KCeasy

[eclectica]

"KCeasy (http://kceasy.sourceforge.net/) is a windows filesharing application which uses giFT (http://www.giftproject.org/) as backend. Currently supported networks are OpenFT, Gnutella and FastTrack."

I downloaded and tested the current version 0.9 on my Windows Millennium computer which has a 233 mhz processor and 96 MB of memory. I was impressed with it running smoothly and apparently not being resource intensive. It hashed my 800 files in around 30 minutes time.

When you first install the program it asks you your total bandwidth. So I put my theoretical speeds, 1500 kbits/s down and 128 kbits/s up. It then automatically set my upload bandwidth at 12 kbytes a second, which is 75% of the theoretical speed. It can all be manually adjusted.

It has the option to connect to the three networks OpenFT, Gnutella, and FastTrack. I opted at first to connect to the two except FastTrack, which is controlled by Sharman Networks. People are saying that this program could replace Kazaa Lite because it connects to the FastTrack network, but Sharman Networks wouldn't be able to sue it. They could still block it though, I imagine.

After a few odd minutes on the Gnutella network I saw the amount of online users jump all over the place, and then back to zero, so then I opted to just connect to the OpenFT network. When you change the networks you are connected to, you have to disconnect and then reconnect from the program. I turned off the program instead of disconnecting, and got a few dll errors, but it worked after than when I started it up again.

The amount of users of the OpenFT network has been today averaging around 2500 users with 600,000 files.

I did a few searches and found some material. I ended up being in a queue with one user, but unlike WinMX you don't know how much of a queue you are in. It seems to be working fine, but I wonder how scalable the network is, and if it can handle 1 million users, for example.

When doing searches you will find files of others. The user names are totally fictitious and appear to be generated by the program or the network. I installed the program on a second computer and found myself as having a name of "Shakooveemio". It displays the user's IP address correctly. When the search results come up then you can put your mouse on them, much like the alt text on some images displayed on web pages. Then more information about the files comes up. See this screenshot (http://www.tatom.org/images/KCeasy.gif).

It is required that you forward port 1213 through your router, and that doesn't look to be changeable in the settings. In the search tips it says that you will get one approximately one third of the results if your ports are not forwarded correctly.

The program allows you to control bandwidth and the amount of upload slots, as well as download folders and shared folders. I like how when you go to see what files you are sharing, it even classifies them by their file types, making it easy to see what you're sharing and helping you organize your files. It adds one extra file in your shared folder for you. The file it adds is the program itself, in my case kceasy-0.9-inst.exe, so that you are also sharing the program, which will help the developers pass out the latest version without worrying about bandwidth problems from a website.

The program has a built in media player which uses Windows media player, and they plan to introduce an open source player into the program in future versions.

[eclectica]

An interesting link that is on the program is the OpenFT network statistics (http://fnord.csbnet.se/openft/) page. Looking at the global map, you can see all the nodes of the network. Most of them are in Europe and North America.

[eclectica]

There is a new version of KCeasy (http://kceasy.com/) out, and they have also changed the look of their website and added a forum to it.

[eclectica]

Version 0.12 of KCeasy (http://kceasy.com/) was released yesterday, but there is big news with this one. From their website is this statement:
KCeasy 0.12 released [2004-04-17]

Please note that from this version on KCeasy will no longer include the plugin necessary to connect to the FastTrack network. On April 14 I received a Cease and Desist Letter from Sharman Networks demanding the immediate stop of KCeasy distribution. While it is perfectly legal under German law to create an interoperable client for FastTrack network via reverse engineering I feel that inclusion of FastTrack access with KCeasy is not worth a legal battle between Sharman and myself. KCeasy is a valuable file sharing client even without FastTrack connectivity and I will continue to develop it as such.

- Markus Kern
Some people are speculating that without FastTrack network connection, it will spell the death of KCeasy. In any case I think it is good news, because it will mean fewer users using the FastTrack network, and hopefully the end of Sharman Networks (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=245).

[eclectica]

KCeasy version 0.13 was released today. It has a few new options, but the one I got a laugh out of was the option called "filtering" to ban certain words from showing up in your own search results. The option is turned off by default but it comes with the following configurable words that would be blocked by default if turned on:
rape,incest,preteen,pre-teen,pre teen,kiddie,virgin,child sex,bestiality,animal sex,pedophile,snuff,fetish,prostitute,scat,pooplovers,rape,torture,perversion,lolita,lollita,spanking,xxx-password,l.o.l.i.t.a,l-o-l-i-t-a,childrensex,childsex,childporn,horsessex,familiysex,pussy,cunt,anal,blowjob,blow-job,blow job,masturbat,masterbat,porn,erotic,orgy,facial,group sex,horny,orgasm,clit,gangbang,gang bang,gang-bang,cumshot,lesbian,slut,fisting,whore,gay,boobs,tits,porno,suck,cock,sperm,voyeur,panties,deepthroat,deep throat,threesome,vibrator,dildo,school girl,school-girl,fellatio,felatio,oral,amateur,bdsm,bondage,latex,Brittany Andrews,Jasmine St. Clair,Jenna Jameson,Kobe Tai,Sylvia Saint,Traci Lords,Raquel Darrian,Nina Hartley,Jill Kelly,Jenteal,Peter North,Rocco,Chasey Lain,Nikki Tyler,Linda Lovelace,Amber Lynn,Tiffany Towers

[eclectica]

KCeasy is alive and well. I only use it for connection to the OpenFT network. I found out how to change your weirdo Russian sounding username that is given to you by default. It is in the file c:\Program Files\KCeasy\giFT\conf\OpenFT\OpenFt.conf. Open the file in notepad and where it says "alias = www.kceasy.com" change "www.kceasy.com" to the name you would like. You probably can't have any spaces or unusual characters in it. Those strange names you see are randomly generated because most people have not changed their default name, and they are used to distinguish one user from the next.

[nanook]

KCeasy version 0.13 was released today. It has a few new options, but the one I got a laugh out of was the option called "filtering" to ban certain words from showing up in your own search results. The option is turned off by default but it comes with the following configurable words that would be blocked by default if turned on:

I'm just not into trying out new p2p apps. I like winmx. It does the job, for now. But I'm lmao at the "filtering"...."pooplover"...that's just hilarious. They make all kinds. lol.
I guess it's good someone does all the beta testing for those who are interested. I'll say thanks for all of them, Eclectica.

[slx]

i've never understood the loyalty some users have for winmx....i never had any luck with it...just waited in lines endlessly....maybe it's a fashion thing



i've been using shareaza for the past few weeks and have found it's much faster with fewer "wait in lines"

easy, small and no spyware

[eclectica]

I'm curious how a dialup user would compare Shareaza to WinMX.

Shareaza is a multinetwork client that connects to Gnutella, Gnutella2 (their own network), BitTorrent, and ED2K. I wonder with all those networks, if there is more sharing or more leeching going on.

[tim]

I'm curious how a dialup user would compare Shareaza to WinMX.

Shareaza is a multinetwork client that connects to Gnutella, Gnutella2 (their own network), BitTorrent, and ED2K. I wonder with all those networks, if there is more sharing or more leeching going on.

Bittorrent used to be the perfect protocol for leechers until the trackers started keeping track of how much you upload...now when using newer bittorrent clients like ABC a lot of my downloads choke or are refused because I cannot fulfill upload requirements by the trackers.

The same holds true for bittorrent support in Shareaza. Shareaza isn't a bad ed2k client either..I rarely if ever used the gnutella support.

Winmx and I never got along with each other...its a trader's network for sure..and for those who like that sort of thing quite a pleasure.

Give me anonymous ftp transfers any day.

[eclectica]

Here is my filesharing history and the clients I have used substantially.

I started out with Napster and then that got shut down in 2001 by the RIAA. Then I tried out WinMX and stuck with it. I got a little sick of the high level of leeching with poor search results and so also alternated between that and Soulseek. I had a fight with Rosalind Arbel and kept getting IMs from her while online, so I quit that program. I then tried out KCeasy for the OpenFT network and eMule using the ED2K network. So the three I use regularly now are WinMX, eMule, and KCeasy.

I've test driven a lot of other p2p programs such as Piolet, Ares, Limewire, TrustyFiles (a bogus p2p program), and Shareaza in the past. Programs I've never tried out are Kazaa and ES5 (another bogus p2p program). My issue with Shareaza was that it was too complicated for me and I didn't like the feel of it.

I still like the feel of WinMX over eMule even though I consider eMule to be the better of the two clients. Soulseek is the closest thing to the original Napster that I know of. It has a cliquish tight-knit community and the network is not scalable and able to grow more than like 100,000, because otherwise Nir and Rosalind Arbel would have to put everybody on more than one server and it would be hard to coordinate their payment system. For raar Soulseek may be the best alternative to WinMX.

I don't know slx's history of p2p programs but I think he was a longtime Kazaa user. So now that he is using Shareaza, that's the first time we're on the same p2p network since the original Napster. This could be a good omen or the sign that the second coming of the p2p messiah, Osama bin Jesus, is coming. Right now I'm connected to the ED2K network which shows 2.5 million users. If you want to see whether you can find me on a network, do a search for "Ochy Curiel".

[nanook]

All I can say is that I never wait in line with Winmx. Get my tunes and get out. Okay, I'll let whoever is downloading at the time finish theirs and then I exit. Man, I am just too cool. lol.

[eclectica]

People are down on dialup users, but let me point out this. On dialup you download at 56 kbps and upload at 33.6 kbps. That's a ratio of 1 : 1.67. Typical broadband speeds are 1500 kbps down and 256 kbps up. That's a ratio of 1 : 5.86. Broadband users are more apt to leech because the asymmetry of their bandwidth is larger.

[tim]

People are down on dialup users, but let me point out this. On dialup you download at 56 kbps and upload at 33.6 kbps. That's a ratio of 1 : 1.67. Typical broadband speeds are 1500 kbps down and 256 kbps up. That's a ratio of 1 : 5.86. Broadband users are more apt to leech because the asymmetry of their bandwidth is larger.

that's a good point.

[slx]

i tried shareaza a long time ago and you're correct, it was somewhat confusing however...

the new version has been updated and made child simple...give it another try & see what you think of the new version

i don't have any luck with anything bittorrent or emule like....my prob is i have a dial up upload rate and a broadband download speed....my upload gets peg'd out....can't surf or do anything

i wish i knew of some place to down good movies...they're hard to find these days

[slx]

I don't know slx's history of p2p programs but I think he was a longtime Kazaa user. with the death of napster i used morpheus for a year or so then discovered (clean)imesh and have used it exclusively for the past couple of years, take or give...i never used, except as a trial, the actual kaaza client

i still try to use imesh from time to time, it's great for tunes but i'm more into downloading flix these days and imesh nor any of the fast track clients are any good for that these days

[eclectica]

i don't have any luck with anything bittorrent or emule like....my prob is i have a dial up upload rate and a broadband download speed....my upload gets peg'd out....can't surf or do anything

Sounds like you have no choice but to leech due to the severe asymmetry of your bandwidth. Satellite users are leeches. When I use the term "leech" I mean someone who downloads more than he uploads. I have a question. Is it possible for you to use the satellite for a normal internet experience, or do you always have to have the phone line tied up? And is it a separate phone line? The reason I am wondering is that normally transfers occur through a TCP/IP connection, which is traffic traveling in two directions.

The new Shareaza I might try out at some point.

[slx]

i have the "one way" system which requires a phone line & modem to make the connection to the web...once connected all traffic is beam'd down via the satellite at speeds equal to cable, sometimes faster

basically uploads are thru the modem, downs are satellite

they have a 2way system that allows faster ups, comperable to your dsl. but to install the equipment is around $700.00 and the cost about 90.00 per month...i think. it's been a long time since i look'd at prices

[slx]

i suppose i am a leech but it's unavoidable...here's a typical day on the farm....http://www.p2pjihad.org/slx/du.JPG

[eclectica]

I'm looking at that picture and wondering how fast you actually upload. Also some say N/A while others have a time under the dialup column. What is the difference between the two? How fast is your top upload speed? I was surprised to see you had uploaded so much. Normally on dialup speeds you would download 20 MB an hour and upload about 13 MB an hour at full speed. Some of your entries like 9/29, 10/2, 10/3, 10/12, 10/15 show a faster speed than that for the time given. The entries for 10/2 and 10/3 show an upload speed at the rate of about 20 MB per hour. Perhaps you upload at 56K instead of 33K? I don't know why uploading would be slower on 56K than downloading but that's just the way it always seems to be. I think that is the nature of the modem's hardware. Does the uploading phone line plug into your computer's modem or into the satellite modem?

[slx]

i have a 56k modem installed like most pc's with a line going to a telephone jack....

when i want to go online using satellite it dials into a node, no different than any other dial up user would do. once connected, like i said above, ups travel across the phone line....downs come thru the satellite. i have a seperate, external satellite modem that in appearance, looks like a dsl modem...it's connected to my pc via usb..no phone lines, only the usb going to the pc, the power cable to a wall outlet and a coaxal cable to the dish that's mounted on the roof. the sat dish is only slightly larger than the mini tv dishes only oval, not round

the times you see in the meter image i posted are only indicative of dial up and not satellite. for some unknown reason, DU meter tracks time on the modem but not when i'm connect'd using satellite....the "N/A" times are satellite.

as you can see from the volume i download, i get "FAP'd"...(you can look it up if your interested)..... if /when i get fap'd which is based on download only, i get shut down basically...i can still connect to the web but with not even enough bandwidth to open the smallest of web pages. when that happens & i'm here, i'll disconnect from satellite and go online with a dial up account.

i do, knock on wood, get good speeds on dial up...up to maybe 15-18kB...with spikes sometimes higher...kel, on the other hand does not, her best downs are @4-8 but she uses a different phone line which might be accountable for the differences between us.

much more than you want'd to know huh?

[eclectica]

much more than you want'd to know huh?

no, I appreciate the detail, thanks for the explanation

I see that the FAP (http://www.copperhead.cc/fap.html) means you downloaded too much and your ISP is limiting you.

The fact that you have the oval dish sounds like your system is ready for uploading by way of satellite. Otherwise you would have the regular DirecTV gray dish. See here (http://www.copperhead.cc/speed.html) and here (http://www.copperhead.cc/satretn.html).

Kel doesn't get good speeds because she can only use the account to connect to the internet by way of dialup. If it were an ethernet modem it would be easy to hook up to a router and share your connection. But what I recommend you try doing is getting hold of an RJ45 crossover (http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/crossover.html) cable to hook up your two computers and use internet connection sharing in Windows so that Kel gets the speeds from the satellite. You can either buy or make your own RJ45 cables. I have the tools to make my own. You would need the heads, the crimper, and the 4-pair CAT5 wire. You can look at this site for a good explanation of how to do it:
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/content-8.html

[nanook]

Hey, Slx, would you recommend satellite? I was thinking about it. Heard it is expensive. Is it, compared to everything else? And who do you use?

[slx]

ec...i could connect kel to satellite but she has no interest...all she does at home is surf. she has cable at the office and does all her downloading there

and raar....i'd only recommend satellite if it's all you can get. i live in the boonies and don't have access to dsl or cable so satellite is my only choice.

the monthly fees are comperable to or maybe somewhere between dsl & cable prices...it's the up front cost of the hardware that's the killer

[edit...
ec...i do have the gray dish...the shape's the same as the one you link'd to]
.

[eclectica]

Hopefully the folks in rural areas will soon be able to get BPL, which is broadband over power lines. If not then maybe the water company can give you internet; at least you can brag about having fat pipes then.
:recall:

[slx]

maybe the water company can give you internet; at least you can brag about having fat pipes then.lol...well that won't work either...we share a private well with several other neighbors

[eclectica]

I tried out the latest version of Shareaza (http://www.shareaza.com/) version 2.1 and still found it complicated beyond my liking. I had trouble telling whether I was connected or not to networks, and how to disconnect. I liked how when you install the program, you are not presented with a EULA but with the GNU GPL that you must agree with. Shareaza also has a nice part in which you can provide information about yourself in a profile, such as where you live and a picture, and what songs you recommend. I think that is important in p2p filesharing, that there is a sense of community. That's what makes one p2p network better than another, and technical considerations become secondary. With a client like Shareaza that connects to many networks I'm concerned that it creates a p2p whorehouse mentality with people getting what they want and not staying connected afterwards to share their files. Leeching is the biggest destroyer of p2p filesharing, and leeching exists in many forms. If you only connect to a p2p network when you want to download something then that is a form of leeching.

[eclectica]

KCeasy version 0.14 was released 2004-12-03.
download (http://www.kceasy.com/download/)

Important changes from 0.13 to 0.14:

* Added config option to become an OpenFT search node
* Added file renaming to library
* Added multi select to library
* Added 'Recent Downloads' folder to Library
* Made Library panels hidable
* Updated VLC to 0.8.1 which fixes sound distortion on seeking and adds wmv3 support
* Added option to cancel download without confirmation
* Fixed exception when selecting search results on machines without MMX
* Fixed download pause problem with very long filenames (giFT)
* Added number of search results to tab caption
* Added player seeking to status bar controls
* Updated VLC and added Goom visualization for audio files
* Added network specific displaying of connection state
* Added sorting of transfers
* Generalized and extended updating of node files/banlists
* Added option to prevent popup blocking
* Added sig2dat support to interal browser
* Added various keyboard shortcuts
* Added button to toggle search result columns
* Added general purpose bookmarking to browser
* Added internationalization code
* Rewrote AVI meta data parser to also work on windows (giFT)
* Added proper Magnet handling for internal browser (still lacks direct download)
* Added search realm for torrents (OpenFT only)
* Made search result columns media type specific

[eclectica]

The web interface opens up with the following message on the info tab:

The OpenFT network currently needs more search nodes to operate efficiently. If you are running KCeasy regularly for a few hours and can spare a few kilobytes per second on your connection please consider becoming an OpenFT search node. You can enabled search node status in the config dialog.

Running KCeasy as a search node is disabled by default in the program. Here's how you do it. KCeasy-->Config-->giFT--> *select* Run as OpenFT search node (will take effect after restart).

Beyond that there are no advanced settings for the amount of people to connect to you or the bandwidth the node will use. It reminds me of the process in WinMX where you can select to run as a primary or secondary (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118) connection to the network.

Your bandwidth when running as a search node, will be about 8 Kbytes per second downstream and upstream. That is when you have about 180 people connected to your port 1215 and the amount of people is constant. You will also see you are connected to about 8 people on their port 1215. Those are probably other search nodes. I saw just one connection to my port 1216 and was wondering if it was a supernode. The downstream seems to increase when the amount of people connecting to your computer increases. Maybe they are uploading files to you and the files are stored in the computer's memory. Hitting ctrl-alt-delete has me see in the Windows Task Manager, memory and processor usage of the main program running things, which is giftl.exe. KCeasy is just the GUI that is driving it. With 180 people connected I was seeing somewhere around 60% processor usage and 30 MB of memory. I figure that searching amongst users increases the processor usage, while sharing of files increases the memory usage.

Here are some differences between running KCeasy as a search node and running WinMX as a primary connection. When you set your total upload bandwidth for WinMX, the total is included in running the node, but with KCeasy that upload bandwidth only controls the people uploading files from you. Another difference is that with KCeasy there are between 100 to 200 people connected to you, while with WinMX it is a smaller amount of secondary users. With WinMX I was seeing maybe three times as many secondary users as primary users, but with KCeasy I am seeing twenty times as many people connected to my port 1215 than those I am connected to on their port 1215. This may be caused by a supply and demand issue, or perhaps on WinMX I always selected the low intensity primary setting, rather than the high intensity one. I've had in the past 200 people connected to the computer by way of running an OpenNap or SlavaNap server, but any more than that is a strain on it, because it is old and slow with 96 MB of memory and a 233 mhz processor. I don't know if the program connects the amount of people based on the abilities of the computer. I recall some kind of setting in Shareaza that would have about 300 people connect by default when running as a node. For me, I would lower that down to 100 on this old computer.

I've been seeing numbers on OpenFT that show around 30,000 users, but they fluctuate a lot and sometimes it is only a few thousand. I don't know how accurate they are and why they fluctuate. Still 30,000 is a big number for OpenFT, and it looks like it could get popular. Right now it is still a bit obscure so there are probably few leeches and consequently good speeds with getting files. I've been seeing people on OpenFT upload mostly popular tunes from me, whereas on WinMX and eMule I see more obscure tunes being uploaded. I think eMule is the best p2p program.

Markus Kern has been an active developer and his latest tinkering with KCeasy involves building in compatibility for the program to be able to connect to the Ares/Warez network. I enjoy using the program considering that it is open source, it is new, and the developer has been working on it as a labor of love and is not driven by greed. The developer's personality makes a big difference in my perception of the program, and vice versa so that I deem developers who make pieces of shit that are loaded with commercialism to be pieces of shit themselves. Obviously the developers and owners of Kazaa, Sharman Networks, are worthless pieces of shit.

I stopped using WinMX except to connect to OpenNap or SlavaNap servers. People complained that Kevin Hearn should make WinMX open source, as he is slow with the development and people are wondering when WinMX 4 will come out. Often the response of WinMX fanboys was that they were ungrateful and ought to go fuck themselves by staying off their elite network. So I'm going to follow their suggestion and go fuck myself by not using WinMX until it becomes open source or version 4 is released. I'm putting the pressure on Kevin Hearn now, as I've raised the stakes. I would rather devote my computer and bandwidth to a promising network, which is OpenFT and KCeasy.

[slx]

the past week or so i've been using kceasy with the gift plugins and get a run time error about every 7-10 minutes....the prog crashes and i have to restart it

went to the forum and found one other complaint of the same but the response wasn't promising...."it's in beta and it's your risk"

i can't figure out how to uninstall the gift plugin or i would

i am getting a lot better results with kceasy though than i have in a long time...i just can't keep it running full time, unattended

[eclectica]

If you have Windows XP SP2, you will get problems with p2p networks when running as a node. It is because it limits the amount of outgoing connections. I wonder if Microsoft did it purposely in its war against p2p. They claim it is for security. There is an advisory (http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/news.cgi?l=1&cat_id=10) about it at eMule, so it is a problem that probably affects all computers running as a node or as a server. This is from the KCeasy site:

SP2 limits the number of concurrent outgoing TCP connection attempts. There is no way to fix this other than by modifying the tcpip.sys system driver. You can do this by using the patch available at www.lvllord.de (http://www.lvllord.de/). Please note that this modifies critical parts of your Windows system and you can reverse the changes using the same patch in case there are any problems.

[slx]

i don't have sp2 installed & have no plans to do so until i have to

[eclectica]

i can't figure out how to uninstall the gift plugin or i would

I figure that if you were to uninstall the program and afterwards delete the folder c:\Program Files\KCeasy and reinstall everything with the newest version, that would get rid of the problem of having unwanted plugins. I don't quite know what you mean by the "giFT plugin" because the program comes with giFT included so it's not really a plugin. There is an old FastTrack plugin and a newer Ares plugin which is still in beta development. The plugins are located at c:\Program Files\KCeasy\giFT\plugins. I have only two files there now: Gnutella.dll and OpenFT.dll. Those are the two networks which come standard now with KCeasy. I have not installed any extra plugins.