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Yeah, WinMX doesn't work. Only fools would use spyware free P2P apps that have barely been updated in 2 years.

Of course the reason for the WinMX software not to get updated for 2 years is coz it doesn't work, right? And the queues, they're there only to allow RIAA stooges to log your IP manually, and the users who say "you don't share enough", they're MPAA hooks using entrapment tactics. And the range of rare content is because only eclectic people use it.

May WinMX continue to suck.

For instance, WinMX doesn't install anything but the p2p program. Where is it on this list?

It now does nothing really that new, apart from using the bittorrent protocol. Networks like the long lost WinMX have supported downloading from users with partially downloaded for years now.

I guess it just saves the client from searching for the peers itself, leaving that job to the supernodes.

You could try Shareaza, though if 80MB of RAM is too much (And that's with a rather large library), then I suppose WinMX might be an alternative.

Kazaa is dead, it has been since the RIAA injected those fake files into the network and virus/worm/trojan writers have dicovered it as a nice distribution platform for their malware.

I don't know of any linux alternative, but i have been using WinMX for a couple of months now. It's windows only as the name implies :-( but i think it's much better than kazaa has ever been, specially for movies.

I guess they're just stupid. Anybody can easily download music without DRM from file sharing networks. Often it's at higher bitrates and sometimes it's even in a lossless format like Mokey's Audio (APE). Furthermore I can't see how DRM can work because if you can decode it to play it then you can strip the DRM from it and distribute it. No, the software might not support that but cracking it can't be hard.

The only thing DRM really accomplishes is it annoys people who legally download music. Compare the amount of software and hardware that can play plain MP3 files with the amount that can play DRM formats. What about if you live in a country that they won't sell to? (Where's the logic there anyways?) What about if you want to move to another country and iTunes wants to delete all the music you purchased? (I remember reading about that on Slashdot.)

Simply watermarking music so the original purchaser can be tracked might be a nice un-intrusive way to protect music. However, with all the viruses and worms going around you'd probably find that some people have their music stolen through back doors and then they'd be liable for that.

What about WinMX?

Agreed. Though sometimes I use WinMX still (it's nowhere near as polluted as Kazaa), I generally prefer AllOfMP3.com which while slightly sketchy is still less sketchy than P2P services, and the quality is far, far, far better. Also the low price on AllOfMP3 gets me buying lots of music I would otherwise probably never hear and certainly wouldn't buy. Occasionally I frequent iTunes, though a buck a song still feels too expensive to me, and the M4P format, while far better than WMA, is still annoying. Or best of all, Magnatune, which is starting to look like what MP3.com should have been.

Or give them the gift that keeps on giving, for less: WinMx, KaZaA ... same content, less pricey. ;)

.. I'll still get most of my music with SoulSeek, Kazaa, WinMX and Overnet, and buy the rest from second hand CD shops.

Anyone with me on this?

Browser: Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 (or 0.7 nightly build)

Email: Thunderbird 0.2 (or 0.3 nightly build)

Office Suite: Open Office 1.1

SSH Client: Putty 0.53b

Graphics: Irfan View 3.85 or GIMP 1.2.5

Music: Winamp 2.91

Virus Scanner: AVG 7.0

Instant Messenger: Psi 0.9 or Trillian Basic 0.74E or gaim 0.70

Non-Copywrited Music downloads :P : WinMX 3.31

Video Player (paired with an ATI Video card): ATI MMC 7.6

FTP : LeapFTP 2.7.4

ok so that was 11 .. sorry ;)

Almost all of the music I download is foreign: mostly Japanese and Korean. (Yes, I'm a USian.) I don't want any of the music the RIAA's "artists" have to offer. I never bought domestic CDs, even before the "Napster era."

Now, I find it highly unlikely that these networks would ever be able to get licenses to most foreign artists' works. Thus, I would continue to use WinMX to get my music. The RIAA can't touch me (I'm not infringing on -their- copyrights), the University can't touch me (RIT won't act unless on a specific complaint from a copyright holder), and the foreign labels can't/won't touch me (lotsa reasons for that one).

I don't want to generalize, but college studends tend (TEND!) to have more ecclectic tastes than the foaming masses. I highly doubt that they use p2p primarily to get their "Top 40" fix every night.

While refining the original protocol is all well and good, why not look towards intergration with other open networks now?

I've used em all, as they say, and while no one client is best for all applications I'd say the Emule development is damn close. Since it's Open Source and there are several main "production" versions from different groups plus individual modders putting out even more versions on the cutting edge of development. The best code gets quickly integrated all the way from the edge to the trunk, I've had my eye on their mod forums as well as the latest emule 27a thru 27c releases and things are really moving towards another great milestone release.

With the integration of Overnet support into EMule it now has the best of both worlds, with both public servers and client to client directories. Plus with weblink sites making it easy to find and add known good files to your queue, by batches if needed, it gives the end user the complete experiance of a mature tech.

At least Gnutella is open and may actually end up moving in this direction, I'm disappointed in hearing that the upcomming WinMX will still be closed, both their client and their network really have some good features but in the P2P world closed is death IMHO. As for me, I'll be waiting for the latest 27c EMule as modded by Sivka, my personal favorite at this time.

Jonah Hex

My guess is that these dollar figure likely assume that every copy of a song downloaded results in a lost record sale so the record labels can cry "boo-hoo" all the way to the bank.

I download music too.. not from Kazaa but from the less know WinMX. I download - usually the 128kbs or less copy if I can find it - anything that I'm either recomended or has picked up on the radio as sounding interesting. Then I listen, decide weither or not it's worth my money. If it is, I make a note and keep an eye out for the CD... if it isn't, I delete the file

Another excellent (although only available for Windows AFAIK) P2P system is WinMX.

If not sharing is considered evil, and a fellow new to movie trading has nothing to share, then for a fellow without a DVD-ROM drive or the video mastering expertise to make a good DivX rip, how is it possible to download one's first movie from Overnet without appearing "evil"?

Even if you don't have movies files initially, you should at least have MP3's, exe install files, and other useful info, even sharing your partial downloads counts in my books.

I don't use Kazaa, I use WinMX and I habitually check my downloaders to make sure that they are actually sharing files. I put leeches into my ignore list, and clear them from the cue. Conversely, if I see someone in my cue is a big sharer (800+ files of decent quality) I double their download bandwidth.

I've figured out a way this can happen and is happening on p2p just now. Here's the sequence:

1. Troll user or industry contractor downloads a common file that is genuine. LOTR on DivX for example.
2. File gets renamed to something else.
3. New user comes along, sees the fake and starts to download it. important note: the file on your machine is always named the same as the original you first selected to download
4. Each copy of the file (including the properly named ones) becomes a valid hash-compatible alternate source. So even if the fake-providing user goes off-line, there will still be sources.
5. Here's the key part: Your partial downloads are shared. Other users see you with the fake file, even though you don't even know it's fake yet. They start to download it from you, with the same fake name. If it's a popular fake name, the effect snowballs from there.

Unless everyone deletes the fake file at the same time, it's going to be there forever. This works best for large files, so you'll see a lot of mp3 singles that need overburning to fit on one disk. A lot of users don't know what to expect as a filesize, so they can and are caught out by this.

I've been aware of this for sometime now. I didn't want to post it anywhere, in case it gives someone any ideas. This thread has kinda mucked that up though, so it doesn't matter anymore.

Now, the question is, what to do to avoid this issue:

1. Use WinMX and it's "Search alternates" feature, which will look for files with the same hash. You should remove the first line of the search (the filename) and re-click on "find", so you are getting back all files of the same checksum. If most of the names don't match what you have, it's usually a fake. Kazaa doesn't allow anything like this unfortunatly.
2. Install a tool like sig2dat which gives your system a new net service available through web pages. You get a link like "sig2dat://......" which, when clicked on it will create an empty partial download for Kazaa. Restart Kazaa and it will begin looking for that particular file. If you trust the web page, then you are happy. FastTrackMovies springs to mind.
3. Pay attention to file sizes.
4. Block IPs that are "nasty"

What really floats my boat is the evential outcome of this. The industry is shooting itself in the foot in this arms race between them and the world, that they cannot possibly hope to win.

Think of it this way. Soon, no one will trust filenames in p2p and the searches will become redunant. One of two things will happen: People will start remortgaging their homes again to buy CDs. Or, people will create better systems that allow ratings of files, like the sig2dat system.

This is fantastic for the p2p user. Not only do you know that you are getting the right file; you'll also have reviews and comments on it's quality and listings of other files you wouldn't have normally thought of searching for. Entire albums can be queued in one click (the question is, will Amazon sue?!? ;-)

What I envisage happening long term is p2p being more of a service on the PC, with little user interaction. To send someone a file, you send them a "link" to that file on the network, and your client seeks it out itself. Just like the birth of Napster, the record/movies industries choice of action (or inaction) will ultimately bite them. Evolution doesn't work well unless someone is hacking away at the weak links.

The solution is simple. Download "Steamboat Willie" (note the spelling) from p2p right now. It's there as an mpeg, file size 76,501,432. Share it. Install p2p on hosts purely to share this one file.

Public dissent is essential in overthrowing bad laws.

Some URLs:

WinMX

Kazaa Lite

Note; none of these applications contain spyware. Get sharing people!

The honest internet-using public, when Audiogalaxy went down. It's been a while, now, since the RIAA sued AudioGalaxy and shut down their service.

It's not like they were the only ones to go last year. The reason it pissed off a lot of people was that it it was the best popular audio sharing client to date, and everyone loved it. It was so easy to use and it was absolutely brilliant at finding anything, even really obscure stuff.

Best of all, it did an excellent job of blocking pirate downloads. You tried looking for a single by any popular artist in the past fifty years, odds were you couldn't find it. Probably seemes like an unwanted daft feature of file sharing client, but it made the system that much less illegal. That's why it was such a shame to see it go - the RIAA charged our beloved AudioGalaxy with piracy and gave it the death sentence, all the while letting Kazaa, WinMX and the other 'real criminals' roam free.

To this date, there are kids on the Kazaa and WinMX still actually costing the recording industry money in CDs some of them actually would be buying originally, and pedophiles sharing entire collections of unsavoury child porn. Yet looking for harmless TV themes today on the service that never hurt anybody, I can't find shit.

As far as a (ad free) replacement for Kazaa goes, though, check out WinMX.

At least you can get Farscape Episodes on DVD.

Or P2P them, but I suppose, that isn't really helping them out very much!

I like this program called Napster

Napster is dead.

Long live WinMX.

Is there a p2p prog that is made for sharing OGG

Most programs can find .ogg files, but WinMX now has a specific search for .ogg files.

There aren't nearly as many as there are .mp3 files, but they're starting to catch on.

Doesnt something like this mess up plans of Pallidum

Nope, not at all.

umm... yeah spyware isn't on the network.
it's on the frontend that you download.
And doing that is stupid.

There's Gnucleus
Open source and delicious.

And WinMx
No spyware. No bullshit.

the list continues...don't be dumb read the fine print

Try WinMx, it has good throttling/limiting options.

My service shouldn't slow to a crawl just because I am using 24kbps of upstream

You could be saturating your upstream, which will always trash your downstream. When downloading a file over TCP, every packet must be confirmed as "ACK'ed", meaning you received the packet correctly. If your upstream is working overtime, these ACK packets get queued, and the download slows as the server lowers the TCP window, which is the number of packets to send before waiting for acknowledgement. This is how the internet handles flow-control.

If you are finding problems, I'd recommend getting a rooter/firewall that can do throttling with traffic shaping. Once you have a system that prioritises ACKs, games and http over the p2p traffic and limits the upstream to 90-95% if your maximum, you should never really notice that p2p is running. In theory.

As an alternative to the Kazaa network, try WinMx. I prefer it, once you read some guides, such as this one, it's much more powerful than Kazaa. You have much more control over how it works.

...the fanbase in mainstream America simply isn't large enough to support such a small group of Anime fans, as obsessive as they are.

IMHO, you are both right and wrong with this assertion. I think the number of anime fans that are interested in the shows that Cartoon Network is showing and the editing that they do is a relatively small number of people. Overall, I'm pretty sure that the actual number of people that consider themselves "Anime Fans" is actually quite large.

Frankly, I haven't watched any anime on Cartoon Network in the last 1 1/2 years. However, I can assure you that does not exclude me from being an "Anime Fan". Instead, I tend to rent stuff from the local anime rental store (yes, I actually live within 2 mi of a store that specializes in renting anime... House Of Anime).

For those that don't have that option, Netflix also has a very large supply of rentable anime at a very reasonable month membership price, and they seem to be getting larger and larger quantities of it due to it's popularity.

Finally, for those of us who have generally seen most of the good US-available shows or merely want to preview stuff before they bother renting it, USENET (alt.binaries.anime, alt.binaries.multimedia.anime, alt.binaries.multimedia.anime.repost) and winmx have a large number of digital fansubs that are often within a week of the current Japanese tv schedule. I'm sure Kazaa and the other filesharing programs have a lot too, but winmx seems the most popular among the IRC crowd I hang with. I generally watch stuff that won't be available in any american store within the next year.

So considering all of those competing sources, you start to see why the small number of relatively old anime shows that Cartoon Network shows just don't hold the audience that they seem to expect. On the other hand, if someone started a cable channel that broadcast near-current, English-subtitled anime 24/7, I think that they would find themselves with ratings that would have advertisers queuing up at their door.

I have the same issue when I use BearShare (a Gnutella client). I am thinking it is the noisy protocol eating up resources somewhere. No problems with WinMX....

JOhn

www.winmx.com
It's a much better client than morpheus/kazaa, its network size has passed the threshold to be useful.

Kazaa Lite is a spyware-free Kazaa, but alas it also is a bandwidth hog. WinMX is a pretty great tool, now that it has caught up to Kazaa-style tools in terms of features, and it uses OpenNap servers as well as (I think) a semi-proprietary protocol of its own. It's also completely spyware-free.

I use WinMX for all of my file-sharing needs. Not very many people have heard of it, but it's the closest thing I've found to Napster.

Is it really as decentralized as it's touted to be?

those researchers probably dont know that napster got shut down.

Napster is dead; long live WinMX, the successor to Napster for Windows and x86 Linux.

I guess we should expect network congestion because of users, downloading everything in their sight to beat this initiative.

Let loose the sails, mateys! Aye, we be setting course fer WinMX fer one last pillaging, arr...

Though I probably could get this on a P2P, I haven't found one that I like. Napster was good, Morpheus was great until Kaaza shafted them

Like Napster? Like old Morpheus? Try WinMX. Features include decentralized index, multiple source downloading, bandwidth throttles which help to make sure ack packets get through, and no *?&@#$@ spyware.

No, I don't work for Frontcode.

I use WinMX and some other Gnutellas to grab Out Of Print stuff (and Further for getting Dead shows), but I am at the mercy of the computers that I connect through. I'd gladly give $0.25 to fully DL a file and not have it disconnected/corrupted on me. flogger

Crystal Method - Vegas
Crystal Method - Tweekend
Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Hybrid - Wide Angle
Junkie XL - Saturday Teenage Kick
Lunatic Calm - Metropol

Honestly, I'm pretty sick of all the catagorization of electronic music. By my personal definition, electronic music is music that sounds electronic. That's it, and there's no subgenres to argue over. This list will probably not introduce you to much of the club scene music, with the exception of Hybrid, but it's some good stuff to listen to. Grab a p2p client (recommended: WinMX) and download some tracks. If you like it, buy the CD. This stuff is slightly older (c. 1998) and will give you a taste of the "techno invasion" the news was talking about at the time.

WinMX does this with "Autocomplete". It's my P2P client of choice. Too bad it's closed source, and Windows only.

If you really want KaZaA, but without the spyware, you should checkout KaZaA lite (kazaalite.com). Be sure not to allow KaZaA to update itself (like now with the 1.7 version), as it will install the Sharman Networks version with said spyware. A nice p2p-program without spyware is WinMX, too bad there are no Linux clients for it. (for their own network, that is.. Opennap clients enough.)

Use WinMX 3.2, it is an awesome filesharing program. Just make sure that you make a secondary connection to the network, not a primary connection (you'll know what I mean if you download it), then WinMX 3.2 is just plain awesome. It's got all of the good features of the old WinMX (plenty of songs and varying bitrates, decentralized server, anonymity, no spyware) as well as all of benefits of Kazaa (download resuming and multiple source downloads).

WinMX? Or one of the many gnutella clients (ie BearShare, there's lots!) or KazaaLite. Many many options...

WinMX has just released v3.2! Get it while it's still not illegal and lame!

Now, you've got these decentralized P2P networks to contend with, which are generally slow and unwieldy.

WinMX 3.1 is fast even on my dial-up connection. It should be even faster on cable because it supports downloading from multiple sources based on the MD5 hash of the file.

Seriously, though, it's not as good as you say. The new download swarming is of little use to those of us without broadband, and although I've been getting a larger number of results with 3.1, around 90% of them are from lusers with upwards of 25 people in their queue. Also, by default, the client is set to accept more simultaneous connections than it can actually handle; the user gets swamped, so their queue never moves.

My advice: Unless you have a good reason not to, keep using the old version until the new one starts turning out a moderate number of good results instead of a mighty metric fuckload of crappy ones. Unfortunately, those of you just starting out are screwed because they took the old version off the download page.

For those of you still longing for good old days of Napster, try WinMX. The interface is somewhat similar to Napster client but has more features. I especially like the bandwidth throttle and auto complete. You may be surprised to know that it doesn't come with any spyware. Only downside is that it is only available for Windows. Does anyone knows if it runs on Wine or VMWare?

Your parody of the classic "BSD Is Dying" story forgets 1. that Morpheus is now part of Gnutella, and 2. that WinMX has become exceedingly popular because it's essentially the same as the old Napster, but completely decentralized.

BMG who sell another troubled OS.

What the?

Winmx is a decent alternative.

and while I have no idea why they went from 5 => MX

One of their employees was using WinMX and liked the digraph, so they relabelled their flagship product to reflect this.

I've been more than happy with WinMX...

Better yet, use WinMX. It's a large non-distributed network with a lot of users. The program runs SO much faster than Kazaa.

Overall, I stay away from anything running Gnutella or some other distributed network. I get so many packets running through my computer that I can't get anything else done.