March update: I have created an up-to-date connection list for BearShare. 'Hopefully' people will find this helpful for connecting. This installer will install an up-to-date list of BearShare hosts to connect to and an up-to-date list of other Gnutella clients for BearShare users to connect to. BearShare must be closed when you run this connectfix.
Don't worry if you do not connect to other BearShare clients initially or even on the first run. The important thing is to get connected and the longer you stay connected the better your next run will be for connecting (and also the better the chance for connecting with other BearShare users.) Connecting might be slow at first, be patient.
Edit: I fixed the bug with BearShare discarding 90% of the non-BearShare hosts and 70% of the UDP hosts upon first run.
If you ran BearShare during same session before running the Connectfix and BearShare does not connect well, reboot your computer and use the Connectfix again.
In fact, I find a computer reboot helps on other occasions also for connecting.
Edit: now only one Connection installer, simply choose between regular BearShare or the 5.1 beta in the installer itself. Three download site options:
1.
BearShare ConnectFix 2013 (Please note, you need to be a free member of 4Shared to download from their facilities.)
2.
Mirror site: Find all the Connection installers "here" and choose from the folder. (disable your browser's AdBlock to use the iFileIt/Filecloud site.
Sample image download instructions using FW4 as an example.)
3. Alternatively download via Hotfile
mirror site, 15 second wait:
BearShare Connection Fixes via Hotfile
Keep in mind most BearShare versions require
port forwarding for both TCP and UDP.
(Find your brand and model, skip the advertisements, then find BearShare on the list of applications to port forward for.)
Once connected, you should see a static green light top-right of the BearShare window. If this is yellow, it means you are firewalled and need to port forward your router for both TCP and UDP. The longer you stay connected to the network, the easier you will find it for connecting in subsequent sessions.
Safety first: Note: If you are new to using BearShare, it is recommended you help protect yourself from the major spam and ping sources via an up-to-date Hostiles block list.
The TechNutopia Fullsize Hostiles List for BearShare and LimeWire. This hostiles block list will block out a a high percentage of spam and also help prevent the other activities of the RIAA and MIAA sponsored anti-file-sharing companies. Installer is available for ease of putting the hostiles file in the right place for BearShare users. The Hostiles file is presently being updated at least fortnightly (that equates to every 2 weeks for USA english speaking persons lol.) I have since packaged the BS 5.1 Beta installers with a 2012 Hostiles installer. Updates of course will be provided in the link suggested above. And see bottom part of this post
Hostiles and your firewall about firewall protection. Some firewalls allow you to specify blocks to apply only to a specific program (such as BearShare.)
Since March 2012, 4Shared has changed to a member's only allowed to download. iFileIt (now called Filecloud) allows guests to download on condition you are not using advertisement blockers with your browser, or else you will be prompted to sign up to download from the site. It is easy to tell your adblocker to ignore a particular site like Filecloud. But as a guest at Filecloud you may need to do a reCaptcha test before you can download. Membership at both 4Shared and Filecloud is free, unless you want premium services. I have also provided a Hotfile mirror download link, choice is yours.
If the above installer title dates are old, it's usually because I forgot to update this post. But the installers will most likely be reasonably up to date. Sometimes I update the installers just a day or two after I did a major update for them, or even several times over a week or more. (I will occasionally update the installer files on the fly (well, not totally.) Though the download links will remain the same.
My approach for the connection list is to attempt to collate hosts who have Static or Sticky Dynamic addresses. Some ISP's use Sticky Dynamic IP Addressing and do not change the IP address very often, anywhere between a month and a year. It is pointless including host addresses that will change within 1 to 7 days. I try to identify which are the same hosts via their shares and port numbers and location and similarity of addresses. My connection list is a little artificial in that I prioritize those that are mostly online, particularly static hosts and push them further up the top of the list. But yes there are also hosts that only try BS out for a week or so which is unfortunate. The good thing about BS is once you connect to one BS peer, you will usually connect to others very soon after as the peer gives your BS a list of known/detected BS peers online. Sometimes if BS is being stubborn to connect to BS peers, I manually add them one by one from a connection list into the BS connection window.
I am sometimes puzzled when I have connected to a peer several times on different BS's on different Windows and they are not added to the BS connection list despite the list only being half full. And that host may have been online without stop for 5 consecutive days. It makes me wonder about BS's host caching logic.
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