Tips on WinMX v3.31,

or Weird and Sneaky Things to Look Out For.

OK. I'm not associated with the people from WinMX, but I've used it for about a year. I download music from Anime shows, but nothing from the U.S or England. (IMHO, most of it is crap.) Also, remember, if I talk about you DOWNLOADING from someone else, it's coming out of their UPLOAD queue, and if someone is DOWNLOADING from you then it's coming out of your UPLOAD queue. It can get a bit confusing.

So, what do I have to say. Well, there's many text files available that purport to make your downloads lightning fast or that people can't stop your downloads or to be able to download anything, even from people that don't share. In a word, bull. There are ways to make your copy of WinMX act the way you want. You can set it up to only allow 1 upload at a time, or several uploads but only from 1 user at a time. There also is a little known "feature" in WinMX that CAN let you download a file, even if the person has 101 people already in the queue. (I've termed this the "instant downloads" syndrome.) For some reason, WinMX lets you grab a file from someone else with no wait if it's less than ~ 30K. I've seen this happen, and I'm on a 56K modem dialup. I've also seen it on a DSL connection, so it's not connection specific, as far as I can tell. I've had times when a person will queue up 20+ files, all under the cutoff, and they all start, if I'm not watching and stop the transfers. This plays havoc with my downloads, and sometimes even bumps me off line. It's also falls under the leech section, so don't do it. If you download 1 or 2 then it might slide. Also, I've allowed access to LeecHammer V1.1 here, and included 2 REG files that you can use to set LeecHammer up with. It's in a locked, Solid, Self-Extracting RAR archive, and has been tested for viruses.

So, what does this mean. Check your files. If you have LOTS of files under the cutoff, then maybe see if you can combine some of them so they're all above the cutoff. If you're sharing 50 cookie recipes, and they're all individual files, and they're all under the cutoff, then someone can flag them and then you have someone taking 50 files, at 1/50th the bandwidth each. So, if you didn't set the outgoing throttle, then that's 1/50th your ENTIRE bandwidth per file. Think what will happen to your downloads. They'll be toast. You might want to combine them and rename the archive "50 Amazing Cookie Recipes.zip", or whatever. It would still be small enough to share, even with a modem, but would be large enough to possibly stop the "instant downloads". Here's a good text file on BandWidth Limiters.

Clear Incomplete downloads after xxxxx seconds. OK. here's where it can get a bit tricky. Not sure why they put it in, but it's in the Settings>File Transfers section. What this does is clear out the files in your download queue that have taken xxxxx seconds, and haven't gotten a bite. (No one queue up.) So, what this does is clear out your download queue of stale files. The Auto Find Sources won't search for matching files and, basically, nothing will happen with them. You will have to manually find them by searching. This might be good if you're looking for LOTS of files, and want to concentrate on ones you're already found. I just turn that option off and leave it at that. And, because I like to see what I've gotten, I clear the check box for Clear Complete downloads after xxxxx seconds. I can then see what I've gotten, and even right click on the file and check it out.

Another thing that confuses people. The "Auto Enter Queue". It means that when you try to "find sources", it looks for another user that has that number, or less, in their queue. So, let's say that you're looking for "fantastic cookie recipe" and if you search for that phrase you'll see 5 people that have it. But, if you have the "AEQ" set at 10, then only those people that have 10 or less in their queue will be put into your download queue via the AFS or manually hitting the "Find Sources" button. It's something like this:

So, if you did a "find sources", or the auto finder looks, and you have an "AEQ" of 10, then you'll get User 1, User 3 and User 5 showing up. But, not User 2 or User 4. So, how can we use this to our advantage? Think about it this way, you have several files in WinMX that you're looking for. You set the Auto Find Sources to check every 10 minutes, and have "AEQ" set for 100. So, every time that it searches, it'll find anyone that's 100 or less files queued in their upload window. This might be good for someone with an "always-on" connection like DSL, Cable or T1+, but the dial-up people may not be able to stay on-line for the several hours it might take for that file to go from 100 in queue to downloading. So, for Dial-up you might want to set the "AEQ" to 25 to 50. Be aware though, if you set it to 10 or less, you may find files, but they may start downloading almost immediately. It happened to me. I kept wondering why every time I found a file it started downloading. While that was all well and good, it meant that I had, literally, 10+ files downloading at once. So, each file that normally should take a couple of minutes now were taking closer to several hours to finish. I had my "AEQ" set at 1. So, I only was finding people that had no one in their queue, or just 1 person in their queue. It was a mess. I now try to do 25 to 50 for an "AEQ". (Note: I've noticed that sometimes the AEQ will find someone that has more than what you're set. It marks the file as "Download Busy (Queueable)" and you can right click on the user and manually enter the remote queue. This user might have a LOT more than what you have set for the limit. I've seen some that have 1300+ files in their upload queue.)

Another thing people need to remember is that when the remote side is ready to send you the file, it will. You might have it set up to only download 1 file at a time, but that's a bit misleading. If you have 10 different people, and they're all ready and willing, you can have 10 files downloading at a time. It's a bit of a problem, as it takes bandwidth and each gets a small portion at a time. So, a file that may normally take 1 minute could now take 10 or more minutes.

Searching for Alternatives. The best way to do this is when you first pick a file. Do an alternative search, but in the box that has the filename, blank that out. Highlight it and hit DEL or backspace. Ensure you've kept the "HASH" exactly like it was. Then change the file type to "Any file/bit rate". Then hit search. Why go to that trouble? What if you downloaded a file, and it took forever, and then when it was done you found that it wasn't even what you wanted. If you do this type of search, then you can see if it's "fantastic cookie recipe" or an advert for a porn site. (More on the porn stuff later in this document.) If the LARGE majority of results are what you're looking for, then you can be somewhat sure it's right. If it's not even close or you see hundreds of files with different names, then just delete that file and try again. Also, think about it a bit. If you're trying to get a 3.5 minute MP3, it's not going to be less than 500K, even at the lowest bit rates. If it shows as less than 100K, then it's probably bad, and maybe a trojan or an advertisement. Also, WinMX is smart enough to show you the bit rate, Freq and time that a MP3 file is. If that section is blank, then forget that file all together.

Now, what about these porn sites? There are LOADS of computers people have dedicated with, literally, thousands of files all misnamed with many search keywords. Most of them are in the Video and Image sections. Why? That's easy. They're hoping you download their JPGs, EXEs or AVI files and go to the sites. They want you to spend your money. Most of the .EXE files are the infamous "StarDialer" program that installs onto your systems and can never be un installed, short of a lot of editing in the registry or a re-format and re-install. Then the software calls some place in the Ukrainian or other foreign company and then you get a phone bill for thousands of dollars. (Note: This is one reason I have a server and a workstation. The workstation doesn't have a modem, so it can't dial-out. The server never gets anyone running programs on it, so it's pretty safe.) Is it illegal, maybe, but it doesn't stop them and if you complain to the phone company, they normally tell you you have to pay, as you made the calls. This is what I've found out for the LARGE majority of them. The user name has "girl" in it, somewhere. (ie. "newgirl2112" or "girlbi1985" or "realgirl856") The available queue is between 50 to 100 available. They only have 3 to 5 file sizes for their files, if you browse, but they have 2,500+ files available. Most of the files have a double extension, like some of the newer worms and trojan programs. (ie .avi.scr or .mpg.exe) They'll NEVER answer a chat or message. The filenames are like "minority report shrek vanilla sky south park porn girl gay.avi.exe". What should you do about them? Ignore them. You can put them in your ignore list, but if they get disconnected, and then re-connect, then they'll probably show back up. They're just one part of the internet, and P2P sharing. Don't download anything from them. PERIOD!!! Only thing I can say is that they're sharing over 3,000 files, so they're setup as a primary connection, which we need as secondary connections. It's a double-edged sword. Without them we would have much less crap, but also lot less primaries, with them we have a lot of crap, but more primaries. (Last note: If you have downloaded these files, please remove them from your shares.)

You can see some of what I mean below. I, normally, clear out my ignore list after 3 months.

Speaking of file sizes. When you browse another users file list, sort by file size. This can also show you a lot of dupes, if they have any. Also, it's easier to download from the largest to smallest, or vice-versa, if you so choose. (I normally try to go from smallest to largest. Like I said, I'm on a 56K modem dial-up.)

Are there viruses, worms and trojans on WinMX? In a word, YES. You should see my quarantined area for McAfee's VirusScan. Lots of the little buggers in there. There are people trying to get rid of P2P sharing. I'm not sure if it's the RIAA, or what. But, I've found a few by doing a browse and seeing that they had hundreds of files, all the EXACT same file size, but named totally different. What can you do? Not much. Ensure you're running a virus scanner (or 2), in real-time, and be careful. You'll never find these people, so don't bother. There are a couple of worms and trojans that look for certain folders that programs like KaZaa, Morpheus and Internet Explorer use to store downloads. If they find them, they'll delete them and may even mess up your hard drive in the process. Best thing is to run the AV software, and ensure the signature data files are up to date. (Note: McAfee shows about 10 P2P worms and trojans, as of the middle of Febuary 2003. These are targeted SPECIFICALLY at P2P users.) BTW, that "savemegod813_31198" (graphic above) is one of the people that I found with hundreds of these worms, and no good files.

Can I get in trouble downloading? If you ask the RIAA, then the answer is YES. WinMX doesn't have a central server like Napster did, and the ones that it does have is in Canada. KaZaa, Napster, iMesh and Morpheus can trace back to you. WinMX is all over the place. You might connect to a primary connection to the P2P network in another country, or it might be next door. There also might be IP addresses that can be found, as WinMX does have a "ping" feature. You never know. So, can you be traced? If your ISP keeps the right logs, then yes. So, ask your ISP if they give out information to the RIAA or other governing bodies. If they say yes, then be careful.

One thing you should be aware of. Don't think that because you saw 25 people with the same MP3, JPG or other file on before that you'll find it again. With MP3s and JPGs, you may note that if someone changes just one byte, the HASH is now different. So, let's take a MP3 file for example. Let's say I downloaded one, and in WinAmp I went in and modified the ID3 tags. I also have the file up for sharing. So, if someone was looking for that same file, they won't find it with the old HASH table. It's now a new HASH table. This is when you should just search for a filename. But, I've seen the same filename under 30+ people. They're, according to WinMX, different files. That's when you should do a "ping all results" and choose the file with the best ping time. This, normally, isn't the same problem with archives, unless someone likes to re-do them to a better compression, or from .ZIP to .RAR or .EXE. It happens, and no amount of whining can change it.

1. Putting "IGNORE" in the right click menu. If I want to ignore someone, why should I either have to do a "WhoIs" or "Add to Hotlist" just so we can then choose to ignore them? Just let us right click and choose "IGNORE"!!!
2. The ability to ignore a person just by the username. None of the other stuff like numbers or servers. If I want to ignore a person named "BadUser2112_31123" then I should be able to just put in "BadUser". Simple, and sweet. I know. If someone else uses that name later, and has thousands of good files, I won't see it.
3. How about a way to remember good users? There's an Ignore, but how about an "Attention" so if someone in that list logs on you're told about it. It might only check once every few minutes, but you would know.
4. What about a way to check your OWN shared lists against your searches? I mean, how about a database of your shares, and when you're searching, if you have that file, is highlights the file in the search list, regardless of filename. A database is already made (on my system, it's called "library.dat") when you add to, or refresh, your shared files, so adding something like this shouldn't take that much extra code. If the HASH fits, then it's a dupe. It could save a LOT of time. Of course, if you edit, or re-archive, a file, the HASH will be off, so maybe also a check on filenames.
5. Why is it that when I start up WinMX, it only shows me so many files, even if I have more in the download folder? If the power goes out, or the computer re-boots, it might re-connect to the P2P network, but some files won't be looked for. can we get this fixed?
6. Actually finding a file with a partial search. What I mean is if you type in "cookie", you sometimes won't find "cookies". It seems to be that if there are characters against the phrase, it gets a little brain dead. Sometimes it WILL find the other words and sometimes it won't. It's just a little thing, but it sometimes irks me.
7. Actually showing ALL the files you're sharing. With this, I mean that if a secondary has 4,500 files shared, you should see ALL 4,500 files. I believe I read somewhere that a Secondary can only share 3,000 files, and a primary can only share 5,000. Anything past that and they won't show. It's also alphabetical, so if you have GREAT files starting with "Z", and have more than the limit, no one will see them.

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Hits since 05/01/1997