New versions: Connection problems, uncontrollable behaviour

[user87753]

Hi,

I've been using Shareaza for ages now, but since 2.5.4.0 it's just no fun anymore.

First, connection problems. While 2.5.3.0 connects fine to all networks, gets tons of results and gets a maximum of milk with a minimum of moo, so to speak, 2.5.4.0 and 2.5.5.0 have huge problems in all fields: connecting takes ages and has to be forced by manually deleting host cache regularly, using random IP seems to make matters even worse, search results seem to be working only after stopping all downloads.

Second, and this is way more serious, 2.5.5.0 uploads incomplete files without my permission. I know that p2p needs uploaders to work etc., but I would very much like to review files before uploading. I disabled all options related to sharing as far as I could find them, I even removed all my shared folders in Shareaza, but there just seems no way to stop it from sharing whatever it likes. Cross checking 2.5.3.0: No uploads. Huh.

So, to all you developers out there, thank you for your hard work up to 2.5.3.0, but no thanks for everything after. I will continue checking new versions, of course, but it is unacceptable for a program to distribute files without the user being able to stop it. There is too much illegal shit out there that I simply do not want to be traced back to my IP address, and file names are not necessarily an indicator.

I hope you find a way to make new versions as reliable as 2.5.3.0 connectionwise and add an option to really only share files in "shared" folders but nothing else. Until then, I will stick to my antique version.


Bye,
user

[old_death]

There is an option to share incomplete files within the uploads menu. Note that this setting only applies to NEW partial files, so it applies only to downloads you start after changing the setting.

As for your connection problems, you might want to check whether you pass the connection test (from the help menu). If you don't, that's probably the cause your connection troubles.

On a general note, you should probably know that most filesharing networks reward uploading, so the more you upload, the more (or the faster) you can download.

[ailurophobe]

First, while later versions do seem less aggressive in searching to reduce network load, I have had no problems with connecting or searching while downloading with the latest version, there might be a fixable problem with your installation instead. Worth looking. Although, if you are happy using 2.5.3.0...

Second, not sharing partials is only viable for Gnutella and Gnutella 2 networks. (No idea about DC++.) ED2K has sharing partials as part of the protocol specification and not sharing partials is liable to get you banned if noticed. BT does not require sharing partials AFAIK, but it assumes that and not sharing partials will reduce performance significantly. Additionally many trackers will both notice and ban clients with bad upload to download ratios.

And as OD said Shareaza checks the settings when the upload is originally queued. You can make the wait go away by restarting since Shareaza does not save upload queue contents.

[user87753]

Hi,

thanks for your input.

I know about the option concerning incomplete files. Changing that does not have any effect, files are still being shared with G2. Crosscheck 2.5.3: Option works OK, no sharing. So: Bug in 2.5.4 ff. as far as I'm concerned.

Connection problems exist only in 2.5.4 ff., 2.5.3 works fine. Again: Looks like a bug in 2.5.4 ff. to me, since everything else stays the same. Connection test fails when using random port (who would have thought ...), but returns no errors when using a fixed port. That's consistent with my setup - Shareaza is not limited by any firewall or nat router.

Re uploading: I am no leecher, but I would like to have a certain amount of control over the things I upload. Besides legal issues, I don't think anyone really profits from fakes, defective files, bad quality etc. The less sources for that, the better in my opinion. In 2.5.3, I can review and then share. In 2.5.4 ff., the crap clogs up my upload.

Actually, that's why I don't use ed2k at all and BT only for selected items.

Concering aggressive behaviour: I have no problem with that. I try to get as many hits as possible, placing hundreds of files into my queue, knowing that 50% will be unavailable anyway, at least for a very long time, and 50% of the rest will be as slow to download as my upload is. I don't really see the point in hanging round for hours in front of the pc, waiting for search results, clicking "more" every now and then, when all I want to do is place stuff on a long list, do something else for a week, and come back to see what's what.

Yes, unlimited download queues in Shareaza's options might actually work for me. First thing I do after filling up my queue is changing states from "queued" to "pending" for everything above the magic 100. Limiting the number of requests per host would make a lot more sense to me than limiting the number of files or connections per file.


Bye,
user

[ailurophobe]

You can have separate queues for partial files and library files and set the partial file queues not to low upload. There are lots of interesting options in the queue editing dialog, if you want to "personalize" your upload you definitely should take a look. The issue with "aggressive" is the load it causes to hubs, unfortunately making your client search more does not generally increase the ability of the network to get results, it just means somebody else gets results slower. I suspect optimizing the hub code would help, but it would be a significant amount of work and we are short on developers...

[xexon]

I'm in bitch mode, so bear with me.

It has been my experience that the past two versions of Shareaza have connection problems with Gnutella.

I've seen the entire p2p world go downhill the past few months and I know it's related to this problem. As Shareaza is a major client, whatever bugs you have, has dragged the entire network down with it.

Only the RIAA has had this much negative effect of the p2p community.

Maybe some of you need to go to work for them? Or maybe some of you have already???


x

[old_death]

At least Shareaza has not been corrupted yet. We only had a serious bug within the previous version (2.5.4.0) that made connection to the G2 and the gnutella network quite difficult. This has been fixed with v2.5.5.0 (the current version) and everything should be fine again.

BTW, could you be so kind as to tell us the results of your connection test, as that shows the reason for the connection problems of most people who seek help on that matter? You can find the connection test within the help menu of Shareaza.