How to Get Free Software, Music, and Videos Using Limewire (Mac OSX)

Limewire is a software application called Peer to Peer or P2P. A P2P application allows you to search millions of individual user computers over the internet to find files you can download to your computer. This How To will walk you through how to find and download Limewire to your computer and how to search for music, videos, and programs (software), and how to download them to your computer to enjoy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• Internet Connection

1. DOWNLOADING LIMEWIRE (steps 1-6)
   Go to http://www.limewire.com.
2. Get It Now Click on the Get It Now button.
3. Get Basic Click Get Basic.
4. Click on the circle next where it says: “I will not use Limewire BASIC for copyright infringement” and click continue.
5. Scroll down the page and click on Mac OSX. The program will start downloading. If you get a message box that says: “LimewireOSX.dmg contains an Application,” click Continue.
6. Install Limewire The Limewire window will open up. Double-click on the Install LImewire icon. Follow installation instructions. After installing, you can delete (by dragging to the trash) the LimewireOSX.dmg file.)
7. STARTING LIMEWIRE FOR THE FIRST TIME (steps 7-11)
   Limewire is installed in your Applications folder. Double-click on your hard drive, then on your Applications’ folder, then on Limewire folder. Drag the Limewire icon to your dock. Close all folders.
8. Before starting Limewire, ensure you are connected to the internet.
9. Click on Limewire in your dock.
10. Close all the “Upgrade to Pro” boxes by clicking on Later or the red circle (top left).
11. Close the “Tip of the Day” box by clicking on Close or the red circle (top left).
12. FINDING AND DOWNLOADING SONGS (steps 12 - 20)
    Click once in the Filename box on the left.
13. Search Box Click once on Audio
14. Type the Title of your song next to the word Title.
15. Click Search.
16. The search window will come up. The large window on the right shows a list of all titles it found with the title you typed in. The search windows on the left allow you to look at the large results by artist, genre or album.
17. Download Button Find the song you want to download from the list and click on it once and click download at the bottom of the window.. (If the list is long, click on an artist, genre or album name on the left to shorten it.) For Macintosh, you should select MP3 files.
18. If you do not have this song on your computer already, you will get a box saying it is unable to find a license for this file, do you want to download it anyway. Click on Yes.
19. Progress Bar You will see a download box popup on the bottom of the screen. It will have a progress bar showing you how much of the file has been downloaded.
20. Files are automatically downloaded to a folder on your desktop called Limewire downloads. (You can change this location. See “Working with Preferences” below.) You can move these files to your MP3 player or listen to them on your computer using iTunes or other audio player. If you downloaded an MP3, iTunes will open automatically after the file has downloaded and the song will be added to the MP3 library. If you only want to listen to the song from your iTunes library, you can delete the song file saved in the Limewire downloads folder by dragging them to the trash.
21. FINDING AND DOWNLOADING PROGRAMS (steps 21 - 32)
    Click once in the Filename box on the left.
22. Programs Click once on Programs
23. Type the Name of the Program (or part of the name)
24. Select OSX under platform.
25. Search Click Search.
26. The search window will come up. The large window on the right shows a list of all titles it found with the title you typed in. The search windows on the left allow you to look at the large results by media, type of file, or speed of connection for download.
27. Find the Program you want to download from the list and click on it once and click download at the bottom of the window.
28. If you do not have this Program on your computer already, you will get a box saying it is unable to find a license for this file, do you want to download it anyway. Click on Yes.
29. You will see a download box popup on the bottom of the screen. It will have a progress bar showing you how much of the file has been downloaded.
30. 100% Files are automatically downloaded to a folder on your desktop called Limewire downloads. (You can change this location. See “Working with Preferences” below.) Once progress bar gets to 100%, double-click on the Limewire Downloads Folder.
31. Double-click on the file you just downloaded. The file (generally .zip or .dmg) will expand and either open up a second window or write files to the Limewire Downloads folder. Double-click on the file in the new window or that is written to the Limewire downloads folder.
32. Follow installation instructions.
33. FINDING AND DOWNLOADING VIDEOS (steps 33 - 42)
    Click once in the Filename box on the left.
34. Video Click once on Video
35. Type the Name of the Video (or part of the name)
36. Click Search.
37. The search window will come up. The large window on the right shows a list of all titles it found with the title you typed in. The search windows on the left allow you to look at the large results by file type, video type or rating. (Note: Most videos are not coded for video type or rating and will not show up in these windows.)
38. Find the video you want to download from the list and click on it once and click download at the bottom of the window.
39. If you do not have this video on your computer already, you will get a box saying it is unable to find a license for this file, do you want to download it anyway. Click on Yes.
40. You will see a download box popup on the bottom of the screen. It will have a progress bar showing you how much of the file has been downloaded.
41. Files are automatically downloaded to a folder on your desktop called Limewire downloads. (You can change this location. See “Working with Preferences” below.) Once progress bar gets to 100%, double-click on the Limewire Downloads Folder.
42. Double-click on the Video. Quicktime (or another video player you have installed) will start and play your video.
43. Search Bar LIMEWIRE SEARCHES (steps 43 - 47)
    Once you start a search (for any file type), you will see a search bar at the top of the search window. The search bar contains the name of the search along with the number of files it found. The default setting is up to five searches can be occurring simultaneously. (You can change that using the preferences. See below.)
44. Back to Search To start a new search, click on the Back to Search button.
45. Type in another search. You will now see two search bars at the top. Click on one, and the search window for that search pops up.
46. Red Circle To delete a search, click on the red circle on the search bar.
47. If you start downloading a file, and you decide you want to stop it, just click on the downloading file title (in the download window) and press the delete key on the keyboard.
48. Preferences LIMEWIRE PREFERENCES (steps 48 - 54)
    Go up to Limewire in the top menu and down to Preferences.
49. Under the Saving Preference, you can change the location of where files are saved. The default will be: /Users/accountname/Desktop/limewire downloads. You can change this to be any location on your computer or even an external drive.
50. Under the Sharing Preference, you can Add folders on your hard drive that you want to have shared to other Limewire users. You can also remove everything in the Share Window, so you are not sharing any files.
51. Under the Downloads Preference, you can specify how many simultaneous downloads you can do in Limewire. The default is 8. If you have a slower connection, lower this number. If you have a T1 or higher connection, you can increase this number. For dsl and cable, 8 is a good number.
52. Under Player, the default is to use Limewire players. If you uncheck this, your Macintosh default players (such as Quicktime and iTunes) will be used instead.
53. Under iTunes, check the Enable iTunes importing if you want to use iTunes to listen and organize songs you download from Limewire. Uncheck this is you prefer to use another media player. Uncheck the Share My Music box unless you want to share your iTunes music.
54. Under the Searching Preference, you can specify how many simultaneous searchess you can do in Limewire. The default is 5. If you have a slower connection, lower this number. If you have a T1 or higher connection, you can increase this number. For dsl and cable, 5 is a good number.

Tips & Warnings

• There is a Basic and Pro version of Limewire. The Basic version if free. The Pro version costs $18.88 and has added features. You can read more about Limewire and the different versions on their website: http://www.limewire.com.
• You only need to fill in one of the search fields such as Title, however the more fields you fill in, the more refined your search will be.
• If you do not know the exact title of the file you are looking for, you can type in one or two words to find files that have those words in them.
• If you want to find out more about preferences, go up to Help (in Limewire) and down to Using Limewire. This will open the Limewire site on the internet. Read the FAQ and User Guide for more information. If you start doing a lot of searches, read up on using the Filter Preferences.
• When downloading, you will often get messages in the downloading window. If you get “Need More Sources,” it means it cannot download that file right now. Try a different file, or try downloading it at a later time.
• Limewire is software called Peer to Peer (P2P). There are several P2P programs available, and Limewire is just one of them. When used properly, P2P applications like Limewire are valuable and easy to use. However, used improperly, P2P applications can cause risks. For more information, read the FTC article at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt128.shtm
• Although Macintosh computers do not often become infected with viruses, the use of Peer to Peer (P2P) software like Limewire makes your computer more vulnerable. Before using Limewire, you should have an updated Virus Protection Program installed on your Macintosh computer.
• If you download commercial songs, videos and / or software that you not own, you are breaking copyright. There are lots of shareware, freeware, demos, add-ons and Creative Commons licensed files that you can download through Limewire without breaking copyright. Please remember to follow all copyright laws.
• Video files can be large, take a long time to download and fill up your hard drive space quickly.
• Often a file that is a virus is unusually large in size. If you are downloading a file, compare similar files for size. (For example, if you are downloading a song file, check out other song files to see what size they are.) If a file is unusually large compared to other files of the same type, you should not download it.

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