Shareaza

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Shareaza
Screenshot of Shareaza 2.2.1.0 using Windows XP.
Maintainer:	Michael Stokes
Stable release:	2.2.1.0. (October 26, 2005) _[+/-]
Preview release:	2.2.5.0 (February 5, 2007) _[+/-]
OS:	Microsoft Windows
Use:	Peer-to-peer file sharing
License:	GNU General Public License
Website:	http://www.shareaza.com/

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2, EDonkey Network, BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP network protocols and which can handle magnet links, ed2k links, Piolet links, and the now deprecated Gnutella links. It was developed by Michael Stokes.

Shareaza is available in 27 languages. Released under the GNU General Public License, Shareaza is free software.

1 History
2 Features
3 Controversy
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

In late 2002, Stokes introduced Gnutella2, a reworked version of Gnutella with many fundamental updates to the protocol, and added support for it to Shareaza. This drew a lot of criticism from other Gnutella developers because Gnutella2 was developed without any outside help or conferral. However, the Gnutella2 network has been doing well so far despite the fact that it was developed privately, and is now supported by Shareaza, MLDonkey, Adagio, Gnucleus, Morpheus, and iMesh among others. Opponents of the name "Gnutella2" refer to it as 'Mike's Protocol', or 'MP' for short.

On 1 June 2004, Shareaza 2.0 was released, along with the source code, under the GNU GPL, making it free software. Version 2.1 was released on 19 September 2004, and included many bug fixes including better support for Windows XP Service Pack 2. The latest release was 2.2.1.0^[1].

Shareaza 2.2.5.0 Beta has been released on 5 February 2007^[2]. It supports UPnP for configuring NAT (Network Address Translation) ports on router. Also this release fixed about 200 bugs from last release.

[edit] Features

Shareaza includes the following features which make it stand out (features which appear in most peer to peer clients are not listed):^[3]

Support for the Gnutella2 network.
The ability to download the same file simultaneously from multiple networks.
Users can choose from either a basic interface or a power user mode, letting experienced users monitor the gnutella network and set advanced settings, without cluttering the interface for those who do not need those features.
Collections, a feature allowing the grouping of many files into one 'collection', which is downloadable as an archive would be.
Remote access - users are able to control Shareaza from a remote computer.
Scheduler, which allows users to schedule tasks on Shareaza for a later period.
Media Player - unlike some peer-to-peer software's media players, Shareaza's completely bypasses corruption and merges file chunks into one, creating a previewable video from virtually any amount of downloaded segments. This does not include sound in MPEGs however.
Complete unicode support, as well as numerous translations.
The ability to 'skin' the interface, allowing users to change its appearance.

Features new to 2.2.5.0 Beta

Improved Torrent Info screen
New search filters
Improved spam filtering
UPnP for automatic port forwarding
Collection Wizard
Improved Ghost Files support
Browse Host windows are saved between sessions just like searches
Metadata extraction from many additional file formats
Connecting to Gnutella should be easier now thanks to UHC support.
Several fixes for BitTorrent automatic seeding.
UPnP should work for more routers now and work more reliably.
Several memory leaks have been plugged.
You can now choose to search a set of networks rather than just one or all.

[edit] Controversy

For criticisms regarding the Gnutella2 network, see Gnutella2.

Despite its many innovative features, Shareaza has been criticized for many things, most notably creeping featurism and software bloat.^{[citation needed]} While the client isn't out performed on its own G2 network, the Gnutella network implementation is outdated, leading to criticism of Shareaza having poor Gnutella support.^{[citation needed]} Versions 2.1 and earlier are banned by Lugdunum eDonkey servers as a result of a bug that unintentionally uses disproportionately large amount of server processing time. While this was fixed once Lugdunum brought the issue forward it took more than a year before the next update (Shareaza 2.2) was released.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, some BitTorrent trackers ban Shareaza because it was ping flooding other clients in version 2.0, and because they view it as a "leeching" client, however these trackers often ban other clients for the same reason.^{[citation needed]}

Users of Shareaza (along with Azureus and LimeWire) have frequently been targeted in internet scams such as Etomi that demand a "membership fee" for use of the software. A wide-spread version is "Kazaa Lite Pro", which also negatively influences the network.