[Guide] About P2P Softwares.

[Kannan]

Mods, if you feel that this is a duplicate post please delete. But this thread is a kind of review about the p2p clients.

Also I will be giving some tips regarding the p2p clients.

Note: This thread has outside links to screenshots and files sizes are in between 50 kb to 200 kb. So if you don't want the screen shots loading please press stop button in your browser.

Ok, the flashback......

2 weeks back I got this call from my friend who is doing his M.S in Networking. He wanted me to give the feedback of the p2p clients based on Torrent technology and eDonkey technology

to be submited as assignment of some kind.

Before continuing this is my PC configuration,

Processor: Intel Prescott 3.4 GHz 
RAM: 512 MB DDR-II @ 533 MHz
HDD 1: Seagate 120 GB SATA @ 7200 RPM
HDD 2: Samsung 80 GB PATA @ 7200 RPM

OS: Windows XP Professional with SP2.
Antivirus: Norton Antivirus 2005 Professional
Firewall: Zonelalarm v5.5 Professional

Internet: 256 kbps Unlimited with certain incoming ports blocked.

Also here I mention the speed in kbps (Kilo Bits Per Second and not Kilo Bytes Per Second)

P2P Using Torrent

I did a research on which client to be used for Torrent and found most people like Azureus

I downloaded this Azureus v2.2.0.2 and installed it. Then I ran the configuration wizard and did a torrent download.

Screen shots: (Source: Respective Home Site)

Azureus has these smiley faces in 5 colours and the following explains it.

The health indicator is an evaluation of how well your torrent is going.
means that your torrent is stopped,
means that you're not connected to any peer,
when seeding, it means that you're not yet connected to any peer,
when downloading, it means that you are connected to some peers but the tracker is down,
means that the tracker is ok, you're connected to peers, but you don't have any remote connection. You may have a NAT problem if your torrents stay on yellow status all the time,
means that everything is going fine.
"peers" means both peers and seeds here.

Now, I downloaded a torrent file of around 25 MB and started to download.
The speed was around 10kbps and the smiley are continuously yellow. Now I did a research in the net and did my port openings in ZoneAlarm and nothing happened. The problem was at

the ISP side as they have blocked the default ports which eMule uses.

So I started manually searching for open ports and found 2 ports to be opened and modified the settings of the eMule to use 1 of the TCP ports. There was not much improvement and

there was fluctuation in download speed between 05 kbps to 15 kbps.

Then as a last resort I shutdown the ZoneAlarm and there was an improvement in speed. Now the speed was around 20 kbps to 30 kbps

When I checked the Azureus with my Dial-Up connection the speed was around 15 kbps and the smiley was again yellow.

So I conclude that day that if you have blocked ports then you cant expect speed even if you have broad band connection.


P2P Using eDoenkey Network

I did a research on which client to be used for eD2k and found most people like eMule.

I downloaded this eMule v0.45b and installed it. Then I ran the configuration wizard and used another open port which I found and did a eD2k download of around 700 MB in Size.

Screenshots: (Source: Respective Home Site)




Now the search for more sources was going on and finally there were around 350 sources for that particular file.

Now that file was in Waiting state (i.e Queue). eDonkey network works on a method where the user stays in a queue to get his turn and download starts.

As I came to know that queue can last as long as 2 hrs I left the PC ON. The next day when I saw the status there was around 4.5 MB transferred and still it was in queue.

So it has taken almost 9 hrs and still only 4.5 MB was transferrred.

The average speed I monitored from the Netlimiter log for eMule was around 45 kbps and I was in 256 kbps connection.

I concluded that if you use eDonkey you will be in queue till you become OLD and Die. Who knows even after you die still your eMule will be in queue.

But the eDoneky network holds some of the rarest files which are difficult to be found on other networks !!



P2P Using Both Torrent & eDonkey

I though why not combine these two networks in one program and found Shareaza v2.1 which has the multi network capability.

Screenshots: (Source: Respective Home Site)





So I downloaded it installed and ran it with the same files which I used for the Azureus & eMule and it was worst than what I thought. It was very slow when compared to Azureus &

eMule.

Seems Shareaza has a problem with eDonkey Network and transfers generally tend to be slow. People as Shareaza say that this will be fixed in v2.2.

So right now Shareaza is not good for eDonkey and the transfer speed for Torrent was very slow and Azureus was speeder.


Norton Antivirus slows down or doesn't allow incoming:

Now today morning I was again doing a research and found that Norton Antivirus also has its role in network. The role is called Internet Worm Protection and it was intervening with all the

P2P softwares.

First I tried to add the Application exclusion. But for known reason the Antivirus control panel was crasing. So I disabled the entire Worm Protection feature.


Now I stared Azureus and voila the speed has increase from an average of 45 kbps to 119 kbps and had green smiley.

Now I started eMule and still it was waiting waiting waiting and waiting .

What about Shareaza again the eDonkey file in waiting and the Torrent was downloading at a speed of 20 kbps.



So the Ultimate result is that,

Azureus is really good if you have more seeds and lees leechers.

Emule is good for larger files above 50 MB and you should have lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot of patients to atleast see the downloading status.

Right now I can say that Shareaza is very slow in all the aspects except for the good looking interface. But seems v2.2 will have some of these problems solved. :roll:

Tips for the people who use P2P:

1. Make sure you have 1 or 2 open incoming ports either at Router or Firewall sides.
2. Make sure you have done proper Port Forwarding in the routers.
3. Make sure you have the Internet Worm Protection Disabled or that particular P2P software is added as exclusion. (This is one of the main reason of not getting incoming and slow speeds)
4.  Make sure you have more sources for your downloads.

That's the conclusion of this review.

My dear members, if I have done any mistake please post the reply and I will edit this thread.

Also members please add your views so that I can update my friend who is going to submit his assignment next week Wednesday.

Also today evening before posting this thread I came to know that the assignment is not for my friend but it for his girl friend. Damn he tricked me !!!
Anway I learn something that P2P is only for broadband users who have lot of patients. :roll:

[drgrudge]

Good work there kannan!

Ok i too have a 256k line and i use Ares and edonkey as p2p software and Bit tornado 0.3.10 (latest 0.3.12)

I has tried the followingShareaza:
Emule : Slow speeds and it takes a hell lot of times to download any small file too. Uses Edonkey network.
Shareaza : It's slow and don't have many files to download from.
Bit comet: Even though it works well and has more features than bit tornado , i dint like it and it was resource hungry. I never look beyond bit tornado and i am happy with it.


Now about the softwares, which i use:
Ares: It has relatively less amount of data/files to download from..., but a great software to download things. Has a good collection of p0*n and m8sic/m*3 and movi*s.


Edonkey: It's a adware! Has a very good collection of files and has almost all kinds of stuff u look out!
Has sypwares (even as u install) ,ads, queues... and extremely slow speeds.
Infact, i had to switch off my AV/firewall to use this. After every sucessfull downloads, i run syware search and delete and run a hijackthis to verify if any sypware got installed
Yet i use this (sometimes) as i may not have found out other source to download files.

It took me one whole week to download a 700mb software from edonkey. I cant understand why for uploading there is no queue, i might have uploaded more than 500mb and downloaded 700mb which is frustrating. A hell lot of patience is required for Downloading from edonkey/emule/shareaza.



My recomendation (lol, i download more than 1.5-2gb per day and have used all these p2p things )
Ares as p2p client/software.
Bit tornado as torrent client.




Kanna, u left out IRC man. We can use IRC as a p2p client as well.
Check this TUTORIAL:
http://www.p2pforums.com/portal.php?guide=3565

[grinning_devil]

gr888888888 post kanna....!!!!!!!
like doc grudge iam too using ares ...

edonkey is just toooo slow....

[mamba]

not tried bit tornado but bit comet workin superbly 4 me . so didnt feel ne need . vaise bhi , i download during the night , so dont give a **** even if its resource hungry

[atool]

good work there....keep it up !!

[Kannan]

Right now checking the performance of emule with a 700 MB file.

For the past 4 hrs it has done 24 MB of uplaod and 8.5 MB of download !!

I think eDonkey is not efficient with increase in no of users !!

[navjotjsingh]

What an eye opener?
I was using Limewire all the time?

Great analysis.

[grinning_devil]

nyone aware of P2P software that can search across all platforms...????
that is it shud perform search on kazaa network...ares....etc..etc..... simultaneously!!

[Kannan]

Guys I have started receiving Private Message for Links and other stuffs.

I don't use P2P software even to download pictures.

This is a review and the p2p application is already uninstalled. So no more Private message regarding the link.

And yeah the 700 MB download is done and it has taken 3 days.

After a period of 8 hours and a continuous upload of around 100 MB the downloads started at the speed of 90 kbps to 150 kbps for eMule.

The settings were 32 kBps upload, 25 kBps download.

Caution: If you set your upload lesser than 10 kBps eMule will decrease your download speed. So a better option is keep higher values but use software's such as netlimiter to cap the download speed to around 5kBps for a 64 kbps upload user.

Also it seems people using this eDoneky n/w run their PC 24x7 and this is really bad for dial-ups or people with fixed usage in a particular time.

[whoopy_whale]

Great post...
I use P2P occasionally.My client was Shareaza.Now I'm gonna try Azureus.Shareaza is really slow.

Kannan,you could've given the links

[techiways]

well these p2p software's are limited to search a particular networks like gnetulla and so on.

As far as i'm concerned, LimeWire is the Best p2p software. It can perform search across several networks simultaneously. The catch is that this software is adware / spyware free and its an open source project.

[Kannan]

whoopy_whale you can make a google search .

techiways what is your Internet connection type. How speed you can download using LimeWire.

[theraven]

moving it to tuts section
editing post title to [guide]

[King_Niral]

Good post man !!!!

Cheers !!!

[shaunak]

Originally Posted by navjotjsingh

What an eye opener?
I was using Limewire all the time?

Great analysis.

limewire comes with lods of nagware like sidescroller, etc.
even the proversoin causes conflicts with xp. for some reason i coudnt open windows task manager when i had lime wire installed.
So far ares comes with the least spyware etc but it has very less users and files.
aneone know of any other good p2p software?

[Elitecoder]

Really good guide on various p2p softwares.
i appreciate this a lot.
Elitecoder

[Charley]

Nice post on it ... Guess then I have to try it out.