First off -
Limewire recently came out with a version 5.0 (Which I haven't used, but it looks more complicating than the older version), so I'm going to suggest that you download the "Classic"
A little background information on Limewire -
It's a peer-to-peer sharing program, which means that all the songs you'll be downloading are from other users on limewire.
Okay, so,
Go to http://www.limewire.com
In the lower left hand side you will see a link that says "Get Limewire Classic 4.18.8"
After you download it there are some some options you need to change so that whatever you download will NOT be able to be downloaded by other Limewire users (Only reason I think this is necessary is because it will lag your computer a bit, and make anything you're downloading, download slower.)
Go to Tools and click Options. This should come up.
Now, on the first screen which is tabbed "Saving", choose a place that you want all of your music to be stored to. Everything you download will be in that folder, so make sure you know where it is.
Now click on Sharing.
Uncheck everything. There should be a box that says "Folder is fully shared including all Subfolders" - make sure that this is unchecked as well. Also, there's one that's easy to miss that's titled "Share New Downloads saved to Unshared Folders" - make sure this one is unchecked as well.
Limewire Store, is basically trying to be iTunes by having a "store" where you can buy music. Don't worry about this.
Next tab is Speed.
I think you have Broadband, so choose broadband in the connection speed. This will allow all of your files to be downloaded faster.
The next few tabs aren't very important so click on System Tray next. Click Shutdown after Transfers. Limewire takes up a bit of processing memory, so it's best to close it after you're done with it.
Next, click iTunes. Uncheck "Share my Music"
Now click "Bug Reports and click "Always Send Immediately"
Okay, now you're done with your settings and are ready to start downloading! Click on Audio, so that only audio files come up. I'd suggest you DO NOT download movies off of Limewire, it's harder to figure out what's a virus and what's not. If you want to download/watch streaming movies there are much better programs out there. Limewire is perfect for music though.
So, let me explain what all the columns mean and how they're important.
Quality - Doesn't really matter, people just give it stars in regards to the song itself and the popularity. Ignore it.
#'s - This is important! It shows how many people are sharing that file, the more numbers the better (Except in the case of a small file size, then do not download!)
Name - Important! Things to watch out for are titles that are like this "shook me all night best track ever". I don't think a virus is the best song ever, personally. Generally, do NOT download things that say best track ever, or has any kind of sexual terms in it.
Type - Always download .mp3 files.
Size - This is VERY important. See how this one is a virus?
Speed - Doesn't really matter, it just means the majority of the people with the file have that kind of internet connection. Try not to download anything that says Modem, it'll take ages to download.
Bitrate - The general bitrate for a song is 128. I'd suggest to not download anything that is below that, because it'll sound like crap. 256 is the highest you should download, and the sound quality is amazing (Hello blaring songs til the house is shaking!).
Now that you know what all the tabs are and how to download music, the last thing I can help you with is just things to watch out for.
When you want to download something, hover over it and a little floating box will pop up with the information. It SHOULD look like this.
I was hovering my mouse over "Air Force Ones the song above the box. But see how it looks VERY legit, even has the album name? This is the kind of file you want to download. It isn't essential that it has that much information, but the more it looks like that, the better. As long as it has the bitrate, and artist, and has a lot of file sources (Remember the #'s box?) then I'd say it's fine. Just use your judgment.
Some songs/artists are harder to find. Take this for example. You saw how huge of a page Nelly had. This is one of my favorite Techno artists. See how quite a bit of crap comes up? Great example of the greatest hits though. See the name "DJ Babyboi greatest hits"? Yeah, that's a virus. Never download anything that says greatest hits. Also notice that the very first song that comes up has 7 sources. That just means that seven dumbasses downloaded a virus and are sharing it. You'll notice how small the file is, it's less than 1,000 KB.
Alrighty, so as a review ...
Things to look for when you're downloading a song:
- More than 2 #'s
- Bitrate of at least 128
- A song title that has a hovering box that looks legit
- A size of at least 3,000 KB, but no more than 10,000kb
I hope that this isn't very confusing. I broke it down so it was pretty simple to understand. Also remember that Mac's usually NEVER get viruses. Most of the viruses on here are targeted towards people with PC's (Yay me!), so even if you do download one by accident just use your virus removal software and delete the file. Most of the "Viruses" on limewire aren't going to crash your computer anyways, mostly just tracking cookies that track what webpages you go to. Best of luck pirating music!
