Introduction and odd problem requiring assistance (problems updating Pro)

[Kasey52]

Hi Birdy
Thanks for your welcome and response. Sorry I’ve taken a few days to reply, other priorities, life etc…
I’m fully aware of the “forum” concept and know that forum members are not employees of Limewire. I mentioned what I did in my post hoping that somebody would be able to help me contact Limewire or perhaps that a Limewire employee may check the forum to see what is being discussed and help me.
At the time of writing this post 25 other people have read my original, but only you have responded. Perhaps this means that nobody can help me.
I definitely purchased Limewire Pro from Limewire. I’m very careful with the Internet and aware of all the pitfalls.
I purchased Limewire Pro about two years ago. However, this is no relevant to my access to support. As a registered user, I should be able to use the “Support” facility on the Limewire web site. I also should be able to access the area where registered users can download updates and if necessary pay for new versions if that is the requirement.
Limewire should have a facility to ensure that they can be contacted by registered users regardless of what the problem is.
All I want is a means of contacting Limewire so I can fix the problem regarding the error with my email address. I will not be purchasing the product twice, so if I can’t resolve this they will probably miss out on future business.
Thank you again for responding Birdy. I appreciate your time.
Cheers

[birdy]

Please don't think that I was being a smartass by telling you that we're volunteers here...it was to let you know that mine wasn't an 'official' response from LW

There's no email address or phone number for contacting LW, only access to email support if your Pro benefits are current. But even if you were able to contact LW, they'd just tell you that your Pro benefits are out of date & so you're not entitled to support or free updates any more.

The download page does mention that a Pro payment entitles the user to free updates for 6 months & I guess the user has to assume that it's 12 months for the extended Pro. The 'free email support' doesn't mention any time limit & that's something that LW should fix.

Unfortunately, you wouldn't be classed as a registered user any more (since your Pro benefits are way out of date & your email address no longer in the database)

If you want to keep using LW, why not stick with the free version? Chances are that you won't notice a huge difference between basic & Pro anyway.
Or, you could try some other Gnutella clients. These are all free & are good apps. Phex & BearShare both look quite different to LW & may take a bit of getting used to, but both are really good. FrostWire is a spin-off of LW & looks very much the same but has integrated IRC chat.

Phex

BearShare

FrostWire

[Kasey52]

Thanks again Birdy.
I never thought that you were trying to be anything but helpful and I understand that as you have no idea who you are talking to in these forums and starting with the basics can be helpful to some people. My response was just trying to indicate quickly that we can skip the basics.
I didn’t know that Limewire dumped you from their database just because the registration expired. I find that very tacky and not conducive to future business. I have no problems with paying for major upgrades, but you shouldn’t be blocked from support for what you have paid for and if you happen to request something beyond what you have paid for then they can advise you. However, just to leave the situation looking like there is problem with no way of getting answers, is as I’ve said very tacky and unprofessional.
I’ve tried Bearshare and have never been able to download anything because it never seems to be able to find anything. I’ve never tried Phex or Frostwire, but I’ve had good success with Sancho and Limewire has been very good to. Do you think that the free version of Limewire 4.14 is better than pro version 4.12 (the one I currently have)?
Thanks for giving me the links to sites - appreciated.
I have noticed from the info on the forum that you are in Perth – I’m in Brisbane.
Cheers

[birdy]

Brissie's great - I love the humidity

LW don't exactly advertise the fact that once Pro's out of date, the free updates & support disappear. They could do better!

There are a lot of differences between the latest LW & 4.12.6...the biggest is that LW now supports torrents. You can have a look at the changelog here & see exactly what's different.
Lime Wire » Features History

If you're looking for very rare files, you might see a big difference in Pro compared to basic. And those couple of extra hosts to connect to can make a difference. It's really up to you to try the new LW but honestly, if I were you & wanted to update - I'd go basic. But, you have to remember that if you do reinstall a new version of LW, you'll lose the version currently installed. Do you have the 4.12.6 installer saved? If not, don't update unless you're prepared to lose that version.

The version of BS linked to in my other post is an older expired Beta version which works very well. I've never had problems with searches using it.

[Kasey52]

Mornin’ Birdy
I’ve just noticed how active you are in this forum. I’m not sure what they would do without you if you quit. How do you find the time?
I’ve tried one more avenue to get a response from Limewire (on principle), but after speaking to you I don’t really care anymore because they obviously don’t. It’s hard to see how they get repeat business with such an attitude.
You like the Brissie humidity! I’m originally from Victoria – the winters are nice in Brissie. I have lived in Darwin for nearly a year, now that was a real weather experience!
Thanks for the link to the change log – as you said there has been a lot of changes.
I always keep previous versions of everything while there is a chance that it could be needed. I’ve had excellent successes with the registered version because much of what I’m after I’ve never seen on CD.
Are the extra niceties removed when the registration expires? It can be hard to assess because once you have something, you don’t go looking for the same thing again. If I still have the extra links etc, my current version could serve me better than the latest free version, but if the extra stuff has been removed, then the latest free version would probably be better.
I have two PCs, so I may run both versions and search for exactly the same things and see what happens.
I’m not sure the Torrent capability is a selling point. There are very good fully featured dedicated Torrent applications out there that you don’t have to pay for to get everything.
My version of BS is about two year old. I haven’t bothered updating because I’ve just about given up trying to get it to find anything. I find that iMesh is fairly useless to for the same reason as BS, plus the link is always falling out when everything stays happily connected.
Cheers

[birdy]

Pro is Pro...nothing within the app changes if your Pro benefits aren't current any more

You could compare both LW versions if you like. LW's torrent support is pretty basic at this stage but some people love it (I use uTorrent).

I've heard Darwin's interesting when things start going mouldy from the humidity

[Kasey52]

Thanks for keeping up the comms Birdy.
After I sent the last message, I was thinking that it would make sense for the Pro functions to be entirely within the application.
I'll do the comparison and let you know. It could take a little while because I don’t have the time to spend hour’s everyday at the PC. I’m way above average communicative at present because work is a little slow. I’m away from tomorrow for the rest of the week (going to Broome) and I won’t have Internet access.
Would you believe that it’s going to take me 9.5hrs to get to Broome largely because of a 3hr stop over in Perth. It only takes about 8hrs to get to Hong Kong.
I use uTorrent and Azureus. I thought they were a bit ordinary at first, until I discovered “Port Forwarding” a couple of years ago.
If you’re inclined to try, I’d be interested to know what you think of “Sancho” as a P2P application. My tastes are very eclectic and if I was to use volume as a basis for success for my personal experience nothing else even comes close.
I could write a book about the heat in Darwin. I also have relies in Broome and they say that they wouldn’t live in Darwin because of the heat. We had a 45,000 litre swimming pool in Darwin and at the height of the “build up” the pool water was warmer than the air.
We avoided things going mouldy by having large amounts of that moisture absorbing stuff in everything.