Since V0.97 onwards, Gnotella installs an additional file called aFileDB.exe.
This file runs parallel to the main gnotella.exe and uses a lot of resources and CPU power.

Gnotella.exe doesn't want to start without it, but once it has setteled in, one can kill the aFileDB.exe thread and gnotella happily works away.
It only coughs up when trying to change some settings.

So what is the meaning of this new file? Anybody knows?
How come I sometimes find upto 5 or more aFileDB.exe threads in my task window????

Gnotella 0.99 is great, the info on hosts, shared files etc. is just excellent. But it looks like it is setup to follow Bearshare paths to do more than the unsuspecting user wants it to do, expects and is told.

Like with Bearshare, unless you follow the forums, understand the nitty griddy of installations, adaware programs etc., you are a pawn ready to be served to whoever pays the bugs to the software developer (meaning all your surfing habits, down/uploads and harddrive contents).

So what is ' aFileDB.exe ' really doing ????


J

AfileDB is an ActiveX component I wrote that does the following things:
1.Scans your shared files (ONLY those in specified directories)
2.Processes the searches of the gnutella network
3.Does the "Pings" available from popup menus in the connections and search windows
4.Watches the directories for changes if you have that option enabled
5.Your webpage is built here too.

Its in a seperate exe for threading purposes, I experimented with some different methods, hence you may have seen multiple copies of it in some versions.

It is the CPU user of Gnotella. If you share many files, you can see it, as you add more files the CPU usage of AFileDB.exe will increase, increase the number of connections, and thus the number of searches, it will increase.

It DOES NOT contain any kind of spyware or other data gathering activities that you are unaware of except scanning your shared files and that is kept locally and is not even saved when you close the program, hence it rescans when it starts up.

The next version has DRAMATIC improvements in CPU usage by this component, the Ping functionality will not be in this component so that it does not access the internet in any way so as to cause people to suspect its true functionality.

I will state it again, Gnotella contains NO spyware/adware that does anything without your consent. The only possible exception to this is that when you start up it contacts gnotella.com and gets a file called updates.txt and displays it in the options window and tells you if a new version is available. This is for update purposes only to let users know a new version is out. I hope this acceptable, I could add an option to turn it off and still allow users to click the get news button to find out about a new version if people don't like that though.

I hope that clears it up, I must say I'm surprised Gnotella would run for a length of time with the file not running, without it you would not be responding to anyones searches, you can see that on the stats screen where you will see no new matches as the searches will only go into a black hole. I have no ideas about any users surfing habits or hardrive contents other than the files I find when I use Gnotella myself.

Shaun

Wow, I'm *very* happy to hear the CPU issue will soon be dealt with. IMHO It's the main thing keeping Gnotella from being the best Gnutella app out there (well, that and not being able to restart downloads from a different server ;-).

Thanks for the info on aFileDB.exe.
I would advise you to make this information part of the help, or at least in a text file together with the rest.
It does look and act strange, and can get users to suspect anything.

And YES, turning the auto notification optional is definitely necessary!
If Gnotella works greast, users want to find out if there are new versions out anyway.
But if Gnotella accesses the web and talks back to it's 'master', then users do become suspicious, unecessarily.

An update check in the setup is doing away with that.

Kind Regards

J