Phex 2.6.2 released
 

The focus of this release is on a more intuitive GUI, more configurable downloads and more reliable bandwidth throttling.

Additionally Phex now includes the www.bluetack.co.uk - bad-host database, a ban-list, which blocks known spam- and secret service IP-ranges.

Language support has also been improved; Phex is now completely localised in German and a funky variant: "German WortWörtlich".

And last but not least, Phex is now able to read out PodCast-files along with the known magma-lists, and to create custom rss-files with included magnet-links.

To avoid any legal hassle, Phex now states clear and unmistakeably in a dialog at startup (which can be disabled after seeing it for the first time), that users should respect their local copyrght-laws, and that Phex can in no way control or monitor the content of the Gnutella Network, for this is the sole responsibility of the users, who share and download by their own choice.

This time, the MacOSX-version comes in par with the Windows- and Linux-version.

A gentoo-ebuild is on the way.

Get Phex at http://phex.kouk.de

Full changelog:
http://sourceforge.net/project/shown...ease_id=351234

Nice! I'll be sure to give it a go this weekend :)

ciao

First let me say that the interface is much better in osx and windows xp. Congrats.

Now the things that are irritating me ;)

1) the size column with all the file sizes displayed in KB, that should be like a system that makes differences between units. I think that a max of two digits after the dot should be allowed to display those numbers
For files below a MB: display ie 875 KB
For files over a MB: display 22,5 MB
For files over a GB: 1,21GB

Those speed number should also be changed in the download tab, it will use less space in numbers and be much less confusing.

2) is the rating column still relevant? I see that it could be useful in trying a source over another, but... I don't think this is really useful since users prefer files with the most sources.

3)For downloads, upon busy host, Phex still keep those guys in the active sources from which it tries to download. It should try another source ASAP and only keep downloading/queued hosts. While they deserve to be kept in the alt-loc mesh, those sources have 90% chances to be no help for the particular dl the user just started. This will improve dls speeds tremendously.

4) since there is a view menu with all the hide/show options, what is the purpose of the icons column as show as attachment? That's the most ugly piece of the Phex interface IMO

All for this version. Looking forward testing the next improved Phex. Good work guys.

It took me a while to get back... and I dont have the interface in front of me right now to check what you mean... but...

1) I think file sizes are displayed in full length currently. This will be improved sooner or later. I think full file size display is importent since a single byte difference can count. But a better display will come. This release was focused to format all kind of speed values better.

The Speed number in download tab?? Dont know what you mean ;) maybe the transfer rate?
There is a speed column in search tab but this one displayed just numbers before and is now extended with text.

2) The relevance of the Rating column is questionable... I try come up with a better way to display the quality of a file.

3) Phex download candidate selection should iterate over all candidates before it retries a busy candidate. A busy candidate gets a penalty of 60 seconds during which it is not tried again even if all other candidates have been tried.
But this is not blocking a slot directly. After a candidate is found busy the next candidate is tried immediatly.

4) You can turn of the icons column (the toolbar) from the options. Personally I dont use the view menu, just the toolbar. I'm willing and very happy to replace the ugly icons with anything better anyone can offer.


Thanks for your feedback and good ideas. They help a lot to make Phex a bit better with every release.

Salut Gregork, I appreciate your work.

1)

aren't sha1 better than that? And since Phex groups same sha1 (same file size also) together... Really, I never would have found a use for that in 4 years of P2P usage... Do you see me recommend a file of 7 908 345 bytes to someone else?

Ya transfer rates, sorry ;) Very confusing stuff even for me, I feel it is also for 99,5% of the P2P population. A display of 23,5kB/s is much more efficient and P2P users are used to it (hell majority don't understand the diff between kB and kb... Edit: the column size showing the number of bytes downloaded over the totla number of bytes is what I meant (I believe). It should state 8,3 mB of 701,3mB.

3) Edit: .89 seems to do correct here. I removed prefs before installing, and I'm firewalled this time (intentional, bien sûr!)

4) didn't see that option, sorry. But default should be without it, with option to make it appear. The iconbar is confusing and even with better icons it clutters the screen. Default matters, and Phex GUI would be much more appealing to new users without it. Remember I'm a poor Mac user and interface is important ;) (I know, I know, you are a coder so the efficient GUI thingy is not the same :D )

I quite don't agree in making Phex prefs a .phex folder. That's one of the things I hate the most about UNIX apps philosophy. At the very least they should be in the Phex folder or simply comply to the different OS prefs traditions. A readme should say that you only drag and drop updates files in the Phex folder which would avoid deleting Phex prefs. We gotta think user friendly here.

Ciao! Danke

In the View menu, the first element is Toolbar, you can switch the toolbar on an off with it.

I know the prefs folder is generating trouble here and there. The problem is I dont know all the different systems and how they deal with it. What I want is a way to store the Phex preferences user independent (supporting multiple user pref per system), of course in the usual way the system is doing it...
What is the preferred way on Mac, Linux, Windows and so on....
This is the same problem with the better selection of the default download directory...

On the Mac I can tell you:

Simply place this folder at:

~/Library/Application Support/Phex