4.14 using too much memory. Why?

[CamTheCat]

I registered on this forum just so I could ask these questions:

Why does 4.14 use so much memory, and will this be fixed in the next release? Can it be fixed in this release? It seems to be a serious bug in this release.

For years I've used & promoted Limewire to my friends as THE P2P app. I want to continue to do so, but not unless this problem can be fixed.

With 4.12 everything worked fine. Now I've updated to 4.14 and after a few minutes Limewire quickly builds up to using a huge majority of my CPU and a large amount of my memory.

I tried uninstalling Limewire, and all java versions, and reinstalling only the newest version of Java (I don't want Limewire if it won't work with the newest version of Java) and then reinstalling Limewire.

I deleted the old /.limewire folder, changed settings to disable ultrapeeper OOB capabilities, as well as the other memory hogging features.

A virus scan & spyware scan found nothing.

I tried all the suggested fixes I could find but nothing has resolved this problem, and I see now that other people are experiencing this as well.

It is still happening, and it didn't happen with 4.12.

Whatever changed, it's a problem, and it needs to change again.

I will not use Limewire until I see a fix posted in these forums, or until a newer version is released.

(EDITED TO ADD): Well, I will use it to try to troubleshoot. I'm not 'over the top mad', just 'annoyed mad'.

:mad:

- - -
HP PC
Windows XP
P4 - 2.66 GHz
1.5 GB RAM
- - -

[bobisnotmyname]

Hello all..

Well.. Much like the angry fellow above whom is having issues
with limewire memory issues.. i too am having them.

I'm not gonna stop using lime wire.. lol..
but it really is annoying and i was surprised to see that there
was only one other mention of this problem thus far from what i can
see and that is by the O.P.

if it helps at all.. I too am canadian,
(they gave us canuks a bad version.. you watch.. lol ;P)
and running Limewire on 1.8ghz laptop with 256 ram.

had NO problem running any prior version until 4.14.1
it was bad yesterday.. but it was horrible today,
to the point where my system nearly got completely locked up.
(task manager showed 90+ megs of memory used by limewire)

So if any of the releases post 4.14.1 (i.e.. 4.14.4) have addressed
this issue i would love to know so i can update.

Thanks for your time.,
Imnotbob.

[bobisnotmyname]

p.s on a postive note,
although it nearly locked up my system..
I've never had speeds this fast in my entire p2p life !
sweet !! :)

[tonyinlondon]

It's not confined to Canadians, or (assuming the OP is running Windows, which he/she omitted to mention in their rant) to Windows. I'm in the UK running 4.14.4 on Mac OS 10.4.10 on a 2GHz MacBook and am seeing the same thing. All runs fine for a few minutes (less than a minute up to maybe half an hour if I'm lucky) then LimeWire decides it's going to completely hog a CPU. "top" and Apple's Activity Monitor then report LW as using 100% - 106% CPU (it's a dual core CPU so that translates to "it's using all of one core and a bit of the other one"). "Normally" I see LimeWire using perhaps 6% - maybe 15% CPU. The high CPU usage generates heat, so the MacBook sits making a noise like a 747 preparing to take off as its fan tries to cope.

Nothing seems to trigger it reliably; it happens if it's downloading one file or several files, if downloads are paused, anything. And nothing makes the CPU usage drop (except for quitting LW, of course!)

This behaviour has also been noted on Mac Versiontracker at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10275

I didn't notice this with the 4.13 beta release (4.13.10 being the last one I tried).

I too am not particularly happy to continue using LW under these circumstances; I don't like the idea of running my CPU at 75-80 degrees C for extended periods!

Details of my installation are:

LimeWire 4.14.4 Basic

Mac OS X 10.4.10:
Darwin foo.local 8.10.1 Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.1: Wed May 23 16:33:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.22.5~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386

Apple-supplied Java:
java version "1.5.0_07"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_07-164)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_07-87, mixed mode, sharing)

MacBook, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
1GB RAM

[CamTheCat]

I have Windows XP.

I'm not a 'rant & run' sort of fellow; I'll stick around to follow this up and see how soon it can be fixed.

Seriously, I will not use limewire until a fix is offered or a newer version is released where this doesn't happen.

I also have utorrent and with mininova & other torrent sites there's not much need for limewire, but it is still handy for many purposes.

Looking forward to this being fixed!

[Sam]

What happens if you go to Options, search for 'TLS', and check 'Disable TLS' in the setting that comes up? (Restart LimeWire after checking it.)

[CamTheCat]

I did this late last night, and the problem seemed to occur anyways, but I've been running it now today for 10 minutes with Disable TLS checked (along with Ultrapeeper & mojito DHT) and so far no problems.

I also reduced files quantity shared from about 3000 to 2362 files. That was suggested in another thread and might have helped.

Still waiting, as yesterday it sometimes took 30 minutes for the problem to occur.

EDITED TO ADD: Yep, there it goes. 100% CPU usage, and 99% of it is limewire! It took 40 minutes this time.

[zab]

could you give us a stack trace from the
org.limewire.nio.* package at ALL level? Instructions are here: http://www.limewire.org/forum/showthread.php?t=107

Also, are you able to search and download while limewire is using 100% cpu?

[bobisnotmyname]

for my info,
i'm using windows xp sp2 Pro..

I dont have any files sharing and the same effect still happens.
I will also try that tls thingy and see what happens.

however i already did have Ultrapeeper & mojito DHT disabled.

as for download and search..
if its already downloading it continues, but basically it kills all gui functions for me.
so doing another search.. doing another download is outta the question.

I can Watch what is happening, but i can't do anything to effect things.
couldn't even shut down a notepad file i had open.

In order to shut down my limewire i had to alt-ctrl-del to tast manager and shut down the progy that way.

Will check back..
and report later..
Thanks.

[CamTheCat]

could you give us a stack trace from the
org.limewire.nio.* package at ALL level? Instructions are here: http://www.limewire.org/forum/showthread.php?t=107

Also, are you able to search and download while limewire is using 100% cpu?

I can do so in the next couple of days. how should I submit it, and will it have private info?

I haven't examined whether or not I can search while limewire is using 98 or 99% of cpu (it doesn't seem to go to 100%) but screens do seem to be very sluggish both within limewire and in other programs. I'll try this in the next couple of days and let you know what happens.

Uploads run fine from me to others while the memory hogging problem is occurring.

You know, now that I think about it, this happened in a previous version long ago (last year maybe) but only after allowing the program to run overnight. In the morning the fan would be running and my pc was virtually locked up, or even completely frozen. I forgot about that until just now.

---
HP PC
Windows XP
P4 - 2.66 GHz
1.5 GB RAM
Avast antivirus
Spybot
AdAware
---

[zab]

as for download and search..
if its already downloading it continues, but basically it kills all gui functions for me.
so doing another search.. doing another download is outta the question.

I can Watch what is happening, but i can't do anything to effect things.
couldn't even shut down a notepad file i had open.


Are you 100% sure that the download is making progress? Can you see the % downloaded increase?

[zab]

I can do so in the next couple of days. how should I submit it, and will it have private info?


You can save the log to a text file. It will contain the same information we get in bug reports, of course you're free to look over it and modify it. Then you can either upload it to this thread, or if you prefer email it directly to me. PM me to find out my email address.

[bobisnotmyname]

I'm 100% sure..
i was doing a very large file download this past time,
(although it has still happened on small file transfer sessions as well)
and i was watching it -very- closely because i didn't wanna loose a 600 meg file.

..though, i haven't actually opened the file up yet..
Though i did watch it confirm the file and watched the progress bar
order itself to Save the file.

so yes.. it did finish the download. :)
no doubts abouts it.

[zab]

to bob & camthecat:

I'm realizing that if the LimeWire gui becomes unresponsive, it will be difficult for you to take stack traces. So you should prepare LimeWire to be ready to immediately take a stack trace by making sure the console tab is visible. Then once limewire starts using 100% cpu you only need to click the "Save" button.

[bobisnotmyname]

Well,
Just to update and note..

my cpu never -quite- hit 100% that i could see..
the fan did go into over drive for an excessive period of time..
but never hit 100%... closer to 97 - 98 %.. (still not good)

when i went into it today,
it resumed a file i hadn't finished yesterday.

memory usage quickly climbed from 20megs range to the 70's range
in a matter of moments.

after the file was complete..
memory use fell back down to around 17megs and then restarted climbing,
even though there was no active downloads or searches in progress.

I will say this..
it took a lot longer for it to get to a serious Gui issue this time around..
my guess is because of the tab's you suggested changing in the options..
but i don't know for sure.

it still acted up and got bad after about 90 minutes.. but at least
it took longer.

If the O.P's log file you requested doesn't provide any clear answers,
please pm me or post in here that you need me to do the same proceedure,
and i'll do my best..

not too good with techy stuff..lol

Thanks.

[CamTheCat]

to bob & camthecat:

I'm realizing that if the LimeWire gui becomes unresponsive, it will be difficult for you to take stack traces. So you should prepare LimeWire to be ready to immediately take a stack trace by making sure the console tab is visible. Then once limewire starts using 100% cpu you only need to click the "Save" button.


Doing it now.

Interestingly, it got to 92%cpu and >100,000 k mem use, but then the cpu use went down to less than 10, while the mem use stayed high.

It took 10 minutes for it to ramp up, stayed like that for 5 minutes or so, then dropped for 5 minutes or so... and now it's using 99% of cpu again, and this time the GUI is all stopped up and sluggish! When I tried to shut down through the task manager it gave me a 'this program is not responding' notice.

Will send you pm to get your email so I can send you the two log files.

Thanks.

Say, can you tell me what you will do with the info, and how it will help you & me?

[zab]

The reports contain two elements:

1. a general report of the state of the program. That includes the current settings, the current memory usage, the current active threads and what is each thread doing at this specific instant.

2. a log of the specified packages, if any. That lets us see (almost) exactly what code has been executed in the recent past. This way we can easily see if something that should have happened didn't or vice versa.

High cpu usage is usually caused by a thread that is in a busy loop. Part 1 of the reports can tell us which thread is stuck, and may have information about other relevant conditions - for example if there are active uploads, or too many connection attempts, etc.

Edit: I've c/p'd this in the sticky if others are interested.

[CamTheCat]

Thanks for the effort zab. I hope this all helps you, and that you can help your users with this problem to get it fixed.

[as332l]

I have just downloaded 4.14.5

Same problem - 100% CPU usage and I have had to select it's system resources to "below normal" so that I can do other things on the machine.

Anyone have an earlier version that doesn't do this that I can have?

[tonyinlondon]

What happens if you go to Options, search for 'TLS', and check 'Disable TLS' in the setting that comes up? (Restart LimeWire after checking it.)
"Options"? "TLS"? I don't appear to have either of these on Mac OS X. If for "Options" read "Preferences" I still can't find "TLS"...

I'm taking traces now, one while it's behaving itself and one while it's munching CPU. I'll PM you to send the listings.

As for your questions elsewhere in the thread:

Yes, files are still being downloaded while LW is CPU-chomping. The progress bar appears to be updated; percentage count is updated and the active files in Incomplete are being written to.

Searching and so on all works as normal (I suspect this is all thanks to having a twin-core CPU; though one core is stuck in Lala-land threads are still being dispatched on the other one)
so (thanks to the magic of multi threading) the machine remains reasonably responsive while LW is looping. Activating logging did kind of slo w th i n gs d o w n (CPU usage up to 175% or so, but I expected that since activating logging took usage up to 55% from 6% when LW was behaving normally).

[Only A Hobo]

@Tonyinlondon You said : "Options"? "TLS"? I don't appear to have either of these on Mac OS X. If for "Options" read "Preferences" I still can't find "TLS"...

On Mac OSX Limewire>Preferences>Advanced>performance>disable TLS caplabilities

Edited due to typo sorry :)

[zab]

Why don't you guys try 4.13.13, available here:

http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireWin.exe
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireOSX.dmg
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireOther.zip
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireLinux.deb

and let us know if that fixes things.

Another question - is anyone that is NOT firewalled experiencing the 100% cpu usage?

[Sam]

hobo -- this is support for LimeWire, not anything else. Thanks.

[as332l]

Zab.

Any chance of emailing the link for the Pro version? As I have paid for it, it would be nice to have the Pro version!

Many thanks.

[Only A Hobo]

hobo -- this is support for LimeWire, not anything else. Thanks.

Sorry Sam ..That was my mistake .. The directions were however for Limewire. I should just stick to one App perhaps :)

[CamTheCat]

Could this be caused by the ISP? Maybe blocking of p2p? (I have Shaw cable with a terayon modem)

Could it be caused by Windows firewall? It seems to be happening with Mac OS too.

Could this be caused by my router? I've switched from UPnP to manual in the options, and I've configured my router. Should I try using UPnP instead (if I can avoid UPnP I'd prefer not to enable it) to see if that will help? (I have a linksys VoIP router)

In a previous post I mentioned that I had this problem in the past (maybe a yeqar ago) with a previous version, but it seemed to happen for only a month or so (version update?) and then it stopped.

I'll test it with windows firewall disabled. Then I'll test it set to UPnP. If it's still happening, I'll try a previous version.

[bobisnotmyname]

If it counts at all,
I don't use windows firewall (currently using comodo)
and am not using a router either.

in -my- case i don't think its an isp issue..
it may be in yours.. but if anything i've found that although
my gui is going gooy.. (lol) the speed -has- increased with version.
if it was an isp trying to stop the use of p2p they'd just use throttling -
which i don't think would show up in this fashion.

(i reached 250kps download speeds a couple times yesterday..
new records for me on limewire..)

i may cycle down to a prior version of this doesn't clear up
in the next while.. but even with the gui issues i think for actual
downloading this has been the best version yet.

i upgraded from a version released in april to the version i'm at now 4.14.1
and i found that version was starting to give me less results and slower
downloads.. hence the change.

its just too bad that there are trades off's to be paid in the meantime.

[cosimaf]

I had that version and it was extremely buggy after a while. I'd click on something like a tab such as library and it would seriously lag. That was awful so I upgraded to 4.14 and things are only a little better. No clicking problems but other issues for sure.


Why don't you guys try 4.13.13, available here:

http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireWin.exe
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireOSX.dmg
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireOther.zip
http://www9.limewire.com/beta/4.13.13/LimeWireLinux.deb

and let us know if that fixes things.

Another question - is anyone that is NOT firewalled experiencing the 100% cpu usage?

[cosimaf]

How can I check the CPU usage of LW on my pc? Also, you can get earlier versions of LW on your personal download page you got when you bought your pro version.



I have just downloaded 4.14.5

Same problem - 100% CPU usage and I have had to select it's system resources to "below normal" so that I can do other things on the machine.

Anyone have an earlier version that doesn't do this that I can have?

[Newbee2]

Interesting thread guys,just downloaded 4.14.4.pro two days after using 4.14.3.pro,both seem to use more CPU (Not 100%) but I have noticed a much higher memory usage,from 370Mb to 520Mb is this expected with the new build?I didn't want to disable all the new bells and whistles,some of which are very usefull,previews working,with 'shaping' in the past couldn't connect at all during peak times,now I can !! Have noticed a LOT more bear share uploaders!I'm sharing 2000+ files currently,do notice ''connecting'' Queued phase and or ''Locating Sources'' phase is now FULL TIME and non-stop,doesnt go to ''Need more Sources'' and ''Awaiting Sources'' is this why so much memory/CPU iis involved?? certainly makes things 'hang' a bit. PS NOT FIREWALLED
Mostly IMPRESSED !!
Thanks,
N2:)

[zab]

do notice ''connecting'' Queued phase and or ''Locating Sources'' phase is now FULL TIME and non-stop,doesnt go to ''Need more Sources'' and ''Awaiting Sources'' is this why so much memory/CPU iis involved??

Yep, that is a new pro feature. LimeWire automatically looks for sources in the Mojito DHT, so more downloads should be completing successfully. The flipside is that to use the DHT it needs more memory.

[Newbee2]

Thanks Zab,coincidentally,upgraded Frostwire tonight,new version requires java 6,which it automatically installs. did that,ran it for a while,then rebooted. Then ran Limewire 4.14.4 pro,just noticed that CPU use is now lower,is this just a coincidence? might CPU complaints be tied to this amongst other things?
All the best,
N2:)

[bobisnotmyname]

.. i was just doing some looking around,
based on this issue and as i had updated my Java with in minutes
of updating limewire (i cant remember.. is java 6u2 required for limewire 4.14 ?)

anyways,
while doing java research -incase- its the cause i found this little
blogged diddy.. i don't know if it helps or not or is related as i'm not
a programmer or anything.. but it seemed like it might be of interest.

http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2007/08/01/java-6-update-2-rolled-out-with-show-stopper-bug/

[CamTheCat]

I just reinstalled limewire to 4.14.5 (from 4.14.4) and enabled UPnP instead of manual port forward which I had previously set on my router as well.

Prior to doing this I removed the entries in my windows firewall for limewire (there were two of them, plus another limewire entry that had a different ID... something like hyperthreader or multi-something... i forget).

Anyways, after I reinstalled, and checked that the UPnP was running, I made sure that limewire adjusted my windows firewall, and it did, creating a new entry.

Now the world in the bottom left corner of the limewire window representing firewall status is blue and there's no brick wall, even though windows firewall is running. Perhaps it's because I'm using UPnP instead of manual port forward, or maybe it's because I cleared the old limewire exceptions in my windows firewall and reinstalled limewire, allowing the program to create a new exception.

Also, there has been no memory hogging over the last half hour. Uploads are going through, and downloads are coming in fine.

Was it the manual port forwarding vs UPnP? The older vs newer version of limewire? The firewall?

Will keep you posted.

- - -
UPDATE: for some reason it switched to the earth/brick wall and thinks it's behind a firewall again. I didn't change anything. Also, there's been a couple of uploads and downloads, and at one hour running there's no memory hogging so far. I wonder if clearing the windows firewall entries/exceptions and/or reinstalling limewire made the difference?

[zab]

Also, there has been no memory hogging over the last half hour. Uploads are going through, and downloads are coming in fine.


We've narrowed down the bug to firewall-to-firewall transfers so you should not experience it anymore.


Was it the manual port forwarding vs UPnP? The older vs newer version of limewire? The firewall?

UPnP is just an automatic way to do port forward, but it doesn't work everywhere so we offer the option for manual port forward as well. I'm not familiar enough with the windows firewall to answer why LimeWire thought it was behind a firewall even though you say there was port forwarding.

[zab]

while doing java research -incase- its the cause i found this little
blogged diddy.. i don't know if it helps or not or is related as i'm not
a programmer or anything.. but it seemed like it might be of interest.

http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2007/08/01/java-6-update-2-rolled-out-with-show-stopper-bug/

Nice bug. :) It's not related to the issue at hand but its annoying. Still, we recommend you stick with 6u2 because of some serious security fixes. As soon as Sun comes out with a fix for it we'll update the installers.

[cosimaf]

Hey, I disabled the DHT thingy along with the other two things- I checked all 3 boxes, thinking this would help speed things up. Should I go back and enable them again? I wondered too about that constant checking for sources and how to turn it off or at least slow it down. i kept the OOB searching though.



Yep, that is a new pro feature. LimeWire automatically looks for sources in the Mojito DHT, so more downloads should be completing successfully. The flipside is that to use the DHT it needs more memory.

[CamTheCat]

We've narrowed down the bug to firewall-to-firewall transfers so you should not experience it anymore.

Great! After two hours it does seem to be fixed and running fine. Do you recommend sticking with UPnP, or could I switch to manual port forward? Would my changing it make a difference? I might try... but I might rather just let sleeping dogs lay...

UPnP is just an automatic way to do port forward, but it doesn't work everywhere so we offer the option for manual port forward as well. I'm not familiar enough with the windows firewall to answer why LimeWire thought it was behind a firewall even though you say there was port forwarding.

Yeah, it's showing as behind a firewall, but not acting like it did before (memory hogging) when I had it set to manual Port Forward & the windows firewall had multiple entries for limewire exceptions.

Well, it seems to be fixed by either:
a) removing the windows firewall exceptions & reinstalling Limewire, or by

b) switching from manual port forwarding to UPnP.


Does this mean we've discovered the fix for the memory hogging bug with limewire?

[zab]

Great! After two hours it does seem to be fixed and running fine. Do you recommend sticking with UPnP, or could I switch to manual port forward? Would my changing it make a difference? I might try... but I might rather just let sleeping dogs lay...



As long as LimeWire doesn't show the brick wall, it doesn't matter. Whichever you prefer.


Does this mean we've discovered the fix for the memory hogging bug with limewire?

A workaround yes, but not a fix :) We'll need to release a new version to have a proper "fix".

[Newbee2]

Nice find notbob !
Interested in the firewall fixes,nice one cam.
Zab,now that LWire connects when it didnt before,well not 100% but fairly well , (Shaping), is this due to firewall fixes in LWire,or was LWire altered to cope with the '' Shaping '' protocols employed by ISP's recently? or is this a spin off from encryption issues? whatever I'm THRILLED to bits to be able to use LWire during times when I couldn't connect before.interested whether it's due to firewall or other fixes?
Many thanks,N2:)

[kodie]

Hi, i have the same issue as you people do, or seems to be a did, i read through this topic and could not understand how to fix the CPU usage issue of LW, could someone please email me a walk through for dummies to me :P kodie_mead************* it would be much appreciated for someone to do so.

[tonyinlondon]

Why don't you guys try 4.13.13...

and let us know if that fixes things.

Another question - is anyone that is NOT firewalled experiencing the 100% cpu usage?

4.13.13 seems fine on my Mac. However Mac users should note that Apple's Installer app is a bit thick. If you try and install 4.13.13 over a later version (4.14.4 in my case) it warns you that a newer version exists and asks you if you want to continue anyway. You tell it "Continue" and it tries to install 4.13.13 then says that "no files needed to be installled". Put /Library/Receipts/Install Limewire.pkg in the Trash first, then run the 4.13.13 Installer.

[CamTheCat]

As long as LimeWire doesn't show the brick wall, it doesn't matter. Whichever you prefer.

The brick wall indicating that limewire is operating from behind a firewall is back, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Does the image w/brick wall mean that my connection is weaker than it could be? It seems fine. Would you recommend I leave it, or try to get rid of it? If I should try to get rid of it, how do I do so? I've tried everything (I think) and if it's not having a significant effect then I'd rather leave it.


A workaround yes, but not a fix :) We'll need to release a new version to have a proper "fix".

I look forward to that. By the way, whatever I did (I did a few things) the problem does seem to be gone, and uploads and downloads are going through at good speeds.

Thanks again!

:D

... also, to kodie, this is apparently a firewall issue. Are you using a router? You might want to make sure limewire has an open port if you know how. Windows OS with windows firewall running? You might want to adjust it. Is your limewire set to UPnP in the options settings? It probably should, although I prefer to set it to manual port forward I have it on UPnP now.

I still don't know the exact 'walkaround', but go through this thread again and you should see what worked for me and others in order to get rid of the firewall issue. I still don't think it's fully 'fixed', as zab pointed out above, but the next release should be fixed. Until then try some or all of the things we tried through the course of this thread and it should go away.

- - -

EDIT - UPDATE: (I'm downloading five files, with a combined speed of 100 - 150 Kb/s right now, and there are three active uploads at about 5 - 10 Kb/s each. The CPU usage is 107,916 k Mem use & 84 to 99% cpu usage.

I'd expect this when downloading multiple large files, but can anyone tell me if they also experience this? This is a different issue than idle limewire memory hogging. I'm going to set the priority class for limewire in my TaskManager to 'BelowNormal' to see if that frees up some memory when actively downloading.)

- - -

EDIT - UPDATE 2: Downloads finished, and memory/cpu hogging continues for about 5 minutes so far. I've now canceled all uploads and memory/cpu hogging is continuing.

It seems this problem is still a problem once limewire gets up and running.

Once I shut down limewire and restarted it with no active uploads or downloads, the problem seems to have gone away again after allowing it to run for about 10 minutes.

My guess is that it will come back if I try to download multiple files, or allow multiple files to be uploaded. Bummer!

Is this the same firewall to firewall issue that you think is to blame for the memory hogging?

I'll wait for the next limewire release that will hopefully have this fixed...

- - -

[kodie]

Thanks for the tip, its getting late for me so ill have to look into things tomorrow, but i just went to the options and its already set to UPnP, ill try the other thing for now and see how it goes.

[zab]

The brick wall indicating that limewire is operating from behind a firewall is back, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Does the image w/brick wall mean that my connection is weaker than it could be? It seems fine. Would you recommend I leave it, or try to get rid of it? If I should try to get rid of it, how do I do so? I've tried everything (I think) and if it's not having a significant effect then I'd rather leave it.

You definitely don't want to be seeing the brick wall if you can do something about it. As long as you see the brick wall, you're vulnerable to the 100% bug (until we put a new version out with a proper fix). Also, without the wall LimeWire works better and faster. I'm sure there is a guide somewhere about how to get rid of it.

Some of the regular forum members, please point to it.

[zab]

Nice find notbob !
Interested in the firewall fixes,nice one cam.
Zab,now that LWire connects when it didnt before,well not 100% but fairly well , (Shaping), is this due to firewall fixes in LWire,or was LWire altered to cope with the '' Shaping '' protocols employed by ISP's recently? or is this a spin off from encryption issues? whatever I'm THRILLED to bits to be able to use LWire during times when I couldn't connect before.interested whether it's due to firewall or other fixes?
Many thanks,N2:)

That's due to TLS (which is encryption). If you disable it in the options and restart LimeWire you'll see you're no longer able to connect.. so keep it enabled :)

[CamTheCat]

You definitely don't want to be seeing the brick wall if you can do something about it. As long as you see the brick wall, you're vulnerable to the 100% bug (until we put a new version out with a proper fix). Also, without the wall LimeWire works better and faster. I'm sure there is a guide somewhere about how to get rid of it.

Some of the regular forum members, please point to it.


I'll hunt around here for a thread on this as well. I wonder what firewall is causing the new problem (which is using almost all of cpu when running lots of up/downloads, rather than using lots of cpu for no apparent reason). Is it my router, windows firewall, my antivirus program, or PeerGuardian? More problem solving to do...

I guess I'll have to try to get rid of the brick wall as well. I'm glad I posted here about the odd memory hogging problem, because now the limewire team knows about it, other users know that it's an issue, and in the end I found out that I also have an issue with limewire getting past my firewall(s).

[Sam]

If folks are still experiencing 100% CPU problems, we would appreciate a bit more debugging. If you could please go back to the Console tab and turn logging on in "org.limewire.rudp.UDPConnectionProcessor" and "org.limewire.rudp.UDPMultiplexor" (both to ALL), that would be great. If you could capture this when you're having the 100% CPU and mail them to us (same email addresses you used before), we can get a bit more insight into what's going wrong.

Thanks very much,
Sam

[CamTheCat]

If folks are still experiencing 100% CPU problems, we would appreciate a bit more debugging. If you could please go back to the Console tab and turn logging on in "org.limewire.rudp.UDPConnectionProcessor" and "org.limewire.rudp.UDPMultiplexor" (both to ALL), that would be great. If you could capture this when you're having the 100% CPU and mail them to us (same email addresses you used before), we can get a bit more insight into what's going wrong.

Thanks very much,
Sam



Hi Sam!

Last night I had limewire running and after about an hour it suddenly began using 80 to 99% of my cpu/memory again as I expected. Silly me - I didn't have the monitoring set to ALL for the items, and after it started acting buggy I was unable to change it and save a log file. Will check again later today or tomorrow.

Today I've reset my router to UPnP instead of manual port forward, and I've disabled my windows firewall (not sure how safe this is to do for a long period of time, so I might reactivate it if I can do so while keeping limewire running without the brick wall).

For the time being I'm relying on my antivirus program (avast) and a couple of other things (my own diligence in scanning downloads before opening them, and surfing only safe sites, with adblock enabled on my firefox 2.0 browser, PeerGuardian running, and spybot running to block all bad pages silently) to protect my PC.

There is no more brick wall, and I'm monitoring the program for the two items requested at the link above.

I will see if the program continues to do the memory hogging trick, and if so, I will send the logs to zabs email.

FYI, I reduced the allowed bandwidth and slots for uploads in the options settings of limewire, since when the problem occurs it's always during active uploads.

So far running 30 minutes and no problems. There's also still no brickwall (last time managed to get rid of it only to have it return for no apparent reason) so I think I've fixed that brick wall issue now for good.

If the brickwall/firewall was the cause of the whole memory hogging problem, it now probably shouldn't happen to me again, but I'll keep monitoring and keep you posted.

[Sam]

We just uploaded a 4.14.6 with a fix for this CPU problem. Could folks please give this a shot? Thanks.

[CamTheCat]

Thanks for the new version! I hope the fix works. I look forward to testing it! Will let you know how it works for me.

[bobisnotmyname]

I'll start testing tomorrow night sometime :)
thank you for the efforts, and to the O.P.

[cosimaf]

Ummm well I would but if I ran into problems with it like I did the others I'd be screwed because there is almost no way to revert back to an earlier version-not that I know of anyway. The only way I got back to the 4.12.15 Pro version was that Wondering Why was kind enough to send me a link to get it. If you don't mind my asking, what exactly was fixed? I'm not sure if what I was having were memory problems because I'm not sure how to check and judge that kind of thing. But I do know that my searches were slow and few results and any downloads and uploads were as well. With the 4.12 version the searches are faster but downloads/uploads are still on the slow side when they weren't before so this probably has more to do with that brickwall thingy than memory. In any case, I think maybe I'll see what others say after they've tried it first. Thanks for working on this!

Cosima

[CamTheCat]

I got home a few hours ago and started up limewire 4.14.5 - the version (along with the previous one) that's been causing memory hogging problems.

I had already enabled UPnP in my router rather than manual port forward, and I'd cleared all limewire exceptions in my windows firewall and reinstalled limewire, allowing it to reenter a new windows firewall exception.

After deciding to turn off the windows firewall, I started limewire. It ran fine for over an hour, and uploads and downloads went through freely. The brick wall was gone as well.

Then I shut down limewire, turned my windows firewall back on, and started up limewire again. Interestingly, the brick wall reappeared for about 5 seconds, but then disappeared, and hasn't come back. It's been about an hour again, and uploads & downloads are going through freely.

There's been no memory hogging whatsoever. None at all.

I've been monitoring in the console window in order to save a log file of the stuff SAM requested, but the problem hasn't happened, so I have nothing to submit to you.

So, perhaps it was my router and its manual port forwarding setting, and/or limewire and the manual port forward setting, that was causing the problem. I have a Linksys RT31P2. The manual port forwarding settings were set exactly the way they were supposed to be, according to some instructions I saw at some point in the past.


Changing the settings in the router and limewire to UPnP seems to have eliminated the problem of sudden, seemingly spontaneous cpu & memory hogging at 80 to 99%.


The strange thing is that the brick wall was always there when the problem happened, (even though I could download, and uploads ran fine with the brick wall appearing) and when I've been able to remove it, the problem hasn't happened, and I think maybe uploads are going through a bit faster.

...I disabled the windows firewall and the brickwall temporarily disappeared...

...but then it came back, so I set limewire to UPnP along with my router, and disabled the windows firewall, and the brick wall disappeared and the problem was gone...

...and so I kept the router & limewire settings at UPnP but enabled the windows firewall, and the brickwall is now still gone - it hasn't reappeared.

I will keep monitoring this, and send updates if the problem returns. If it doesn't, I will eventually update to the newer version.

Was it the firewall and needing to switch to UPnP?

Thanks again for all of your help!!! I'm very impressed with your speedy, genuine and competent efforts.

:D

[Sam]

The problem was with using firewall-firewall transfers. LimeWire would only use these if you're firewalled, which the brick wall indicates. If you aren't firewalled, you wouldn't trigger the problem.

Please give 4.14.6 a shot while you're firewalled and let us know if you again experience the problems. This way we can know for sure if we've fixed it.

Thanks.

[zab]

Please give 4.14.6 a shot while you're firewalled and let us know if you again experience the problems. This way we can know for sure if we've fixed it.


Just want to clarify that when Sam and I say firewalled we really mean brickwalled. You can have firewalls installed on your computer, be it zone alarm, or windows firewall or another, or you can have manual port forward or UPnP, but all that really matters is whether LimeWire shows a brick wall or not.

So please try 4.14.6 with a brick wall.

Thank you for your speedy, genuine and competent efforts to help us track this bug!

[CamTheCat]

I got this question and I'd like to post it here anonymously along with my reply:

Hey,

If You don't mind my asking, how did you configure your router? I don't have any idea how to even access it. I want to see if my router is also enabled like my limewire.

(snip)

I wonder if Peerguardian is the culprit. I downloaded and started using it about the same time I upgraded to the 4.14.


What make & model is your router? You should be able to access it through searching for instructions online, or calling tech support. Usually User and Pass on some routers are by default set to admin & admin (you should change the pass to something you'll remember). I think it would be smart to verify that both limewire and your router are set to UPnP. I've heard scary things about UPnP (more dangerous cuz it might allow hackers easier access) but I gave up on trying to do manual port forward with limewire as I think it might have been causing the memory hogging issue. Zab said when I sent him a stack trace that it looked like a firewall to firewall transfer issue.

I think it's important to get rid of the brickwall image in limewire. Did you try removing the limewire exceptions entries from the windows firewall menu before you reinstalled the program? That might be a good thing to try.

FYI, I have windows firewall turned on, with the limewire installation having put a new entry for an exception in the last install, and the brick wall is not showing. I think the reason the brick wall is gone could be that, or maybe the router setting being changed from manual port forward to UPnP.

You can still use limewire if you haven't configured your router, but it's a good idea to set up manual port forwarding OR - likely even better - ensure that UPnP is enabled.

It might be that limewire isn't good at using manual port forwarding, and works better through UPnP.

It might also be that older or multiple exception entries for limewire in windows firewall need to be removed, and limewire needs to be reinstalled so that it can create a new exception entry in windows firewall.

It could be something else...

I checked if PeerGuardian is interfering with limewire and it doesn't appear so. My downloads are now going super fast (since I finished trouble shooting) and uploads are still going through as well. I also got this problem in the past with another version, and I didn't have Peerguardian back then.

By the way, the problem is a sudden seemingly spontaneous ramp up of cpu use, rising to 99% and causing the fan to go crazy, and it goes on for minutes, regardless of what is happening with uploads, downloads, searches, or whatever. Again, Zab said it looked like limewire was having issues with firewall to firewall transfers, and getting it to think it was not behind a firewall (getting rid of the brick wall) seemed to resolve the situation for me.

Hope this helps!

[CamTheCat]

Just want to clarify that when Sam and I say firewalled we really mean brickwalled. You can have firewalls installed on your computer, be it zone alarm, or windows firewall or another, or you can have manual port forward or UPnP, but all that really matters is whether LimeWire shows a brick wall or not.

So please try 4.14.6 with a brick wall.

Thank you for your speedy, genuine and competent efforts to help us track this bug!


In the past I had the brickwall showing in limewire and I didn't always have an issue. At this point it seems to be directly related to this issue. Just thought I'd state that for others who have the brick wall showing but aren't experiencing this problem.

I think the only way I could try to get the bug back is if I reset my router and limewire to manual port forward (I think) but I haven't done that yet.

When I do, and if the brick wall returns, I will see if the problem occurs with this version - 4.14.5 - again, and then I'll install 4.14.6 and see if it happens. I'll keep you posted on the results.

If the problem goes away I might keep the manual port forward settings anyways, or I might change it back to UPnP anyways. What would you recommend?

- - -

By the way, since I've gotten rid of the brickwall, speeds seem the same (maybe faster) but the memory hogging issue hasn't happened. I left the program running all night (like I used to before this problem started happening) and it didn't go nuts. Last night when I had a lot of uploads running and a few searches and downloads limewire did use a significant amount of memory, but that's expected when a program is working hard. The 'verifying file contents' feature at the end of the download seemed to use more memory, but again it was not unreasonable.

I've got a LOT of files I'd like to share, and if I can leave the program running without this problem occurring, I'll get these files shared much faster.

[CamTheCat]

I think it was the manual port forwarding settings in my linksys rt31p2 router that was the cause of the sudden spontaneous memory hogging bug.

I changed to UPnP on my router and in Limewire, and the problem was gone. The brick wall was gone also, even with windows firewall turned on.

I put it back to manual port forward on my router and limewire, and the searches were abysmal, returning only a few hosts. It was worse than before. The brick wall was back.

I decided not to wait to see if the problem happened again, take a log file/stack trace, email it to the tech guy, install 4.14.6, try it with manual port forward, see if the problem happened, etc, etc. Once I figured out how to get it to work well without the bug occurring, I decided that I'm not going to invest anymore time in the troubleshooting.

So I put it back to UPnP without waiting to see if I'd get the bug with manual port forward while using 4.14.5.

I restarted limewire and the brick wall was gone. Searches were great, and downloads as fast as when I first tried to use UPnP instead of manual port forwarding that I had set up and had been using up until and during the bug problem.

In short, enabling UPnP on limewire and my router seems to have fixed the issue. Maybe I had the wrong ports triggered or forwarded or whatnot. I'm not a pro with this stuff.


So the first lesson is that either:

A - Linksys rt31p2 routers are crappy at manually port forwarding with limewire, or...

B - limewire 4.14.5 is bad with manual port forwarding on this and maybe other routers, or...

C - I had the wrong settings with manual port forwarding.


The second lesson is that UPnP settings work well with limewire and linksys rt31p2 routers (and probably others). At the very least it's easier than manual port forwarding to set up.


I may or may not bother upgrading to 4.14.6 because things now work fine. Sorry I gave up on trouble shooting for you. This is all just taking up too much time. I hope the whole thread will end up helping to be aware of possible issues and fixes for future versions.

Thanks again!!!


:D :D :D

[as332l]

Well,

Using up to 4.14.5 both my Router and frewall were set for UPnP and I DID have CPU/Memory problems.

I have no installed 4.14.7 and will see.........so far so good!

[CamTheCat]

Well,

Using up to 4.14.5 both my Router and frewall were set for UPnP and I DID have CPU/Memory problems.

I have no installed 4.14.7 and will see.........so far so good!

I'm curious to know how it's going.

Also, are you using a firewall? Windows firewall? Other? I think removing the exceptions in the windows firewall for limewire on my pc (there were THREE of them!) and reinstalling limewire may have had something to do with the fix. Or maybe not. :confused:

Your cpu problems might be different than mine. I was experiencing a problem with firewall to firewall transfers and the cpu/memory was maxed out, with no resolution but to shut down limewire, and limewire operations like number of downloads were not a factor.

A different situation is that sometimes when one is doing a lot with limewire it WILL use a lot of memory, but once searches/downloads/uploads are completed, the cpu/memory usage normally goes down.

[cosimaf]

hey,

did you have to completely uninstall the other version of LW first before installing 4.14.7 and delete the LW preference folder, java,etc. and use the offline installer? Just wondering because i want to do the upgrade but I want to make sure I do it right so it'll work. I don't know how to check my router though.

[bobisnotmyname]

Hi all,
its me again.

I've started using 4.14.07 and things are going -generally- well so far.
the major issue behind it -seems- to have stopped for now.

I did have one issue yesterday where things went bezerk for a moment..
the speed went RIGHT up.. then Droped like a brick.. but the progress bar
kept going up.. so i think it was just a fluke thing as it hasn't happend again since.

over all though.. i haven't had nearly as tough of a time with the gui as before.

and just incase i forgot to mention, i'm not using a router,
and -Am- using a third party firewall (comodo)

i'll post another update in a couple days.
thanks a bunch.

oh.. p.s to the person asking about uninstalling,
..i didn't.. i just ordered it to install over top the existing installation.

[CamTheCat]

Hi all,

I now have the latest version of limewire (free) and I've gotten rid of the brick wall by setting my router and Limewire to UPnP enabled, and clearing the windows firewall exceptions and reinstalling Limewire.

My speeds are good, and by looking through other posts on setting up Limewire for optimal functionality, I've got pretty good upload & download speeds.

There's a possibility that my ISP (shaw) is throttling my p2p, but it's not that bad, so I'm not too concerned.


Cheers!

:D

- - -

UPDATE: (Aug 30/07) I don't think my ISP is messing with my speeds with p2p or in any other way. I'm getting very good results with download speeds. Some files downloading from multiple hosts download at over 100 kb/s, which is fast enough for me.

Program is running fine, left on for over a day at a time, many uploads completed, and no memory hogging.