Installation: Windows - double click LimeWireWin.exe. Win users have the option of downloading 2 different installers. The installer of the LimeWire International Windows Version (pictured here) is a larger file, but provides you with language options.
Mac OS Classic (8.1 or greater) - double click LimeWireMac.bin
Mac OSX - Double-click the .dmg file to expand it. On the Safari browser, the DMG decompresses automatically. Double-click on the LimeWire icon to start using the software.
Solaris - Open a shell and cd (change directory) to the directory where you downloaded the installer. At the prompt type: sh ./LimeWireSolaris.bin
Linux - Open a shell and cd (change directory) to the directory where you downloaded the installer. At the prompt type: sh ./LimeWireLinux.bin
Unix - Open a shell and cd (change directory) to the directory where you downloaded the installer. At the prompt type: sh ./LimeWireSolaris.bin
All Other Platforms - Type: jre –cp LimeWireOther.zip install.
*If the above does not work try: jre –classpath [path to] classes.zip: LimeWireOther.zip install. If that does not work either, on sh-like shells, try: cd [to directory where install.zip is located] CLASSPATH = [path to] classes.zip: LimeWireOther.zip export CLASSPATH java install. For csh-like shells try: cd [to directory where LimeWireOther.zip is located] setenv CLASSPATH [path to] classes.zip: LimeWireOther.zip java install Once you have installed the LimeWire program, your next step will be bringing up the application. Do this by clicking on the LimeWire entry in the program menu of your start menu. *requires local JRE or JVM  install with command: java -classpath LimeWireOther.zip install
Step 1: Select a language. The default language is English, but you may choose from many different international languages such as French, German, Dutch, etc. Step 2: You will be asked to choose a folder to install LimeWire. You may choose the default folder or install in a different folder. Afterwards, you will be asked to select where to place the shortcut for LimeWire. We recommend placing the shortcut on your desktop. Step 3: LimeWire will be installed on your computer. Double click on the shortcut. SEARCHING
Search Tab - Overview

The Search Tab offers users more options to narrow search criteria. For example, a user can search for an Audio file by "Merchandise" , the title, by "Fugazi", the artist. When searching for audio, you can also narrow the search criteria by using the GENRE drop down menu.

1. Search Types: Each search type(audio, video, document, image, programs) offers different search criteria specific to the file type.
   
2. Select the desired file type. If you don't know what type of file you're looking for--or don't have a preference--leave "Any Type" as your selection.
   
   
3. Press the Search Button to start searching.
   
   
4. Press the Stop Button to stop your search.
   
   
5. Spinning Lime indicates a search is in progress. Once you type your desired search into the field, it generally takes 30 to 90 seconds before the last results appear.

You can now also see the progress of your search with Search Progress Bars located on the tab of each search result window.

Search Tab - Results Window

1. After a search has been initiated, the search term will appear in a tab directly above the "Quality" column header. Once a search yields results, the number of results received is displayed in parentheses to the right of the search term. To close a search and forfeit all its results, click the "x," located on the left of the relevant tab.
   
   
2. Clicking one of the column header bars will sort the search results by the data in that column.
   PC users: right clicking a column header allows you to add or remove a column.
   There are eight default column categories:
   Quality – See Stars
   # - Number of identical files found for that one result
   Name – Name of file
   Type – Type of file
   Size – Size of file in kilobytes
   Speed – Reported host connection type. Speeds in green are more likely to be accurate.
   Chat – Presence of Smiley Face indicates host's ability to chat (early versions of LimeWire and non-LimeWire hosts do not support chat)
   Bitrate – Sampling rate(audio files only).
   
   
3. The Search Result Ranking System indicates the likelihood of successfully completing a file transfer with this particular host. Four STARS indicates optimal probability of successful download. This easy to understand ranking system is designed to dramatically improve download success rates by ranking each file with a number of stars between one star (the least likely to achieve a successful download) and four stars (highly likely to achieve a successful download). If you opt to download a selection with 4 stars, it is almost guaranteed to be successful. Blue Stars indicate results from a host in your local network. Any result with blue stars downloads incredibly fast!
   
   
4. When a gray arrow appears next to a query result, several similar files have been identified. The "grouping" feature of LimeWire clusters search results that have identical file names and sizes. Clicking on this arrow will display all the results that have been clustered into this group. You can hide these repeated results by clicking the arrow a second time.
   
   
5. After highlighting a search result, click the Download button to begin a transfer. The file will appear on the download monitor below. Downloading a search result with more than one occurrence will speed up the download. By grouping all the clients sharing that same file, LimeWire pulls the file from multiple hosts, pooling the upload bandwidth thereby increasing the download rate. This process is called swarm downloading. Choosing a row with a higher group count will increase the likelihood of successful and fast download.
   
   
6. Selecting a group of files to download will begin to transfer each of these files in parallel, meaning that LimeWire will download in parallel the maximum number of files up to the number specified by your options setting. Transfer requests numbering beyond that quantity will be queued locally. Additionally, if a previous attempt to download a file failed, a second attempt to download the same file again will either resume the file from where you left off or overwrite the existing fragment of a file. However, you will be asked for permission before any completed file in your download directory is overwritten.
   
   
7. Browse Host allows you to view all of another user's shared files. To use this feature, highlight one of the search results, and if the Browse Host button becomes active, click on it and another search result window will appear with all the files in that user's Shared directory.
   
   
8. The small arrow pointing up will maximize the bottom half of the LimeWire screen and will hide all the search results, allowing you to view only the downloads in progress. The small arrow pointing down will maximize the upper half of the LimeWire screen and will hide all the downloads in progress. You can also hold your mouse down and drag the bar up or down.

Search Tab - Downloads Window

1. Information about your downloads appears in the download monitor at the bottom of the LimeWire search tab. Your files will be downloaded directly into a Shared directory selected through your configuration settings.
   
   
2. Here you can see downloads in progress.
   There are eight default column categories:
   Name, Size, Status, Chat, Progress, Speed, Time, Vendor
   The “Size” column indicates the size of the file you are attempting to download.
   The "Status" column indicates what stage of download a file is in, including the following possibilities:
   Connecting : LimeWire is connecting to a host that is sharing the requested file.
   Downloading : The requested file is currently in being transferred.
   Waiting For Busy Hosts : This message occurs when the server of the file you are trying to download
   temporarily refuses your download because it is overloaded. LimeWire will retry the download every time it
   receives a busy response from the host. If you're willing to wait long enough, you'll probably get the file.
   Need More Sources : LimeWire attempted to make a connection, but failed to find sources of file. It is unlikely
   that further attempts to download from this source will be successful.
   Complete : the file was successfully downloaded.
   The “ Chat ” column indicates if the file's host can accept instant messages via LimeWire.
   The " Progress " column indicates the completion status of a file transfer.
   The " Speed " column indicates the rate of transfer (in Kilobytes/second).
   The " Time " column indicates the approximate time left until completion of download (in Kilobytes/second).
   The “ Vendor ” column indicates the name of the software that host is using.
   
   
3. Kill Download cancels the selected download.
   
   
4. Resume continues downloading an aborted file from point where it left off as long as it hasn't been cleared from the download window.
   
   
5. The Launch button will launch the file you have selected in the default application specified by the system. If it is a streaming media file, such as an MP3, LimeWire can play the music file even it is downloading. If it is an image, your default imaging program will be launched.
   
6. Click the Chat button after you select a result with a happy face under the Chat column. A message window will appear where you can type and send a message to user hosting the file. Because there is no centralized server tracking usernames, all you will see is the computer's IP address, but no name.
   
   
7. Clear Inactive clears downloads which were either completed or aborted from the download window.

• Host – The IP Address of the host you are connected to
• Status – Incoming indicates that the host established the connection with you. Outgoing indicates that you established the connection with that host.
• Messages - Shows that number of messages received and sent to and from that particular host
• Bandwidth – Shows the speed of that host's connection
• Dropped - The input percentage is the number of messages dropped because they were malformed or misrouted. The input percentage of leaf nodes is normally high. The output percentage is the number of messages a node was unable to send because of slow connections.
• Hosts - The number of other addresses that we know of via that connection. Leaf nodes are currently incapable of detecting the number of hosts.
• Protocol –Indicates whether the host is a Leaf or an Ultrapeer. If you are a leaf node, you will only see 3 Ultrapeer connections by default. However, you can increase the connections and increase search result success. You can change how many connections you can have up at once by increasing the number (no more than 6) in the input field on the bottom. If you are an Ultrapeer, you will see all your ultrapeer connections and your leaf connections (up to 75).
• Vendor/Version – Indicates the type of Gnutella client that host is using.
• Time – Indicates length of time host has been logged on to the network.

• The Library Column Headers can provide you with more information about the file you are sharing. Clicking on the column headers shall sort your files accordingly. You can sort out the files by the following criteria: Name, Size, Type, Path (where the file is on your computer), Uploads (number of times the file has been uploaded), Hits (number of times the file has been displayed as a search result), Locations (number of hosts from which you downloaded the file + number of hosts to whom the file has been uploaded).
  
  
• The Shared Folder in the Library contains all the files you are sharing with other users on the Network. Anything you download will be placed here by default, unless you change the Save To Folder in Options. If you wish to move items to your Shared folder, you can do so manually. On Windows, click “Explore” to open the folder and drag the files into the Windows Explorer screen. LimeWire does not allow drag and drop functionality into its interface. Using the Delete button for the Shared/Incomplete folders will PERMANENTLY delete the file from your computer. **You must remove the file from the Playlist in order for you to delete it.
  
  
• The Incomplete Folder contains all files that were only partially downloaded and files that are currently being downloaded. It is your choice whether or not to delete these files. Please do not share partially downloaded files.
  
  
• The Launch button opens the selected file. For example, if it is an audio file, the LimeWire player will play the file.
  
  
• Clicking To Playlist will add the selected file in your shared directory to the Playlist.
  
  
• The Annotate button will open a window where you can adjust the meta-data tag for a file. This tag contains information about the file that can be used to organize files, or help searches narrow their search criteria. To read more about this, check "MetaSearches" in the Gnutella Resources section of our website.
  
  
• Refresh button updates your view of the library to contain all files present.

• The playlist is designed to play songs in your library. You can add a file by highlighting it in the Shared Directory window, then pressing "To Playlist".
  
  
• Double click a file in your playlist and LimeWire's Audio Player will launch it. You may also highlight a song and press the Play button on the player. The song subsequently turns green when it is being played by LimeWire. If you want to disable this feature, go to the Options/Player and deselect “Use LimeWire Audio player”.
  
  
• The Open button located underneath the playlist allows you open previously saved Playlists (file extension .m3u) or import a Winamp playlist into the LimeWire Playlist. With the Save button, you can save the playlist for later use.
  
  
• Clicking on "Remove" deletes a song from the current playlist.
  
  
• The Explore button is only available on the Windows version. Pressing this buttno will open the Windows folder containing your Shared files.
  
  
• Play Options lets you choose whether the songs in your playlist play one after the other, one at a time, or randomly.

1. Go to start -> Control Panel
2. Open Network Connections.
3. Right Click on the connection you use to connect to the network
4. Choose Properties
5. Go to the Advanced Tab
6. If your firewalled is Enabled go to step 8
7. If you want to enable Windows XP firewall check the box (this will enable the "settings" button. If you are not interested in enabling your Windows XP firewall, hit cancel -- LimeWire will not be affected.
8. Hit the Setting Button.
9. Hit the "Add..." button.
10. In the description field add "Gnutella"
11. Set the IP address to "127.0.0.1"
12. Check the TCP Radio button
13. Set the external and internal ports to 6346
14. Hit OK
15. Repeat steps 9 to 13, except this time check the UDP radio button in step 12.
16. Make sure the list of services has two items listed Gnutella, and make sure they are both checked.
17. Click Ok

1. Start Zone Alarm Control Center
2. Go to Program Contol tab
3. Choose the Prorgams Tab
4. Make sure that javaw.exe row has either checks or question marks in the access and server columns. If there is a red cross in these columns click on the box and choose "Ask". Choosing "Allow" will also work, but this will allow all programs running on Java access to the internet -- which is not recommended by LimeWire.

1. open up 'System Preferences'
2. in 'Internet & Network', open 'Sharing'.
3. select the 'Firewall' tab (your firewall should be on)
4. Select 'New...'
5. From the 'Port Name' drop down box, select 'Gnutella/LimeWire'
6. Select 'OK'
7. restart your LimeWire application.