Direct Connect, hmmm never used it

[MusicMan]

If anyone can give me a good review for Direct Connect, it would be appreciated, I was thinking about switching. Does it have it's own individual protocol?

[Foreverboard]

If you use DC use DC++ it is much better than the origanal

http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/in...?page=download

Multi-Hub connections
Minimize to tray
/commands
Logging
Display Joins & Parts
Confirm Exit
Resume check
Notepad
Favorites List
Sounds
No Advertisments
Disculde hidden files from share
Non-crappy interface
Not Visual Basic (!)
Menubar
Open Source
Firewall/Router Support
Auto-Connect
Search Spy
Multi-Kicking
Away Message

Good luck I tried it for a bit, i share over 60gigs of files. But I could find stuff it just was slowwwwwwww downloads.

Let freedom fly
:shy

[Foreverboard]

aaaaaaaaa

sorry for that .gif it was the wrong one.

[Vladjimir]

Direct Connect is a client everyone has to have. Why? It is a real alternative.

Most of the filesharing clients are moving into the same direction: decentralization, ultrapeers, swarmed downloading. The result is the content on these networks is very much the same. Very common files, you get easily, rare files not.

Direct connect is a totally different client.

I will give you a few examples of things I found on Direct Connect that are very difficult to find on other programs. Maybe you could find them on these other clients, but with only one source you don't get anywhere mostly. That is the great plus of Direct Connect: Only one good source is good to get a rare file. You get often download speeds of 30 kb/s (and more)

Here are a few examples of things I downloaded from it:
- The game Icewind Dale (in iso)
- Baldur's gate: throne of bhaal (a game)
- Diablo II
- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (game)
- Memento (movie)
- Blade Runner (movie)
- Amelie from Montmartre (movie)

The bad thing about this is that you have to search different servers before you find something and that you may not be allowed to certain servers. The thing is: find some good servers that allow you and stick with them.

The reason why certain servers don't allow you can for example be that you don't share enough. Some servers even ask you to share more than 50 gigs, but mostly only ask 5 or 10 gigs. The advantage of this system is that a huge amount of files is available for download. (there is more than one terabyte of files available on direct connect).

Pro:
- Rare movies and games available
- Huge amount of files available

Anti:
- Not many mp3 files
-Steep learning curve: have to find out how you can resume (clicking on a file name with the same name and he'll ask to resume) and sometimes you must switch to passive mode in the settings in order for direct connect to work. (so people can be tricked into thinking the program doesn't work for them)
- Difficult searching: you have to switch servers to search for rare files.
- No features like swarmed downloading and ultrapeers (but the program doesn't need them anyway, the concept is just differnet)

[Foreverboard]

The thing I really dont like about DC is the stupid chat. I dont see why they have to put chat in, but that is my preferance.

[MusicMan]

Nice, I think I'll DirectConnect a good try now, sounds like it has a good selection of media.

[Wolfie]

What is minimum number of gigs of files (mine is mostly music) you would need to get started on Direct Connect? Right now I have about 3.6 gigs of mp3s and I heard that you need qualify by have certain mimimum of gig to even get in some of hubs on DC.

[Vladjimir]

At some servers, you will be allowed with only 2 gigs of files, but these are not many. These servers mostly don't have more than 100 users, some have 200 but not more. Try for example the server: Welcome thieving bastards. That's a good one for you I guess

[BloodySabbath]

For most of the better servers, you should expect a minimum sharing requirement of 30, 40, & 50 GB.
While it is quite an elitist setup, it also guarentees that if you have a 50GB/person server with 500 people then you'll have 25 TB of files :fire

[Wolfie]

Hmmmm... I think I might wait little while for and get more files before trying DC. Thanx for info guys :fire

[imoron]

I don't think the sharing part has really been emphasized <sp?> enough. What's really nice about DC is that for most hubs you have to share a minimum amount of data and upload slots to connect. Leeching is still possible, and some people get desperate and include their entire HD, but for the most part there's a lot of SHARING going on. Which, I think, is why DC++ is banned from quite a few hubs (It allows to connect to multiple hubs but people forget to increase the number of upload slots, so you get people who are connected to 10 hubs with only 3 slots open total. It shold be 10 hubs = 30 slots open.). Connections are usually fast (not many modems by my count), and hubs are for the most part organized around specialties (divx, console games, porn, no porn, music, etc). Trading is (supposedly) discouraged, and the sheer size of sharing is impressive.

The downside is that you REALLY have to share to get into the good hubs. So I hear, I've only got 6 gigs of free drive space to play with, so I can't get into the 50 or 100 GB hubs. A lot of hubs have 5 GB as a min, 10GB seems to be the standard. You can still get into good hubs below those amounts, but I can tell you I feel pretty guilty when it's just me and one other guy who are below 20 GB on a hub. On the plus side, it's pretty easy to build a big share so long as you have the drive space and the fat pipe. As noted before, the interface is a little clunky to deal with, the help menu is anything but, and the chat windows can quickly proliferate out of control if you connect to more then 2 hubs. And be prepared to search a bit sometimes, especially with low share sizes. Some days I get what I'm looking for on the first hub I hit, other times I'm trying 20 hubs and getting nothing (remeber tho, I'm not sharing enough to get into an uberhub). I do have an easier time finding mp3's on FT, tho. The protocol I believe is proprietary, the install does include a web accelerator thingy (you can not install by going to custom install ... adaware didn't complain any), and you have to choose between a cydoor or noncydoor installer.

Overall I prefer the FT clients (kazaalite specifically) due to ease and variety, but DC is a great alternative, certainly a lot better then eDonkey or winMX in my opinion. If you like compulsory sharing, BIG files, and fast dl/ul connections, DC is a great choice.

[Roamerick]

Sounds like I might have to give it a go. I've been resisting on the grounds that it seemed a bit too much like hassle, having to go into hubs and have that whole community-oriented approach where you actually have to speak to people and all that. I'm all for community but not when I'm media-whoring. And I do share huge anounts of files, mostly dvd rips.

So DC++ is the one, huh? Can anyone post a starter guide for those like me who have steered clear of this beast? Up until recently edonkey was my main movie source (You simply cannot beat something as cleanly organised as sharereactor, short of going to your local videostore) but since the death of the bot it's been a bit hit and miss.

Tonight I shall try iMesh, maybe even DC and whatever this big-ass announcement is gonna release (again: better be good and not like a final XoloX or some such crap. The beta's good enough as it is).

But in the meantime, if you think you're a DC expert, show it by PMing me a quickstart guide. I want films, loads of 'em, and fast! :black

[abby.co]

never used DC, but isn't it almost the same as Hotline ??

is it trading or sharing?

[BloodySabbath]

DC is similar to Hotline only in that you have to log onto one of many servers which sometimes, also like Hotline, will have power-tripping 13 old's for Admins.
(TIP: steer clear of these servers :shy :fire)
After you connect to a server though it functions much like any other p2p app letting you search for stuff through the shared files of hundreds of users, not in the server/client manner of Hotline.

[Roamerick]

I wont say that DC is worthles, but it certainly didn't impress me in the long run. On first try I got lucky, connected to some good servers and started downloading rare movie files at ridiculopus speeds. My glee was short-lived though - Soon ll my downloads dropped and the files were nowhere to be found on the servers. And to this day I still have bits of files hanging around in the hope that DC may one day find them again :(

But most of them have now been re-downloaded with XoloX, which, for all its shortcomings, never fails to work in a "fire and forget" fashion. DC (actually DC++) needs to be cuddled, coaxed and stroked for it to work properly. XoloX just does.