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Monday's Mac Gadget
LimeWire 1.2 (Freeware) Along with all the fuss over Napster, other file sharing systems have been evolving. One such system is Gnutella, a peer-to-peer or decentralized network. We took a look at the FURI client last year, and are glad to see that a new client, LimeWire, takes Gnutella on the Mac a step further... Gnutella differs from the well known Napster service in that there is no central clearing house server that Gnutella clients connect to. Each user is, in fact, there own server, or host. When you first start LimeWire, you'll want to make sure that you are connected to the Gnutella network. Click on the Connections tab and you'll see which, if any, servers you are connected to. As the program runs, it will keep finding new hosts, which know about other hosts, and so on. You can communicate with the default of 4 hosts, or more if you have the bandwidth. This is because you'll also be part of the network, telling others about hosts you know about, and this takes bandwidth. LimeWire also supports the concept of Community. With it, you can select what parts of the Gnutella network you'd like to be part of, based on connection speed, type of content, or part of the world. You can even decide if you should allow "freeloaders" which is defined as someone who is sharing less than a certain number of files.
The search features is where LimeWire really shines, when compared to other clients. First, you can conduct simultaneous searches, with the results of each search getting their own tab/window. If there are multiple matches with the same name, you can have them grouped, to make efficient use of screen real estate. You can also browse the files of a specific host, to see what other files may be available. Of course, you can download files that you find. One you start the download, you'll see statistics, such as the percentage of the file downloaded, the download speed, and more. You can download multiple files at the same time, but don't go crazy unless you have a fast connection. If you choose to be part of the fun and share files, you can also see what files people are uploading (from you) with similar statistics as download. LimeWire has a clean, Aqua-like interface, but is actually based on Java. You'll need MRJ (Mac OS Runtime for Java) to run it. If you don't have it, you can get it free from Apple. Explore the world of Gnutella with a world class client, and give LimeWire a try. The price is right! Have any other Mac Gadgets that you'd like to share with others? Let John know via e-mail, so he can review it.
Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs. John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at You can also Post Your Comments below. Current Monday's Mac Gadget
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