Search your own library strangeness in Winmx...

[goldie]

Originally posted by SJ56
It's a known bug with version 3.22

It happens only when you are secondary connected

It's called "the phantom files bugs"

Dont worry, you dont really have those files.

Thank-you SO much!!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.........................

SJ - much needed explanation
JS - Thanks heaps and heaps for the confirmation!
Snarkie - Good news, eh? No more paniced pings from the USA

Nothing like the feeling of seeing a mystery SOLVED!

[db_]

It's been about for a while this bug, and it's still a bit of a mystery what reason is behind it, but here's my best guess.

It only happens to users that run secondary type connections afaik. Secondary users connect into a Primary 'superpeer' type user at WinMX start up, WinMX uploads the list of files from the secondary user to the Primary, the Primary holds the lists of all attached users, and processes network requests for files, which accounts for the high flow of data you see when you run a Primary connection (WPN data).

I did a test with a friend once and it seemed the phantom files in my own browse related to filesizes, like, I was sharing a 10,123,123 byte mp3 file of PinkFloyd.mp3, yet in it's place was a 10,123,123 byte file of 'sum_other.mp3'. The friend selected to download what he thought was the sum_other.mp3 from me, and the download started. At my side it appeared as if he was downloading the PinkFloyd.mp3, yet on his end it displayed it as some sum_other.mp3 instead, an mp3 I didn't have. He downloaded a bit and played it, and as expected it was the pink floyd track, and not what he thought it was. Very weird.

At a guess what's happening is the central Primary that stores the file lists of all secondary connected into it somehow muddles up the lists according to filesizes, maybe if attached users have 2 different files with the same bytesize it gets confused as to who owns which? Man I have no idea here, seems strange to me that a large majority of the phantom files that show up are porn based, maybe porn is just way more popular then I realize! :-)

The problem seems to occur more as the shared files amount increases, if you share 2500 files files then often you'll see many phantom files listed, I remember counting something like 161 avi/mpg files once that wasn't mine, I didn't bother to count up the extra mp3s.

Anyway, still a mystery what causes it, could do with being sorted though as some preety nasty files show up sometimes, I know this has freaked a few people out already, having to explain 'they're not mine honest'. I guess it's just some Primary bug that will be sorted soon enough.

db

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by db_
Anyway, still a mystery what causes it, could do with being sorted though as some preety nasty files show up sometimes, I know this has freaked a few people out already, having to explain 'they're not mine honest'. I guess it's just some Primary bug that will be sorted soon enough.

to make it more confusing, in goldenrods' case for instance the phantom files were listed only when she browsed her own drive and not when i did (no wisecracks tg). spoofers? i don't know, it's a tough call. i might have a hard time recommending winmx to people knowing that scans would artificially show them to be massive distributors of pornography, particularly if it's some of the more socially unacceptable extreme styles known to reside on the net. but keeping people off these systems just might be the point. there may be more to this than we think. if i were winmx i'd be taking this a lot more seriously than they seem to be. on the other hand if the files only appear when you browse your own folders using chat or by placing yourself in your own hotlist, things most people don't normally do, it's not that big a deal, more just a curiosity perhaps.

- js.

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by Snarkridden


You sure Js? Absolutely sure I mean?

yep. and i mean absolutely. sorry sr.

- js.