Gnutella now has link click-through ability like Edonkey

[Jean-Paul Marat]

If the magnet: links don't click through here go to Marat's hashes

The two largest P2P networks are FastTrack, which has (server/)clients like Kazaa, and Gnutella, which has (server/)clients like Shareaza, Bearshare, Gnucleus and Limewire. There are also other P2P networks like Edonkey2000, which mostly handles large (100MB+) files, and Freenet, which mostly handles small (less than 10MB) files. All of these networks use something called hashing, which is a way to differentiate files.

Gnutella is one of the two biggest p2p networks, FastTrack (Kazaa) being another one. Unlike FastTrack, it has an open protocol, and has some open source clients with no ads or spyware like Gnucleus. It has been around since early 2000, and Gnutella clients like Morpheus, Bearshare, Xolox and Limewire have been listed as the most popular downloads from sites like download.com for over a year.

All of the major Gnutella clients use hashing. They use it primarily for search and download integrity. Most of them currently only use it within the context of the application. The URI’s (URL’s) for these files can be pulled out and dropped into the applications however. Only one Gnutella program currently does this – Shareaza. I’m sure others will follow afterwards. But if you want to do this currently, Shareaza is the only way to go. I’m hoping that Gnucleus will follow soon.

Shareaza allows you to click on web page links of the magnet: type, which will (unless you set it otherwise) launch Shareaza and ask if you want to download that file or not. If you don’t click cancel, Shareaza will connect to GnutellaNet, search for the file and start downloading it. This is the cool innovation, you can now have a web page listing mp3’s, mpg’s, zip’s or whatnot, and when you click on the link it goes to Gnutella and starts downloading it from multiple sources – hopefully some of them will be on T-1’s or cable modems for a fast download. You can also cut and paste these URI’s (URLs) into Shareaza, or copy them out of Shareaza.

The non-Gnutella client and protocol, Edonkey2000 has been doing this for a while. It has done a lot of cool things within the Edonkey community, you can check out http://www.filenexus.com or http://www.sharereactor.com to see what file hubs look like. Since these files are hashed, and since programs like Shareaza (and Edonkey2000) check the hashes to see if they’re good, you can trust that the mp3’s or mpg’s are good if you trust the person giving you the hash. e.g. you don’t have to trust who you’re downloading from, just the person who gave you the hash (the URI).

Gnutella has a web site that catalogs it’s hashes, http://www.bitzi.com . People report hashes to Bitzi, and whether the files are good or not. Shareaza has a function where you can check files searched for Bitzi tickets to see how they are rated. This way you can see whether say an mpg or avi is good before you download a 100-500MB file.

I don’t want to make this explanation too long, you can read about all of this on Gnutella sites if you like. Let’s get to the goods –

First, Shareaza is the only client that currently does this for Gnutella, so go to http://www.shareaza.com and download their client. They seem good to me and many others, if you’re the type that is really against closed source software and you can program, you can download Gnucleus, or Limewire’s open source release, or some other open source Gnutella client, and program this in yourself. Otherwise you’ll have to download Shareaza, until clients like Gnucleus get this functionality.

Now that you have Shareaza, all you have to do is find the links and that’s it! You click on a link and start searching for the file and downloading it. Now, is it going to find the file when it searches for it? Well, it depends. On how popular the file is. Some files (mp3’s, mpg’s, whatever), are so popular you should be able to find and download them 24/7. Some files are rare, maybe I ripped it and it’s only on my computer, so you can only access it when I’m online until others download it. To mitigate this, I am including a popularity rating, from 1 to infinity. The popular rating is the maximum number of different people I’ve seen with the file. In other words, if I searched for “Spider Man” and found 10 people had the same copy (hash) of “Spider man part 1 of 2”, and 7 people had the same copy (hash) of “Spider man part 2 of 2”, then the popularity rating for spider man (part 1 of 2) would be 10, and the popularity of spider man (part 2 of 2) would be 7. Since more people have part 1, you’re more likely to find it when you search for it, and it’s more likely someone with a free upload slot will be able to send it to you than part 2 of 2. But since 7 (or more) people have part 2, you have a decent chance of finding at least one with a free upload slot that will be able to send to you. It is logical that the higher the popularity rating, the higher the odds that you will be able to find the file and download it. Also – popularity ratings may in reality be higher, or may become higher (or lower) than we have here – this is just the highest popularity rating for the file that we have seen yet.

My list currently is split into 4 parts – mp3’s, Hollywood movies, porn movies (and clips) and software zip’s. The list is prefaced with excerpts/examples from these 4 lists with a high popularity rating, e.g. links that when you click on you have a good chance of finding and downloading the file.

Most popular -
Version 1 – 7/9/02

On my web page - Marat's hashes, you can click through on these magnet: links if you have Shareaza or some other Gnutella client that supports URI's. Otherwise, you'll have to cut and past these magnet: links into Shareaza's "open url" window.

Linkin Park’s song “In the End” has a popularity rating of 83. That means at least 83 people have this exact file, so you’re very likely to find and start downloading it. It’s a good example since it’s highly likely when you click on this link, you will soon after have a complete download of this mp3 since you have at least 83 possible sources for this song on GnutellaNet. This mp3 is 3.3MB, 4:36 playing time and is 128kbps. It has multiple Bitzi reports, and I downloaded and verified it myself.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:EOWJR73KC6UMZMGJUTCRILCHHVHGJS 4S&dn=Linkin%20Park%20-%20In%20The%20End.mp3

Here’s a song which is #7 on the billboard charts, a popularity rating of 37. It’s 3.75MB, 4:05 playing time, and 128kb.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:TJTQWACC5BTLY2ZHCD3VDFVHVOQ3AA PD&dn=Avril%20Lavigne%20-%20Complicated%20(WHOLE%20SONG!).mp3


A popular full-length movie is Spiderman. Here is part 1 of 2 of a set. It has a popularity of 10. It is 202.87MB and thus I have not verified it.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:4ZBBJTA6YZPSWOZYACHAYMUPQBOMZL OQ&dn=spider%20man%20avi

Here is part 2 of the set, Spiderman part 2 of 2. It has a lower popularity rating, 7, maybe people who already got part 1 are still downloading it. It is 208.14MB. I have not verified it myself.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:VZMNHFJ6UHFEKF7Q5A5YIXKBFV5ZOY L4&dn=SPIDER-MAN%20-%20GODD%20QUALITY%20TS-%20VCD.part2.%20DivX.avi

Here is Microsoft office. It is 395.03MB. It’s popularity rating is 7. I have not downloaded it, and I certainly do not know if it has viruses in it or not, since I do not trust it, I would not suggest downloading it, it is left here for purposes of example only.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:2VK5UOJOY6OKINVLX7XAFRATHGBOOD WU&dn=microsoft%20zip


That is the example list for now. As time goes on, I will find even better examples for mp3’s, software zip’s, full length movies and porn movies/clips.

Below are a list of some mp3’s, zip’s and movies. They do not all have the popularity ratings of the above files, so you have a lower chance of being able to find and download them right away. Remember, the higher the popularity rating, the more likely you will be able to download it immediately. The above links are there more for popularity than quality, the below are movies, clips, and mp3’s I like.

Library -

This list will grow. Check out http://www.bitzi.com , which is a great source for hashes, as well as other sources. Make your own list – send it to Bitzi, and/or distribute it yourself.

If the magnet: links don't click through here go to Marat's hashes

[darob]

Thats what makes edonkey so greath , only it is VERY slow , i would luv to see more of this sites for other p2p networks =)

[Slycktom]

I tend to disagree that Gnutella is "one of the two biggest networks". In fact, it has witnessed a considerable decline in population since its intial "Morpheus crossover" spike http://www.slyck.com/newsjuly2002/071702a.html. In reality, FastTrack, WinMX, iMesh, and eDonkey2000 are larger.

More specifically, Gnutella only has a population of around 200,000, which only makes it marginally more popular than DirectConnect, and on par with eDonkey2000 which also is has around 200,000 users. So, is Gnutella worth it? I suppose...it still going through some "growing pains", but should end up being a decent P2P network.....just my thoughts...:)

[wiggum]

Good explanation about how hash links work :)
Good to see another site with hash links out there. We need bigger lists of links though.

[wiggum]

Originally posted by Slycktom
I tend to disagree that Gnutella is "one of the two biggest networks". In fact, it has witnessed a considerable decline in population since its intial "Morpheus crossover" spike http://www.slyck.com/newsjuly2002/071702a.html. In reality, FastTrack, WinMX, iMesh, and eDonkey2000 are larger.

Yeah the top5 most popular protocol's now seem to be
1. FastTrack
2. WinMX
3. iMesh
4. eDonkey2000 and then
5. Gnutella

[Slycktom]

Here, try this link for the above post http://www.slyck.com/newsjuly2002/071702a.html

[darob]

any1 know more of this sites where ppl list files (tested like on the edonkey site : shareactor ) ?

[wiggum]

www.fasttrackmovies.com

[Sephiroth]

Jean-Paul Marat Please dont post xxx descriptions or links to sites that have xxx content here...

Ive been using Bitzi for about a week and its great. Its not that hard to contribute to the catalog, and if you have any problems the support is excellent. Im very impressived with it.

[Rickio]

Here are some sites for you.

thedonga's website with lot's of music links
http://liquid2k.com/thedonga/

guide to more edonkey link sites
http://edkguide.com

MusicDonkey
http://www.musicdonkey.da.ru/

Team CiNEXUS
http://www.geocities.com/azraeluk2000/main.htm

Flowingbits
http://home.pacbell.net/mikespot/

Menaceboy, Music Videos
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/menaceboy/

Voodoo Child, Ogg Vorbis Music
http://www.geocities.com/e_d_2_k/

:-)

hmmm. very intersting. glad i ran into this old article. seemly enough, it sort of help me, get some answers to question i had.
hmmm. rtw.
some times old articles help out.
rtw*
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la

hmm this old article, was based on me reading from this link.
magnets.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../07082002l.php