Talk:Comparison of file-sharing applications

Adding discontinued programs?

I found an old version of Blubster on my hard drive. Wanted to check for information on it, but it's not listed here. There are other discontinued P2P programs, is it worth adding them to the list just for completion's sake? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.253.186.62 (talk) 07:38, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Extra info and Rec

The colums Extra Information and Recomended are highly subjective and incomplete.

Yes. We should dump the "recommended" section definitely, and in "Extra Information" we don't need comments like "one of the best"... – ugen64 22:15, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia should supply facts only. Then readers can decide weather the app is worth a try or not, based on those facts. Therefore I strongly agree that the Recommendations column should be removed, and replaced with somehting useful, such as what language the app is coded in or what the total file size is. I could probably do this for many of the apps on the wiki, since I've used many of them myself. I also think a few more BitTorrent clients should be added to the list and perhaps even a link to Wikipedias comparison of BitTorrent clients. Unless someone is negative to this, I'll get started with these updates pretty soon. -Mirshafie

Ok, so i removed those recommendations and added a Programming language column. I also updated some of the other info and added links to several words. -Mirshafie

Thanks guys, it seems much better now. Time to get the "neutrality" header off then? Ultra Loser 06:05, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

PS - Should the "programming language" and "license" columns be moved to a new table altogether? Perhaps to a "technical information" section? Ultra Loser 06:07, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

The extra information section is heavily subjective - It's not sufficient to write "slow" or "good for rare downloads" - Wikipedia is not a usage guide to the world - it's here to present verifiable fact. A proper article can deal with the differences between protocols, not a column. Tompagenet 19:20, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

While I agree that comments like "slow" are highly subjective, other comments like "Alternative client for the WinMX network. Requires .NET Framework 2.0" are quite useful. I think that the section should be cleaned up, not removed. Ultra Loser 02:12, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

You cleaned up a lot, too much ! And the comparison is relative to each other, so still relvant, you can verify by trying out the programs or read the description of how they work. :Leuk he 15:50, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Many comments in "Extra Information" (Good for rare items, Good for big files) refer to the p2p network rather than the specific client app. There should be a comparison of networks, and then a comparison of clients per network, as this is the logical way to go when you choose a p2p client - you decide on the network first. This sort of conflation is all too widespread (people say "Limewire" when they mean Gnutella, "Emule" instead of ed2k, etc.) Wikipedia shouldn't perseverate it.--84.188.162.118 16:55, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

A comparison of file sharing networks would be fine. However multi-network clients make this very complicated. not instead, but as addition?

file sharing networks

Does anybody else think that we also need a comparison of the different file sharing networks?

Absolutely YES!83.189.85.130 (talk) 12:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I think so. One thing that stands out is that a lot of gnutella clients are open source, but the network server software itself is proprietary. Plus it would be good to have a comparison of speeds from a neutral point of view. --naught101 (talk) 05:35, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

WinNY is not closed source

The table says that is closed source, but here is the WinNY sourcecode and WinNY software (http://www.b-geeks.com/index.shtml)

Do you know the license?

Spyware?!

I wonder on what basis is the info on the column Spyware/Adware determined. I have a source for this with different info. For example, the free version of BearShare is said to be infected with spyware.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/p2p/

This site should be trustworthy enough, since it povides a spyware removal tool.

agreed. Bearshare contains spyware. whenu send the browsing information to a centrail point and that is spyware in my opinion. Having a uninstall option does not make it less privacy invading. The bearshare program is even an example of this on the spyware page :Leuk he 11:02, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

The story with BearShare is more complex than that. Most of the versions never had adware of any kind, yet lazy antispyware "researchers" never took the time to examine BearShare closely, instead relying on rumour and speculation supplied by each other. Even during the time the one ad-supported line had WhenU, Free Peers deliberately refused to tie it into the software like everybody else did, thereby enabling any user or antispyware app to remove WhenU whenever they wished. In light of that you can say that BearShare itself was never spyware, and the one line (of five) that did bundle it in the installer freely allowed anyone or anything to remove the adware with no ill effects. This was because they had a vibrant beta test program with plenty of active participants who didn't hesitate to kick ass when Vinnie first tried the adware. B)

That ad-supported line is no longer in production. Fortunately, the new RIAA-collaborating owners (iMesh front "Musiclab LLC") made a mercifully short attempt to lock in Zango/180solutions and quickly realized it was suicidally stupid. :P

For the adware free versions, look around for the "Lite" line or go to the gnutellaforums (http://www.gnutellaforums.com/index.php) and the TechNutopia forums (http://www.technutopia.com/forum/forums.php) for advice. The elite users there are using a beta of the last trusted pre-RIAA version because the beta test removed the performance limits and gave the user more control than most other gnutella apps. For the next few years, unless gnutella changes radically AND somebody comes up with a new non-Java servent, that beta will definitely be the most powerful gnutella app available. ;] Aaron Walkhouse 21:22, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you honestly expect people to believe that anti-spyware researchers did not closely examine these products? The people behind them are clearly trying to manipulate their image on WP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.160.13.242 (talk) 14:12, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I actually do. My reputation and standing in the P2P community is considerable and my experience level in matters of adware, spyware and online security is well respected. In this case an error first introduced in PestPatrol in it's early years stood uncorrected due to lack of interest even as the database was exported to other related applications and continued to remain in error after Microsoft bought it and rebranded it as their own product. :P Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 20:44, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

adware rumors and a "caution" header

Rumors has it that µTorrent supply adware. As several of the programs on the list are open source, there's also a an undergrowth of dubious clones. An example is the disraeli version of emule which message other users with seemingly an advertisement for itself and emule.net which looks very much like emule-project.net but different enough to maybe be an adware clone?

I think there should be a column that says about clients that have had spyware/adware in the past, this could be quite good information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.145.205.227 (talk) 11:25, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I think adding a general warning about it being possible to copy Open Source programs and adding spyware to them should be fine... mfg, OldDeath - 20:29, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

freenet

Freenet is a design network, but running the java app from freenetproject.org that contains freenet gives enough possiblities to use it a file sharing application. just as bittorent is a protocol but also a application. :Leuk he

verosee

Is not anonymous. The vendor does not claim this. on the contrary, it uses strong encryption to veryfy the identity of a user. I think it still discloses the ip of the sender (there is something about relay servers in the documentation, but i doubt it is for anonimysation)  :Leuk he 16:01, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

missing apps

Where's bitcomet and DC++ on the list? 128.6.176.14 21:06, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Organization

I think we should organize this by protocol/network for example have all the Gnutella clients in one section, etc. MattTheMan 04:16, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Delete this article

Why does this article exist? It is completely unencyclopedic and totally unsourced. It seems to be entirely original research. Wikipedia is not Consumer Reports. --Tysto 22:03, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

"Original research is a term used in Wikipedia to refer to material that has not been published by a reliable source. It includes unpublished facts, arguments, concepts, statements, or theories, or any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material that appears to advance a position — or which, in the words of Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales, would amount to a "novel narrative or historical interpretation." Please use correct arguments.... :Leuk he 12:57, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Usefulness of article.

I find this article extremely useful and do not believe it should be deleted. Don't let preconceived notions of what Wikipedia is or is not stand in the way of information distribution.

I would however find an objective "rating" very useful; or perhaps a bandwidth utilization ratio/percentage. Something to further determine what to try or what piece of software might be an improvement.

eDonkey link compatible column

I'm not sure the recently added column belongs in the table any more than the [[Magnet: URI scheme|MAGNET]] link, the Kazaa scheme, or the decentralized BitTorrent scheme. I think if we allow it to stay, we'll have to add other link types. --GargoyleMT 13:43, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

then make a column with "link method" and differ the lines in: Ed2k, magnet, torrent, kazaa.

So i revert it back with general titke ("linksystem") and please you to add the magnet criteria in that column. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.236.12.38 (talk • contribs) 10:10, December 17, 2006 (UTC)

Notability

Some of the other technology lists limit entries to those that have their own article. This ensures notability, of the application in this case, and eliminates the temptation of link spammers to add a URL just to increase their google ranking. Another advantage is that the discussion of notability happens at the article level, not here. Does any other editor have a problem if we start eliminating entries that don't have an article (blue link) associated with them? JonHarder ^talk 21:42, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm fully for the idea. Keep the list clear of cruft. Ultra-Loser ^{[ T ] [ C ]} 09:20, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

A quick count seems to indicate only 5 entries will be removed by those criteria (no article or external link). I think it's a good way to ensure notability, though, so I'm in favor of it. --GargoyleMT 16:22, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Alright, I've done that. Thanks for the suggestion. Ultra-Loser ^{[ T ] [ C ]} 10:03, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

hydranode & lphant do not have own articles, but if you search for them you will see that they are named in some other articles. So please add them again. mybe they deserve their own article, or a list a link into comparison of edonkey software.  :Leuk he 13:05, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

That runs counter to the purpose of the cleanup, doesn't it? Once they have articles that withstand people looking them over for notability, then adding them again makes sense. --GargoyleMT 22:46, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks good. I've added a talk page header at the top, notifying editors that entries without articles are subject to removal from the list. ✤ JonHarder ^talk 16:30, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Number of users

You really need a column with some assessment of popularity. Number of users, number of unique files, amount of bandwidth used by everyone in a given day, etc. Number of users is probably best. — Omegatron 18:42, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, that would be better in a list of networks, I guess; not applications. Peer-to-peer#Networks.2C_protocols_and_applications — Omegatron 20:14, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

+1. you could have both; "Gnutella (xxxxx users)" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.174.243 (talk) 23:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Given the highly chaotic and transient nature of P2P networks, even a rough estimate of usage numbers would be highly unreliable and speculative. Sufficient to say that even the smallest network has hundreds of thousands of users and the upper limits are unknowable. LimeWire claims ten million, but that is still a guess. The Pirate Bay puts out big numbers, but they only represent one corner of bittorrent. It's a large corner, sure, but not the whole. Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 20:52, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Spyware question

Does that include limeware pro or do they remove the spyware when you pay the money? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.195.132.253 (talk) 22:13, 19 February 2007 (UTC).

Limewire likely has some support forum or email address that can help you. Best of luck! --GargoyleMT 21:54, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

No form of LimeWire has ever had spyware of any form, not even the most recent versions which give you the option to filter out unlicensed, copyrighted music files. :P Aaron Walkhouse 08:33, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

68.195.132.253 don't use ALL CAPS. Odessaukrain 00:57, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Acutally limewire has had some adware in the past. It is not relevant in this article nowadays.:Leuk he 08:37, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

BearShare link compatibility

This article fails to show that BearShare supports ed2k and magnet links. All Gnutella clients if I recall support magnet, with the exception of MAYBE one. I've edited to reflect this change.

Limefan913 18:22, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Azureus supports magnet links?

I've never ever noticed support for magnet links in Azureus. Does it really have that support? If so, whats the point in that for a BitTorrent application?

Limefan913 18:22, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

This really does NOT belong to p2p in general, rather a usage of a specific application (not for wikipedia, anyhow), but yes, Azureus does support magnet links. "open torrent"->"enter new url" allows that.

Having said that, it is the underlying protocol that is being utilized to locate hash values of a given file, and the nodes that hold them. once a node is found, with correct file hash list, data is transfered, and the rest is history. 13:37, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Limewire sued?

I hadn't heard that Limewire had been sued and disabled! Mine is working just fine...216.227.73.185 21:42, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Arista v. LimeWire has been dragging on since 2006. It looks like LimeWire will win. Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 20:56, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Author / Editor missing

Author or editor should be added —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.68.124.87 (talk) 12:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

What about mp3 rocket

It is a clone of limewire, and frostwire, they say it is better than lime wire —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.108.205 (talk) 22:12, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Navigatability

I think this kind of list ought to have a button to filter applications by contents in a column (e. g. anonimity: Yes). What do you think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 512upload (talk • contribs) 15:17, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

It does. There's a sorting box next to each header title. Rurik (talk) 17:04, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

It does NOT. Sorting isn't the same as filtering. Imagine if I had repeated lists of items on eBay for each feature I wanted to filter and then I would have to sort all the lists and go through all them to find the item with the features I wanted... No, it is not useful enough. 512upload (talk) 09:04, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Since MediaWiki is open source, perhaps you could add a filtering capability to tables. Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 21:02, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Users of the different filesharing networks

Is there not any more recent data for the userbase of the largest filesharing networks? AFAIK, Fasttrack has gone downhill while Gnutella has almost caught up eDonkey... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Old Death (talk • contribs) 10:59, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Was there ever proper data? The networks have strong fluctuations with users logging on and off all the time, serversupported networks present fakeusers... Even if you were able to log the number of users at a certain time, 5 minutes later you might log the same number but they may be all different ppl. Consequentially, so called "surveys" have always contradicted e.o. wildly. --Echosmoke (talk) 00:08, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

At least for G2, I know there is for example a crawler able to determine the people online on the network with a precision of +/-100 or something similar (currently, there are only stats for the number of Hubs but the other graphs will be added again at a later time...) I don't know if there is a crawler currently active on gnutella but there were several in the past making it possible to determine the number of users at a given time with a precision below +/-1k. Greetings, Old Death (talk) 21:09, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Several errors

I don't know if i should just jump in and change the errors, or should i discuss it here first. I'll be polite and wait a day or so before doing a change. Freenet and GNUnet are not filesharing applications, they have file sharing applications running on top of them but both are networks, you wouldn't call Samba a file-sharing application, would you? Freenet has two file sharing applications: Frost (which is under active development, and is a news-group + file sharing app) and Thaw (which is currently unmaintained), there also was FreeMulET, but that is largely dead now. Anyhow, if nobody objects i will do some research about GNUnet also and change the article. 141.241.202.33 (talk) 12:15, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Table of file sharing programs

From your friends at peer-to-peer - probably duplicates most of this list.    M   20:13, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Network or Protocol	Use	Applications
ANts P2P	File sharing/Software distribution/Media distribution	ANts P2P
Ares	File sharing	AlterGalaxy, Ares Galaxy, Warez P2P, KCeasy
BitTorrent	File sharing/Software distribution/Media distribution	ABC, AllPeers, Vuze (formerly Azureus), BitComet, BitLord, BitTornado, BitTorrent, Burst!, Deluge, FlashGet, G3 Torrent, Halite, KTorrent, LimeWire, MLDonkey, Opera, QTorrent, rTorrent, Shareaza, TorrentFlux, Transmission, Tribler, µTorrent, Xunlei
Direct Connect	File sharing, chat	DC++, NeoModus Direct Connect, SababaDC, BCDC++, RevConnect, fulDC, LDC++, CzDC, McDC++, DCDM++, DDC++, iDC++, IceDC++, Zion++, R2++, rmDC++, LinuxDC++, LanDC++, ApexDC++, StrongDC++
eDonkey	File sharing	aMule, eDonkey2000 (discontinued), eMule, eMule Plus, FlashGet, Jubster, lMule, MLDonkey, Morpheus, Pruna, Shareaza, xMule (discontinued)
FastTrack	File sharing	AlterGalaxy, giFT, Grokster, iMesh (pre v6) (and its variants stripped of adware including iMesh Light), Kazaa (and its variants stripped of adware such as Kazaa Lite), KCeasy, Mammoth, MLDonkey, Poisoned
Freenet	Distributed data store	Entropy (on its own network), Freenet
GNUnet	File sharing, chat	GNUnet, (GNUnet-gtk)
Gnutella	File sharing	AlterGalaxy, Acquisition, BearShare, Cabos, FilesWire, FrostWire, Gnucleus, Grokster, gtk-gnutella, Kiwi Alpha, LimeWire, MLDonkey, Morpheus, MP3 Rocket, Poisoned, Shareaza, Swapper, XoloX
Gnutella2 (G2)	File sharing	Adagio, Gnucleus, Kiwi Alpha, MLDonkey, Morpheus, Shareaza, Sharelin, TrustyFiles
Kad Network	File sharing	aMule, eMule, MLDonkey
Napster	File sharing	Napigator, Napster
OpenNap	File sharing	WinMX, Utatane, XNap, Napster
WPNP	File sharing	WinMX

• Other networks: Applejuice, Audiogalaxy, Avalanche, CAKE, Chord, The Circle, Coral, Dijjer, FileTopia, Groove, Hamachi, iFolder, konspire2b, Madster/Aimster, MUTE, NeoRouter, OpenFT, P-Grid, IRC, MojoNation, Mnet, Octoshape, Omemo, Overnet, Peersites, Perfect Dark, Pichat, Scour, SharingZone, Skype, Solipsis, soribada, Soulseek, SPIN, Swarmcast, WASTE, Winny, Wippien

Multi-network applications

Main article: Comparison of file sharing applications

Applications	Network or Protocol	Operating systems	License
aMule	eDonkey network, Kad network	Cross-platform	GPL
eMule	eDonkey network, Kad network	Windows	GPL
giFT	eDonkey network, FastTrack, Gnutella	Cross-platform	GPL
Gnucleus	Gnutella, Gnutella2	Windows	GPL
iMesh (pre v6.0)	FastTrack, eDonkey network (only version 5.0), Gnutella, Gnutella2	Windows	Proprietary
KCeasy	Ares, FastTrack, Gnutella, OpenFT	Windows	GPL
Kiwi Alpha	Gnutella, Gnutella2	Windows	Proprietary
MLDonkey	BitTorrent, Direct Connect, eDonkey network, FastTrack, Kad Network, OpenNap, SoulSeek, HTTP/FTP	Cross-platform	GPL
Morpheus	Gnutella, Gnutella2, BitTorrent	Windows	Proprietary
Shareaza	Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey network, BitTorrent, HTTP/FTP	Windows	GPL
Vagaa	BitTorrent, eDonkey network, Kad network	Windows	Proprietary
WinMX	WPNP, OpenNap	Windows	Proprietary

Year of latest release

I think on those clients, that have a latest stable software revision template, this should be used in the column to reduce the necessary maintenance work for the article.

mfg, OldDeath (talk) 15:12, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

OK, as none seems to object, I'll do so now.

mfg, OldDeath - 14:32, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Less is more

Since this list includes so many variations of file sharing applications isn't it better to keep this list simple ? cause at the moment its too much stuff there to actually maintain a list that actually gives correct information --Swetoast (talk) 20:15, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so. I think we shouldn't add more, but taking away information might not be intelligent either (except for the anonymous P2P column, as anonymous is something rather vague and with most up-to-date techniques even some filesharers on anonymous networks can be caught)...

mfg, OldDeath - 15:42, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Nakido - filehosting sofrware

The software Nakido - you use it at the background and search & download files at the website (it's like to search torrent but you don't see the software) 8-) 85.250.162.224 (talk) 11:00, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

This project is dead (web site http://www.nakido.com down on 2015-09-07) --Dadu (talk) 06:38, 7 September 2015 (UTC)--Dadu (talk) 06:38, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Making column Latest release version more readable by displaying year only

Hello, do you know a trick to display only the year ? from : {{Latest stable software release/TheSoftwareName}} --Dadu (talk) 09:11, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Halite

I've always used Halite as a BitTorrent Client. It's multi plataform, comes in all 32bit and 64bit permutations for the various platforms, it's lightning fast and has a couple of nifty features you don't find everywhere. Plus, is fast and has a very reduced memory footprint. I think it should be included in the list. Or at least an article should be written — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.45.156 (talk) 18:20, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

There is an other page for bittorrent-only clients: Comparison of BitTorrent software. --Dadu (talk) 06:40, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

'Cleanups' by User:FockeWulf FW 190, october 2017

I am not OK with the 'Cleanups' done by 'User:FockeWulf FW 190' in october 2017 (he removed several softwares: anchor, Datawire, ExoSee, NeoLoader, Sharing Max, SoMud, and the section 'File sharing web applications'). If the comment was something else than 'Cleanup' I may accept some, but the way this is done does not please me. Am I the only one ? --Dadu (talk) 14:19, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

GNU? Really?

Many of the file sharing apps run under Linux, but Linux is not mentioned. Instead, there is "GNU". Is that supposed to refer to Linux? If so, this seems to be a very politically charged article, in urgent need of being fixed. Sad to see something like this in Wikipedia. If not, then Linux should definitely need to be included in the list of OS. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciken (talk • contribs) 06:34, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

The explanation ?: GNU/Linux naming controversy. --Dadu (talk) 08:30, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

This article needs more references

Particularly for the "Free of Spyware/Adware" parts. How is this determined? How can I trust this table? I'm adding a "More citations needed" template. After reading messages left on this talk page, I'm also concerned about WP:OR. RhymeWrens (talk) 20:48, 26 August 2024 (UTC)