February 13, 2008 by sharky
(for Feb.13/08)
We’re always chompin’ at the bit to test out the latest P2P file sharing programs. So here’s a few more programs to get you connected and help you find your junk.
LionShare v1.2
LionShare is a secure P2P file sharing application for higher education, enabling legal file sharing for Penn State university and beyond. Find and share legal academic content in a secure P2P environment.
Features include: Buddy List (Instant Messaging), multi-user chat (with different channels), and “browse host” to find similar content from the same users.
Installation / Notes
Didn’t we scare you off with that “no movies, no music” caveat? If not, here’s the installation procedures. Before we begin, you’ll need JRE — LionShare is a Java-based Gnutella P2P client that runs on all platforms. For Windows OSes - requires the JRE 1.6 package. For Linux, Unix & Mac - JRE 1.5.
1. If you wish to enable sharing (share your own content), you’ll first need to create an account with LionShare on their website. (Otherwise, skip to Step 2 if you just want to search & download from the network). To setup an account, visit the downloads page and click on “test user account“. You’ll need to fill in the required fields, and remember, since this is for academic purposes, enter in some “official” sounding info. The only thing that properly matters is a valid email address - they will notify you when your account has been activated (it took a few days for us). Be sure to remember your username and password that you entered - you’ll need this after account activation (this will be required by the program). Proceed to Step 2 after you’ve received the email confirmation of your activated account.
2. Download the “*Test Users” version of the setup for your platform on the downloads page. Install and run, follow the on-screen instructions.
3. After installation, run LionShare from your Start Button > Programs > LionShare menu. Choose either to Login with your username/password or just click Limited Mode:
That’s it! Connection should begin. Note that it takes some time for LionShare to develop a good connection to the network. LionShare Says: “We strongly dissuade users from sharing copyrighted content over the network”. We Say: When has that ever stopped anyone before?
WinZO v1.04a
Here’s a nifty program for conecting to that hard-to-reach WinMX network. While hardly considered “new”, WinZO is a great addition to every filesharer’s P2P software collection. And it is stupidly simple to use - it’s ready-to-go right out of the box - even your Dad could figure it out! Well, maybe your Dad, but not mine. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to operate.
Installation / Notes
1. Download WinZO from http://archive.winmxworld.com/WinZo/. Either select the 1.04 *.ZIP file or the *.EXE file. The *.EXE is one of those self-extracting ZIP files, so simply choose the default extraction path (” C:\ “) and click EXTRACT, and it’ll create a folder called WinZO_1_04 in your C:\ drive.
2. Go to your WinZO_1_04 folder, and run Winzo.exe. Now, click the CONNECT button under the Network tab (see below). It’ll take a minute to start the connection.
3. Before you can download files, you’ll need to specify a “download folder”. Click on the ‘Library‘ tab, and select “change” from the right. Browse to a folder that you’d like to use for downloading, and click OK. You’re now configured for downloading.
4. Searching for files: Click the “Search” tab, and enter in what you wish to search for. If you prefer, change the dropdown box and select ‘anything’ to broaden the search. Note: The search never times out; it just keeps on searching. To download a file, simply highlight it, and click the ‘download’ button from the top menu. The requested file will now appear in the ‘Transfer‘ tab. WinZO ain’t no sissy filesharing program - we garnished over 1,000 search results for files that matched the searchword metallica.
TIPS: Many of the results will have a ‘queued’ status (you’ll have to wait your turn to download). For immediate downloads, we recommend that you opt for files that have available slots (i.e. “4 of 7 available” - as shown in the status category). Just like as with Limewire, many files will have multiple users sharing them - this will show up as entries with a (+) next to them - it’s rather self-explanatory that these will have a higher success rate for connectivity and speed.
Arachnid Media Search & Play PRO
A proper connection took a few minutes, but when connected, Arachnid did fairly well at finding stuff. We recommend that you enact specific searches: We searched for “alvin” and it never did find the proper Alvin And The Chipmunks R5 Line PUKKA version. But when we queried “alvin pukka”, it popped up right away! Once the trial period on this spider dies (if it does), we won’t be upgrading to the full version. The options are very paltry - no proxy support; no firewall configuration; you can’t even change the default port number. The old Shareaza connects to the same networks and doesn’t cost a dime. Where’s that can of RAID?!
Other P2P Notes
— There’s a new version of ANts P2P out - v1.6.0 Beta. However, we were able to only connect to 12, count ‘em 12, other users. ANts likely works best when you add your own known peers in ‘Advanced Mode’. Either that, or we don’t have a clue what we’re doing!
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