to set your Download bandwidth to 4.65Kb/s or lower. Also set your connection as Dial-up if you choose cable or any other connection you are just hurting yourself.

#3 For best results download 1 file at a time do no searching and have no previous files looking for sources. You can drastically reduce the amount of corrupt files if you follow these instructions.

#4 Upload bandwidth remember that you do not want to max out your bandwidth you need to leave some for LimeWire to communicate with your download sources and while I do not like leaches dial up users really do not have allot of capabilities to share. I found that with the above download setting 0 to 1.75Kb/s is about max you can set it at.

#5 Do not cruse the Internet while you are downloading it take bandwidth resources to cruse the Internet if you want to be on the Internet and Download with LimeWire at the same time you will have to adjust your download bandwidth to accommodate for Internet use.

I know that allot of people have been concerned with the quality of the connection, the number of bars showing e.g. the number of sources you are connected to and the number of sources you are downloading from. I have found that with dial-up that the number of Ultrapeers you are connected to while downloading really doesn't matter. What does matter is the choice you make when choosing which file to download. I have found that if you choose 4 star with the most sources an cable or better connection if you get just one source to download from it will probably max out you capabilities unless you are unlucky and happen to connect to another dial-up user.

Using the above formula for settings I have download 100 mp3 files all completed most take about 20 minutes to complete using a 26.4K connection. 5 of these files got corrupted in the download process. Thus I have download bandwidth set a 2.56 and upload bandwidth at 0 the minimum is 1.75Kb/s and I have found that if I set it at the minimum I will get disconnects and bottle neck problems and corrupt files.

I did simultaneous searches with a cable connection and downloaded and check the files before downloading with the dial-up connection all files were good with no corrupt files. If I set the download or upload bandwidth too high I would start having problems with download speed and corrupt files.

There are other things that need to be configured such as firewalls and routers but these settings should help once you have a connection.

[LOVEMETWOTIIMES]

ok thank you sooooo much!

now i just have one more question...
apparently i have a firewall, cuz i have the wall in front of the globe icon in the bottom left hand corner.

how do i make it go away?

[Grandpa]

Follow the link the Lord provided above if you are using a router you may have to port forward but you did not say you were using one. If you are we will need the name and model# of it before we can help you configure it.