Gnutella really whips the Donkey’s ass
I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I tried out a couple peer to peer networks. I wanted to see what has changed. In first generation P2P, searching took place on central servers, which kept track of all the peers, like Napster. Actually, bittorrent still works this way. In second gen P2P, the network is decentralized, but not very secure or anonymous, like Kazaa, Donkey, and Gnutella. The next gen will thwart any efforts by RIAA or MPAA by using a distributed architecture that is also untraceable, like Freenet and Waste.
So I tried the eDonkey2000 peer to peer network. Certainly a lot of files on the network. But I found the download speeds to be slow. While my download queue was filled, I only got 10 KB/s on a cable modem, but I was sending up 50 KB/s. That’ll teach those leaches. Of course, who wants to use a P2P network that you have to sit on for weeks to get any files? To make matters worse, I thought the user interface was a bit clumsy and complicated.
My friend mentions Limewire, so I try it. It’s written in Java, so it has no problem supporting multiple platforms. It’s actually using Gnutella network. This time, I got over 400 KB/s down and under 50 KB/s up! The user interface is very well done. It even lets you preview music and video files that you’re downloading.
The Donkey network seems to have a community that likes to sit on the network and share, so it has more files and downloading large files is no problem if you can wait a few days. The Gnutella network is about speed, but you have to get those files during prime time before all the peers disappear off the network. Files that were on Gnutella one night could be gone the next time you check, while Donkey seems to be an archive.
Even though Gnutella network may not have as many files, it’s still the clear winner. It really does whip the eDonkey.
[Sidebar. The phrase is a reference to Winamp, which has an mp3 that plays on startup, "Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass." Kindof a funny thing to say. Apparently, a music artist in Chicago named Wesley Willis wrote lyrics like that. One of his favorite phrases was, "It really whips a [insert animal here]’s ass.”]
August 25th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
You of all people should know that going old-school is possibly the best way of going P2P today. Old-School? What’s more P2P Old-School than … Usenet?!?!
For around $10/month you get a huge library of binary schwag through providers such as EasyNews (http://www.easynews.com) where you have certain download limits (~20GB/month or so). I tested EasyNews for a month and got insane download speeds (compared to most P2P clients). I wasn’t in the P2P mood at the time, so I didn’t stay with them for very long (and didn’t have problems stopping my subscription).
Of course, most ISPs (i.e. TimeWarner’s RoadRunner) also have news server access, but going with someone like EN gets you anonymity and most (if not all) the newsgroups that are out there.
August 26th, 2005 at 8:57 am
I actually remember the first time I’d heard that WinAmp version of that comment….I bought pissed myself laughing. Especially with the effect of the llama in the background.
As to P2P, I don’t use it as much as I used to but may have to check this stuff out. The last time I really used P2P was with Napster and WinMX…
Thanks for the heads up!
August 31st, 2005 at 3:10 pm
FYI, there’s some debate about Limewire being spyware/adware. For example, CA says Limewire “is distributed with many spyware/adware products bundled in.” (http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=453088059)
However, Softpedia has certified Limewire 4.9 to be 100% free of adware, spyware, and viruses. (http://www.softpedia.com/progReportSpyware/10-6-14)
So, as usual, you’ll have to make up your own mind.
September 6th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
Rob, I agree with going old school — it may be the best way to avoid RIAA/MPAA detection! Although, I used to run XChat on IRC Undernet channel #mp3tunes, and I felt pretty exposed there since everyone sees your download requests. But I think it’s probably okay, just like Usenet is okay, because the RIAA is really after *uploaders*. When you use P2P software like Limewire, the default settings are to share out files that you download. Changing the settings to not share is one way to continue using the highly visible P2P networks:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php
Of course, not sharing kind of defeats the intention of the network.
September 6th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
Dean, the spy/adware debate around Limewire is interesting, especially since I have a hard time finding reliable information on it. Were these trojan programs coded in Java so they would affect Linux users also? Were they checked into CVS so savvy developers were removing them for a clean version? I have heard both of those ideas suggested. But writing Java code to monitor my web browser activities in Firefox doesn’t seem plausible, and putting trojan code in an open repository seems stupid and pointless.
I wonder if the people who reported spy/adware symptoms got them from Internet Explorer or from files they downloaded, and not the P2P client itself?
BTW, LimeWire Free 4.9.23 is now included in Fedora Core 4 Linux.
September 13th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Just a random musing, but isn’t “donkey’s ass” a redundant statement?