Still mourning the demise of free-for all file sharing programs as napster hatches its plot for world domination of the subscription music market. You might like to try out
http://www.winmx.com and download their baby for swapping files like darn contraband geeks and get away with it. so without getting in to philosophical bus on ethics of swapping music let me get on with reviewing winmx version 3.31.Winmx is a FREE file sharing program which allows a user to share files with millions of users through Winmx decentralized peer network.
What?s good about this program is the relative ease in which you can install it on your p.c. It’s only 750kb of size and is relatively light unlike Kazza and Morphous which got a fetish for draining your processor and memory usage.
Requirements
Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP
Pentium 166 w/ 64MB ram or better recommended.
Post installation
Connection to the network happens as soon as you start the program with a lot more user-friendly interface simply by telling you when the program has connected to a server and so you can get on with searching for the media you want. For expert users there you can connect to the Open Nap network by adding in the server address yourself. Thing is, though by doing this, you need to remember that the Open Nap servers do not allow multi-source downloading. You might want to stick with Gnutella network if you are proficient with configuring manually the ip and the ports etc cause the download speeds on open nap network could vary on the down side depending on your connection orientation, pretty annoying.
Navigation around Winmx is pretty easy enough; the normal tabbed toolbar running across the top makes it easy to find your way around. However, once you delve into these separate tabs, like the search tab, you’ll find how cluttered the interface seems. There are buttons pretty much everywhere, and, while this does allow you to have all the options at your fingertips, it would have been good to see the programmers of Winmx at try to organize the interface a bit better.
Search window is totally loaded with options to customize your search output. You have the option to choose what you want to search for, MP3 / Video files / picture files /or customized files. Also you can filter your search based on type of connection oriented search?s you want for instance you want only users with DSL OR T1 should be your searched output and you can do that. To my pleasure I could also search for specific bit rate mp3’s.
The results are displayed fairly quickly with all kind of information of bit rate of files, file users, connections, and percentage of file available as you can even share incomplete downloadable files.
Download experience
Winmx version 3x binged in the option of multi source downloads which increases your downloads by allowing you to singly download the dame file by multiple users on same string. Even with a modest cable connection, am downloading songs at rates of unto 15kbps and with options of placing your downloads on queue you can pretty much leave your computer on and comeback later to find most of your list with complete downloads, no more sitting in front of the pc and following the tiresome boring process of watching through each downloads. The reliability is so high, now broken downloads are also easier to resume then before.
The variety of media search here is just amazing, anything from Robbie Williams to more hard to get Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix, Morrison, underground stuff you can easily find here. It?s even better when you download movies from here. I have been able to swap movies of likes Matrix reloaded, Godfather, Beautiful mind, Philadelphia to serials like Friends season 9, the practice & inevitable Sex in the city with ease. Although Hindi music searches wont return you results that graciously but then am not in to Hindi music so hurray for me.
Other features
Includes chatting facilities, a bandwidth monitor, and even a hot list. The hot list feature isn’t as useful as you may have seen in other sharing programs and need to be worked on. Your play list window will show you the songs you are sharing and have downloaded. You can play them from here in your default music player and here is where I felt they need to place a internal music player.
The best thing about this software is that it contains no spy ware, no hidden programs and annoying ads. Its best add free software available on the internet. And if you value your privacy you would love this software. I still remember couple of years back when I use to use ’’Morphous’’ file sharing software I experienced a system hack by one of the users connected to the client, in times to come Morphous was exposed with vulnerability in its program was upgraded.
To sum up.
1. Multi-sourced downloading for maximum speed on broadband connections.
2. Free to use and contains no spy ware..
3. Open Nap connectivity for expert users.
4. Auto-Complete feature continuously seeks out new download sources.
5. Compatible with most LAN configurations.
6. Detailed bandwidth monitoring and throttling controls.
7. Complete upload and download queuing system.
8. Lack of internal media player.
9. Interface unorganized and cluttered.