Gnutella is a public, decentralized network, which basically means nobody owns the network. There is no central server for it. The user is the server, and the user is the client.
Since all Gnutella users form a part of this network, it is up to ourselves to keep the network not only alive, but healthy! It is a virtual community, in which everyone has the power to say how strong that community will be. This Good Citizen guide contains some important tips on how to do exactly that.
 ALWAYS UPGRADE TO THE LATEST VERSION OF BEARFLIX when prompted to do so.
You might feel it's inconvenient to upgrade every so often, especially if the upgrades roll in once a week or more; but by always using the latest version of BearFlix, you're doing the network the biggest favor of all towards keeping it healthy.
New versions of BearFlix usually contain certain "under-the-hood" improvements, bug fixes, or feature enhancements that make the file sharing experience and the gnutella network better than before. Are you still using an older version of BearFlix? Upgrade now! And feel the increase in strength of your power to share!
 SHARE FILES: To ensure the ongoing growth and popularity of the Gnutella Network, a good citizen will always share files; the more the better. With everyone continuously adding good quality content, the network will become more useful, and richer in content over time.
Servents like BearFlix 5.2.3 automatically share the files you have downloaded. If your servent does not do that, you should make every possible effort to share the files you download. Keep in mind that you would not have gotten that file if someone had not been sharing it. Please return the favor. The more places a particular file exists, the more opportunities other people will have to download it.
And remember - only share files that do not infringe on other people's copyrights or other intellectual property rights.
 CHECK YOUR FILES THOROUGHLY before you share them. Since the success of the gnutella protocol is dependent on the sharing of files from many different sources, it is important to check what you're sharing before you make it available to other users.
Quality: Before you share the files, it is good to check the quality of the content. Do not share incompleted or very bad quality material. It is good to not share your download directory, create a separate shared directory instead and check all files before you share them. That will efficiently prevent corrupted files from spreading across the network.
File names: Since the filename is the only description about the content of the file, it is important to name the shared files correctly. For example, if everybody were naming their music files like "Artist - Album - Track number - Song Title.mp3", instead of just "Artist - Song Title.mp3" or "Song Title.mp3", it would be much easier to know the origin of the file before downloading it. Generally, the filename should briefly describe the content of the file.
Proper amount of shared files: In their complete willingness to share, many users will go ahead and share their entire file collection. While that may seem like a good idea, if that user has a lot of very popular content, the result will be too many users trying to download from that one person, which in turn results in you getting a "Busy" response. As you may already know, this is very fustrating!
You can't change the amount of files someone else shares, but you can make sure that your files are better available to others.
Try not to share too many files at one time. Keep an eye on your upload page, and if your upload slots are full most of the time, decrease the amount of your shared files. If you do have a lot of files you wish to share, divide them into separate directories and rotate them.
Proper number of upload slots: It is also good to have the proper number of upload slots available. With too few upload slots, even though you can give faster downloads to other users, if all your slots are taken by modem users, your upload capacity may not be used completely.
The same is true in reverse. If you have too many slots available, the average bandwidth per user may become very low, resulting in slower transfer rates.
A good way to compromise is to choose the right number of slots so that, even if all your slots are used, the average transfer rate is not too low. One example would be if your upstream capacity is 512kbps, ten upload slots would cause a minimum average transfer rate of about 50kbps.
 PROPER SETUP OF FIREWALLS: Firewalls are important, especially when using a peer-to-peer program like BearFlix, and although being behind a firewall doesn't prevent you from sharing to everyone (you can still upload files to some people), firewalls can still be a hindrance for you and other users.
It is almost impossible to establish a direct connection with another firewalled computer. Consequently, firewalled users will be unable to download files from you, and you'll be unable to download files from other firewalled users.
You will see their files as "Unreachable" when you're firewalled, and that is exactly how other firewalled users see your files. Therefore, if at all possible, it is important to get rid of your firewalled status for sharing purposes.
You don't need to get rid of your firewall completely, you just need to "drill a hole" in it for BearFlix. It won't decrease your security because BearFlix doesn't contain any security holes. Please read BearFlix Firewall Tutorial for instructions how to configure your firewall.
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