Primary Connection - What the P=, S=, and spm= Mean At The Top Of Your WinMX

When your running Primary you will, like anyone see your WinMX v with some information after, for the Primary user, supporting network traffic this is a way to see your Connections with the rest of the WinMX Peer Network (WPN).  

P= is the abbreviation for (P)rimary =, the number you see after this is the number of other Primary WPN users your networked with at any given time.  This number can vary some and that is not uncommon however, after a period of time upon connection to the WPN you should have a fairly stable number here.  The exact number will depend on your WinMX Settings > WinMX Peer Network > Allocated Bandwidth (not to be confused with the Bandwidth Throttle) explained more below.  

S= is the abbreviation for (S)econdary =, the number you see after this is the number of Secondary users your allowing to connect through you and supporting.  This number can also vary however, as with the Primary numbers should stabilize after a short time.  This number can also be adjusted in WinMX Settings > WinMX Peer Network > Allocated Bandwidth, which will be discussed below.
Note:  Before we had so much fake file flooding associated with WinMX the S= number was often used to 'diagnose' port problems, so its widely believed (mistakenly) that if this number is low or at 0, there is a port problem.  This is NOT true and the best way to diagnose port issues is by your Uploads, Chat Room List, and Searches.  If those are working, your ports are as well.

spm= is the abbreviation used for (S)earches (P)er (M)inute=, that your supporting on your Primary Node Connection.  This is the search queries your handling for your secondary/primary connections you're networked with.  This number should never be stable and will constantly change if things are working well, if this number stays staionary you may have a problem.  Because this number can depend on so many variables and machine types its best to know that in the 10s of thousands is a good number so anything from 10,000 - 99,000 is OK.




If you go to WinMX Settings > WinMX Peer Network > then look on the right, you'll see Allocated Bandwidth.  This has a drop down box that shows you the various setting choices you have.  This ranges from 7KB/s Out and 10.5KB/s In  to  15KB/s Out and 22.5KB/s In.  Let me explain a bit about what this means.

By KB/s Out this is basically outgoing connections to other primaries on the network and your WinMX will try to maintain this number for your P=.
By KB/s In this is basically the Incoming connections you support of Secondary users and again, WinMX will try to maintain this number as S=.

That said the defaults that WinMX will set them to are the lowest number 7KB/s Out and 10.5KB/s In, this is fine, the average I would recommend for 'most' DSL/Cable users is 9KB/s Out and 13.5KB/s.  Remember that having this setting too high may use more resources then your machine can handle and take speeds away from your uploads/downloads so average is the best balance for sharing your bandwidth between you and the network.
As for the other settings on this page, please do not adjust these.

If you need more information than provided here please visit the forum for help.
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