Looking for WinMX tips please

[fogelbise]

(edit to add mxnapper and napmx links)

Hello all,

I decided to give WinMX another try and figured i could really use any tips out there. I finally got a movie there the other day...and that is my main focus right now, though i love music too.

I have searched the forums here, and the web and got a few tips. There are so many threads here that mentioned WinMX that i had a hard time going through many of them. Perhaps a compilation here that everyone could use?

from museekster:
-new to me was with using the ping, stupid me thought the higher numbers were better...now it makes sense.
-warming it up by doing a common/popular search first. i may have gotten a few more results doing this but not sure if i would have gotten those new ones anyway.

from this forum:
-select multiple servers(winmx 3 beta), users(both versions), whatever using shift-click or control-click to avoid repetition.
-using napmx ["down"(load) link at the top] for ver 2.6 or MXNapper for 3.0 beta to add whole lists of opennap servers for better search results.
-messaging: had some luck with, best results are when someone who's queue i was in messaged me! for something i had. worked fine.
-when banned for using winmx, change setting(forget where in app) to report that you are using a different client.
-resuming a file where only the name is different by making a copy and changing the name to the same as your partial download.

problems i am having(even though sharing 120 files/3gigs, including recent movies like resident evil and showtime.)....
-shows "cancelled"
-kicked back in queues continuously
-banned from server, not sharing(once, when i was sharing)
-same user keeps coming back: busy(queuable) after repeated tries to "enter queue" by right clicking. (means i am being "ignored?" with ignore function? or server problem?)

thanks to everyone for any help! please add to the list.

[zombywoof]

Here are a couple of tips:To help save some time hitting those queued files, look for the number available on the search list. ie: Look for files where it says Available 4 of 4. The better number available, the higher the chance you will get to download that file and not be queued.

Also, if you use opennap, you can get the server list from trippymx.
TrippyMX

If you use opennap, you may want to try audiognome, if you don't use it. Audiognome automatically gives you available servers and you can query the network to discover new opennap servers. Audiognome also uses PNP. You can get audiognome here:

Audiognome

[napho]

When the queue # increases it doesn't mean you're farther back in line. That refers to the # of people in his queue. Those extra users are behind you.
Usually people cancel you but occasionally the server disconnects.
Sometimes servers mistakenly say you're not sharing.
Also you can try to get the file from more than 1 person and just cancel the others when 1 starts.

[TankGirl]

Hi fogelbise, nice work, I'm sure many WinMX users are glad to get tips in a compiled form!

Here are some comments:

Originally posted by fogelbise
-warming it up by doing a common/popular search first. i may have gotten a few more results doing this but not sure if i would have gotten those new ones anyway.

Warm-up searches are useful only on WPNP (WinMX Peer Networking Protocol) where they seem to expand the visible peer space, in other words get you better connected. On OpenNap servers the servers hold complete lists of shared libraries and those lists change only as new users jump in and old ones jump out.

Originally posted by fogelbise
-same user keeps coming back: busy(queuable) after repeated tries to "enter queue" by right clicking. (means i am being "ignored?" with ignore function? or server problem?)

This happens when a user at the other end has initiated manually more uploads than his/her max uploads limit is. In this state WinMX does not take any more songs into its queue even if it falsely reports songs being queable. The situation returns back to normal and the queuing succeeds again when the number of ongoing transfers equals the max uploads limit.

- tg

[fogelbise]

Thanks Oscar, Napho, TankGirl. Any others out there that use winmx? another tip/observation regarding trades/traders:

-if you get part 1 of a file it makes for a perfect trade with someone who has part 2, vice-versa.
-it seems users are less interested in seeing a file wide-spread because it gives them leverage in trades if they are one of the few that have it...IMHO

please don't leave me killing another thread...

[Snarkridden]

>>please don't leave me killing another thread...<<

Why not, you started the thread, you are entitled to Kill it?

However, nice question, usefull contributions, and TG in her usual form has buttoned up one problem, that of exceeded queues, nice one Tg...


Snark..

[TankGirl]

A word about ZoneAlarm and WinMX. My experience is that it is best to declare yourself as not firewalled in WinMX if you use ZA. This brings much more material available to you and ZA does not prevent transfers in most of the cases, even if the user at the other end is using ZA too.

Another connectivity observation that may save a lot of frustration from you: if you shut down WinMX and then restart it without rebooting in between you may have a situation where virtually all uploads time out. In this case (in WinMX 2.6) go to Settings | Connection | Firewall / Network Settings and change your port numbers. If for example you have had port 6601 for incoming TCP connections and 6602 for incoming UDP packets change them to 6603 and 6604 (I have used any numbers in range 5000-10000 without problems). Note that when you change the port settings you get automatically disconnected from any servers you have logged into so this is better to do before connecting into opennap servers or WPNP.

- tg

Thanks for the special compliment Snark, I seem to have a fan!

[theflaco]

Originally posted by TankGirl

Thanks for the special compliment Snark, I seem to have a fan!

Hey! I have been your fan since the old Nappy forum!
Now i can so much on these things so i don´t ask so much but I´m your fan! and Snark dude can be number two!


theflaco

[goldie]

Originally posted by TankGirl
A word about ZoneAlarm and WinMX. My experience is that it is best to declare yourself as not firewalled in WinMX if you use ZA. This brings much more material available to you and ZA does not prevent transfers in most of the cases, even if the user at the other end is using ZA too.

Thanks for the special compliment Snark, I seem to have a fan!

Many moons ago, when I first used WinMX, I had tons of connection problems until I changed options to a non-firewalled status. Never had a connection problem since.

Only difference between us, TG, was that I'd reached a certain level of frustration (computer + open 2nd story window = instant relief) trying to get the 2 to get along. Finally just said the heck with it and we all have lived happily ever

BTW, we ALL luv and admire ya gurl!!

GR (who just wrote down the port setting bit) -

[TankGirl]

you are such sweeties, flaco & rod.... thanks, you're almost making me embarrased... : .... and now back to the topic of WinMX, this is supposed to be a topical forum...

[TankGirl]

Here's another connectivity observation about WPNP:

If you have set your max uploads / person to e.g. 1 you may see certain users popping online with ever new nicks (you know the typical WPNP nick variations where the actual nick is followed by a random sequence of characters ending in a2b). Your WinMX sees each new nick variation as a genuine user and gives it a new upload slot if there are free ones available in your max total uploads quota.

This may be rather irritating if you want to share your upload bandwidth fairly with different users. At first I assumed this being something that savvy users do on purpose by disconnecting from WPNP (which leaves the ongoing transfer running), then reconnecting, doing a fresh search and queuing more songs. However, further research revealed that this was not the case. Obviously normal peers on WPNP get swapped quite frequently from one 'supernode' to another which automatically leads to a creation of a new nick variant for the swapped user. Their previous queues get invalidated in the process so you may see them queuing the same tracks repeatedly with the slightly changing nicks. This may seem like annoying and intentional 'flooding' to you but they themselves may be totally unaware that they are even being swapped between the supernodes.

All of the above applies to version 2.6 and WPNP, I have not tested 3.0 enough to see if similar problems occur there.

- tg

[Stoepsel]

Originally posted by TankGirl
Here's another connectivity observation about WPNP:

<snip>

- tg

TG,

if you want us 'mere mortals' to stop loving and admiring you, you have to stop posting interesting and informative observations like the one you just posted about WinMX connectivity. The way I see it, it is purely YOUR fault that we treat you as the goddess of p2p and worship the ground you walk on.

And now back to our regular topical programming...

Stoepsel

[fogelbise]

Wow! thanks for all the great info TG and all!

-Is there a way to tell if someone cut you off intentionally(manually)?

I assume if it cuts and then says "user offline" that they just had to go...But sometimes it says "disconnected..." or "Cancelled" maybe, or other info. The messages seemed more confusing and common in winmx 3 beta 5 and have went back to 2.6. Is there a list of the error/disconnect messages and there meanings?

I ask because some of the downloads were almost done and i was sharing a lot of files including several that seem to be very 'in-demand.' I am not sure i would want to give them my small upload bandwidth if they cut me intentionally.

-oh, another question: I browsed someone's files who i was downloading from and the file i was downloading did not show...anyone know a reason for this...all files shown were much smaller than the one i was downloading. So how can i also be sure all of mine are showing in browse. some are because people who's queue i am in, jump in my queue for trades so are obviously finding the files i have.

-someone who cancelled me didn't even show on the list of (download connections past/present/future). Did they do this by using "Clear" instead of "Cancel"

Snarkridden: I didn't want to kill the thread, because I seem to kill them for all the wrong reasons.

sorry so long.



(1 more edit: I may not be able to answer any post to me until 4/7 as I will be going out of town 3/30.)

[Snarkridden]

Well you done a good job this time, tailed it off nicely, have a nice "Outa town" see you when you get back...

now who's going to persuade TG to write a book on P2P?

Snark...

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by fogelbise
-oh, another question: I browsed someone's files who i was downloading from and the file i was downloading did not show...anyone know a reason for this...all files shown were much smaller than the one i was downloading. So how can i also be sure all of mine are showing in browse. some are because people who's queue i am in, jump in my queue for trades so are obviously finding the files i have.

This happens because browsing is limited, both on OpenNap servers and on WPNP. Browsing and searching (returning the search results) are the two activities that load the bandwidth of the servers most and to protect the functionality of the network there are varying limits on both.

On WPNP browsing is limited to 1001 files. If you connect to WPNP with more than 1001 files your whole file list will be sent to the appropriate supernode and it will also show up in search results to other users but when they browse you they will see only your first 1001 files (in some occasions even less, why this happens is unclear). It seems that the files that are shown are the ones that have been added first to your shared library (if you view the library.dat file in your winmx program folder with e.g. Notepad they will be at the top of the list). This is good to realize if you are sharing more than 1001 files and want to add some fresh tracks for your friends to browse - they won't probably see them however much they press the Refresh button as the new tracks get to the bottom of the list. But they can see them through searches so you can instruct them to do a search instead to get a hold of them.

On OpenNap servers the browse capping policy varies wildly between different networks. Some networks may allow you to browse even 10.000 files, some limit browsing to just one (!) file. To complicate things further, the servers may apply different limits depending on their loading status... during low traffic a server may allow you to browse thousands of files and when heavily loaded perhaps only 500. I have also noticed that on linked servers (forming a network) there may be a stricter limit on what you can browse from users on other servers than from those on the same server with you.

To see how your library shows to others on an OpenNap server you can hotlist yourself and then browse your own library. To do this, click the top-left corner system icon of your hotlist window and select Add User...In the dialog that opens, add your own nick and choose the network you are on. When you see yourself on your hotlist right-click your entry and choose Browse. This way you can check how organized/interesting etc. your library looks to others and applying the Full Paths button in the search/browse window you can also check that your full pathnames don't reveal any too personal information that you don't want to share.

- tg

thanks for your kindest compliments Stoepsel, fogelbise & Snark!

[ssj4_android]

Why does browsing take up server bandwidth on WPNP? The WinMX 3 one. Doesn't it connect to the other person to get the list?

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by TankGirl

This happens because browsing is limited, both on OpenNap servers and on WPNP. Browsing and searching (returning the search results) are the two activities that load the bandwidth of the servers most and to protect the functionality of the network there are varying limits on both.

it's true; the larger the file list the more problematic the loading. while this may seem obvious at first it can have real consequences during operation. for instance i'm sharing 3600 hundred files right now and browsing me will disconnect one of our servers and take over 8 minutes to load using the other one. and this with dsl.

i imagine no one designing these applications thought they'd ever be used for the numbers of files that are now becomming commonplace. a possible, if temporary solution would be to spread out the files among the different servers one's connected to but i know of no such program that enables this.

- js.

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by ssj4_android
Why does browsing take up server bandwidth on WPNP? The WinMX 3 one. Doesn't it connect to the other person to get the list?

It is just my educated guess that supernodes serve the browse requests for the very same reason why they handle the search requests - efficiency. Imagine a 56 k dialup with 10.000+ shared songs (and I know there are users like this!). Such library contents may correspond to about 1 MB of index data (you can get a good idea by checking the size of your library.dat file and comparing it to the number of files you are sharing). Assuming an optimistic 30 kbit/s upstream speed it takes about 5 minutes from the poor dial-up to push this chunk of data to its supernode. As such a big shared library will collect a lot of search hits and consequent browse requests it is obvious that the dial-up would be totally choked in serving browse requests alone unless the faster supernode would not handle the job on its behalf.

- tg