| Stable release | 2.6.7.1 / February 1, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | Simplified Chinese |
| Type | peer-to-peer file sharing |
| License | Closed source (violates the GPL license) |
| Website | www.vagaa.de |
Vagaa (Chinese: 哇嘎) is a peer-to-peer program originating from Mainland China. The software is compatible with eDonkey network and BitTorrent and can be used for downloading large files, however as it has been blocked from most eDonkey servers, its usefulness has dropped in the past years. The software is being developed by users from Mainland China and has special support for some techniques utilized on complicated LANs.
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Vagaa has some special soft router algorithms library, which speed downloading and uploading, even between the NAT users. Also the famous distributed search system. The search function is quick and full of multi-language content from users.
Use of this software is often frowned upon by server operators for its overly-aggressive and almost faulty stress exerted on the respective server and sometimes result in the banning of Chinese users.
The company produce the Vagaa software suggested that Vagaa borrowed technology from eDonkey2000, BitTorrent and Kad that by applying proprietary distribution routing technology, high connectivity and stability is maintained. In additional, the application of Keywords Smart Analysis technology allowed proprietary distributive searching and indexing made the searching speed much higher than other competitive products. Vagaa is also the first product produced by Mainland Chinese to allow viewing of VOD downloading.
Critics suggested that Vagaa is based on a modification of the famous GPL P2P software Shareaza. Therefore, Vagaa has violated the GPL Open Source License by not offering the code of their product to download.
In additional, the search mechanism of Vagaa did not make use of any special algorithm to speed up searching and indexing, but instead it achieved this optimization by spamming/bombarding the servers in question. Therefore, most of the servers on the eDonkey network refuse connections from Vagaa to maintain their system stability, which greatly reduces the usability of the client.
On 12 August 2006, the P2P network DonkeyServer made the following announcement:
server version 17.12 (lugdunum)
Note to Chinese users of this server.
It seems many Chinese people use a modified eMule that abuse servers.
Unfortunately we cannot tell what is the name of this mod.
This *buggy* version sends automatic searches, over and over and servers suffer a LOT
Please use standard emule program 0.47a, or we will be forced to deny access
to this server for *all* Chinese people. That would be bad :(
Thank you
Note : eMule 0.47a is here : http://www.emule-project.net/download
Note : If you already use a standard 0.47a eMule, or a mod based on 0.47a,
please ignore this message. Have Fun
However, DonkeyServer did not mention about which P2P was causing the problem, as well as their version numbers.
On 13 August 2006, cnBeta.com, a famous IT News portal in Mainland China summarized the information collected and suggested it was Vagaa that caused the system instability. After that, the Vagaa official website received a DDoS attack. Then, the software company apologized in public and promised to provide an updated version of the software with the problem solved. However, the updated version did not stop its bad behavior according to a comparison testing among official eMule release, verycd.com mod release and vagaa, on one of the famous IT News portal www.it.com.cn [1]