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3.8

Summary

Audiogalaxy File Agent
Screwy Wabbit@screwywabbit
Jan 30, 2002 04:42 PM, 2258 Views
(Updated Jan 30, 2002)
This is surely the one!

This program was my introduction to file-sharing, so I can’t compare it to Morpheus or Napster; but taken on its own merits I am very impressed. Despite minor blemishes, it does what it’s supposed to do reliably and efficiently. Positive: 1) I’ve searched for obscure 17th century German composers - and found matches. This thing can find almost anything, and different versions of the same song (live, extended, acoustic, ..). 2) Leave it alone and it will download it eventually. Audiogalaxy processes items in your queue one by one; if a connection is broken or it can’t find something, it moves on to something else. After sharing 25 files, you’re allowed to download two files simultaneously - again this starts automatically and makes it even more powerful - excellent! 3) It resumes broken downloads without problem. 4) You can play the partly downloaded MP3s (it’s streaming data - you play the music until you run out of bits!). This is useful to check that you really are getting what you want. 5) The downloading all happens in the background, so you can do other things - like sleep - and pick up the mp3s later. 6) I try to get the best possible bit rate for an MP3 (160 at least) and Audiogalaxy lets you look for these versions. (The process isn’t completely straightforward, but it can be done.) Plus there’s a FAQ whose users do answer questions fairly quickly. Well done! Negative: 1) Your ’’home page’’ on the Audiogalaxy website lists your queue of pending downloads, the MP3s you have in your shared-files directory, files being transferred (downloaded), etc.. Some things are updated quickly (queue, transfer), but your share directory can take days to update, and even then it’s never accurate. This is irritating, but a minor inconvenience. 2) It’s hard to gauge the availability of a file. This must be related to the slow satellite synchronising; the server doesn’t know what is or isn’t available. Of course, this changes every second anyway, depending on users going on- and offline. In conclusion, a great tool. Easy to find MP3s - you just have to know what you’re looking for!

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