Is the Donkey Dead?

[Roamerick]

Probably not the best note on which to start a thread on our much-loved, and sometimes much-maligned, donkey. Still, my experience over the last few days since the death of the bot has been less than inspiring, and I'm here to see what everyone else is experiencing.

Since the death of the bot I have started loading the donkey after a serverlist update with ED2KUtils. All well and good, connect and start transferring some files, but the speed never goes over 13K/s, often sticking doggedly to a paltry 0.6K/s

Now, I have a 512/256 DSL connection which I keep open for downloaders (doing my bit) just about 24Hrs a day, every day. I don't limit my upload speeds. I have configured my XP firewall to allow the donkey ports through, and yet the donkey struggles.

Overnight, it barely managed a few megs. This morning everything was "looking" and nothing was transferring.

In desperation, I was forced to try Aqualime.

Thing is, I love the donkey, and it's awesome community (Sharereactor, filenexus, Nixed and the rest...) and I don't want to see the donkey die. Can any of you guys throw some advice my way on how to save the poor beast from the glue factory? Have I configured my firewall badly? Have I missed something obvious? Has long-term reliance on the Bot dulled my abilities and made me overlook some crucial configuration option?

Help me save the donkey, people!

:wings

[Morgwen]

The donkey is still running like a wild horse!

I am downloading 7 files with up to 90Kb!!!

Keep your server list updated:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~omaurice/serverlist/serverlist.html

And change your max connection to 200 or more, 45 is a good joke!!!

About the bot... I found it only usefull for the search results not for the speed! You can make the same changes as the bot!

Hope this helps! :bling

Morgwen

[Roamerick]

Thanks, but my conections are at 150, the serverlist is updated, and the donkey still crawls. I wonder if my ISP's port-blocking... But I doubt it. I'll just have to keep tweaking....

I think XP's firewall may be a hurdle, but having experienced unwanted BSOD's (is there any other kind?) with the latezt ZoneAlarm I'm at a loss as to what to go for....

Hell, things are so bad I'm actually looking forward to LimeWire 2.4!

[Morgwen]

Perhaps you are out of luck? Sometimes the donkey might be very slow!

Remember how the donkey works, you download from people like you and me!

My connection is 768k down and 128k up - so I offer 16 Kb upload bandwidth but I use a lot more! So I have luck but i know an other is out of luck and have a slow connection - this is P2P!!!

With Gnutella you have the same problems, I am using it over a year now!

btw You don´t need to wait for the new Limewire version, download aqua lime:

http://mamiyaotaru.mangatoanime.com

agua lime is based on the newest Limewire source (2.4.0) but without the spyware!!!

Morgwen

[Roamerick]

"In desperation, I was forced to try Aqualime. "

And although it was fast for a few songs, it turned out to download less than a dozen megs when it came to some vidz... and overnight the Java machine managed to hog al of my resources.

[Morgwen]

Hmm...

you will have the same problems with Limewire!

For videos is the donkey UNBEATABLE!!!

I use several networks:

Gnutella
eDonkey
Fasttrack (kazaa lite)
Song Spy (without this n-case crap)!

I have no problems downloading MP3s! For videos are only eDonkey and kazaa lite usefull!

My suggestion, if you have problems with one network try an other! But believe me your problems with eDonkey are only temporarly!

Morgwen

[Roamerick]

OK, just because my tag says "Filesharing Newbie" it doesn't mean I am :)

I appreciate the advice, but in the past two years I have used Napster, Xolox, Kazaa, Morpheus, Ed2k, LimeWire, Aqualime, Gnucleus, and WinMX. I have multiple gigabytes of stuff and a cd-burner that barely takes a rest...

But the performance I am experiencing at the moment is so sub-par that I was checking to see whether it was a widespread thing or just my tough luck. Seems to be the latter.

I guess I'm just hoping for something new, a nice break from the current systems. Is it gonna be WinMX 3? Xolox 2? Limewire 2.4? Who knows, I just hope it's soon.

Otherwise why would I hang around here? ;)

[Morgwen]

Originally posted by Roamerick
OK, just because my tag says "Filesharing Newbie" it doesn't mean I am :)

I also no newbie, but I learn almost every day! :wings

Morgwen

[Roamerick]

Originally posted by Morgwen


I also no newbie, but I learn almost every day! :wings

Morgwen

The day we stop learning is the day we die... Or the day Microsoft takes over our school system...

[Ryoko]

Originally posted by Roamerick


The day we stop learning is the day we die... Or the day Microsoft takes over our school system... Or AOL. :gj

[Roamerick]

Good point!

[MusicMan]

It seems people like to jump to the conclusion that a file-sharing client is dead, just when it's slowing down a litte. Back in the heyday of Napster, I heard people chiming in that Gnutella was going to survive in the shadow of the immense Napster, while in reality, the Gnutella Network was just slwoing down a little. But now look at it, it's probably going to become that main network everyone will use to get their media files from.

And that's my two cents...for the next three seconds :wings

[Roamerick]

It's not about conclusions, it's about observations. If there were a conclusion, this thread would simply not exist.

[FlyingPiss]

I'm sure you've heard it all before, but since the bot was (thankfully) killed, I have been seeing downloads at a much faster rate than previously.

A big factor governing your download rate is how popular the file is - you can get 0.6K./s for a rare file or 62K/s for a popular one (based on my paltry 512/128 connection).

The bot won't be missed one bit by the donkey community.

the new Bot Lite is much better - no negative actions whatsoever except, maybe the PUSL function, which might overload the server list mirrors.

The bot has really never been better than it is now (and I've been using it for about a year now). :goodjob

[Roamerick]

At the moment my ISP is blocking the donkey pending a pipe upgrade, so I've resorted to good ol' XoloX. And I was surprised to see that despite all the bad press from the gnucleus fans Xolox is still capable of trouncing gnucleus in successfull downloads and searches.

XoloX lives!

[rik-ma]

I personally think that nothing can compare to the donkey for larger files. I have ben using it for about 6 months, and I have never been disappointed.
As for the death of the bot... it is good, the donkey is good enough as it is, and the bot was killing servers real fast. It is very good for Software and Movies.
I tried DC but I was not impressed, and Kazaa ( lite now)just rules for music.

[Anonymoose]

I can't seem to get any of my past download attempts to
complete now, bot (lite) or not.

[MamiyaOtaru]

When I have problems connecting, I just make my own server and connect to that. It also helps other people connect.

Letely it does seem like people have their uploads severely limited. It just means movies don't come down immediately. I'm fine with waiting a day or two, I can do other stuff in the meantime.

Roamerick, you're welcome to try AquaLime 243. If memory gets bad, minimize it :) That drops it down real well. Still, it won't beat eDonkey for videos, or WinMX for mp3s, but it's decent all around.

Looking forward to that new network Swamp has been talking about.

[Roamerick]

Otaru, I've just switched to WinMX and am giving it a good go. As far as the Donkey is concerned, I'm keenly awaiting the new decentralised client by the same author... Until then, I'm letting the donkey sleep peacefully. It';s worked hard, it deserves some rest.

[unksend]

i love edonkey!

[z05+3R0p5]

you might try out the tiny personal firewall. i run it, i love it. if there are issues i am unaware of, ppl, let me know. the reason i love it is that is is easy to handle if you know not much about firewalls except that having one is nice, but is is nice and handy to administrate if you know networking better. very unassuming prog, don't be fooled by appearances. and small too.
well, zonealarm is popular, but that extends to virii-d00ds as well... only recently came across one trojan that (supposedly) crashes tiny personal fw, but zapping zonealarm, while giving the impression that it still runs ok is obviously somewhat popular in that scene.
as for the xp firewall, well, whoever uses it w/o backup deserves what s/he gets... ;-)
since the company site wants u to provide information, i've not posted the link. just google for "tiny personal firewall" and go to the provider of your choice or check out the reviews.

[Roamerick]

I ran tiny personal firewall for about a year, but I was having problems with it and XP, so I switched to ZAPro. I'm considering giving Sygate a go, but otherwise I'll be stiking to this for a while now :)

[Rickio]

Agnitum Outpost Firewall is fairly new and it has some very cool features. I have been trying it out for a few weeks. It not only is a firewall, but has a DNS cache for faster connections, it blockes ads and has you can configure it to block web content in the way you might want. Like block java or javascript from certain sites for example. It is really different and loads of features you might check it out.

As for edonkey. I never did like it, but I saw the light recently and have been using it for a few weeks. I am not sure if I have good or bad results compared to your experience, but I am getting what I want, even if I must wait 2 or 3 days for a 600MB download. I really do think it is a cool app. it's stable and allows me to multi-task and run other p2p progs. if I want.

check out outpost firewall, you might like it.

[Roamerick]

The Donkey's greatest strength is its content. Go to Sharereactor.com and you'll fins top quality stuff to download - and thanks to hashing, you always know you dont get a fake.

Lately the donkey's gone through some kind of revival, it's been maxing my connection and downloading like crazy - getting about 2 CDs on average every 24 hours.

The donkey's successor is also on the horizon, and it's currently being alpha tested. Serverless and packing some very interesting p2p tech. Can't wait!

[iceblue]

If you would notice, Im not sure if this is good or bad....: Sharereactor has gone page 404. Is this related to a lot of traffic or has something happened to our beloved website? The world will never know....
Or maybe it will? Does anybody know anything?
:mellow

[Roamerick]

Dont panic man, it's back up.

[okidoki]

Chechk it out for a lot off links, okidoki web just push the www button.

Ther is Only one thing: its dutch.

But you wil find your way to other langues,

Just klik on eDonkey webs.

Have fun.

Sorry for my bad engels