Xolox kicks ***. Why? Because it can download the same file from several people simultaneously. No other gnutella client does that. The biggest problem I see with Xolox is that there does not seem to be any standard conventions for naming files. Since xolox downloads from multiple servers it must see the exact same name and filesize. This creates a problem because people tend to rename their files(to get rid of extra words like "works" or "tested") once they are downloaded therefore not allowing xolox to see that there may be many files that are exactly the same with only slight differences in the name.

That's not quite right. XoloX does not find more servers by exact file name and file size, but by search querry and file size.

Shrek.avi
Shrek[divx].avi
Shrek[divx](320x240).avi

would all be found and used if they had the same size and you searched for 'shrek avi'

how about
MI2.mpg
Mission Impossible 2.mpg
Movies-missionimpossible2.mpg

If you do a search yes you will see all three listed separately each with a score of their own. You could download each of them seperately. That isn't the point.

The point is that Xolox should figure out that they are the same (or allow you to manually combine them into a single listing), IF THE FILE SIZES WERE EXACT.

That was instead of three listings each with a score of 2, you would then see one listing with a score of 6.

If you then chose to download this, Xolox would then be able to download it from six sources for a much faster download then it would have had they not been combined into a single entry.

I am currently downloading "Tomb Raider, Divx.avi" and "Tomb Raider, Divx(1) only fast downloads.avi" separately even though the file sizes are both 701,380,608 bytes. Unforuately one download got to 50% and then stalled while the other is just gotten itself up to 25%.

If Xolox were able to combine matching files by file size (even though one has been renamed by a user) then my download would be currently at 75%.

There is a VERY REMOTE chance that two users separetely ripped the movie using different settings or codecs but the two files just happened to have the identical file size. If the downloads were combined as described the resulting file would be a useless corrupted file. Now realistically, what are the chances of the happening (one is 701.38 million, I'd guess). So I'd have to conclude that the combining idea would in reality be VERY SAFE.

Okay, I'm quoting myself because I can't edit.

It would seem that Xolox already has the feature that I mentioned. My problem was that I attempted to download Tomb Raider twice and it has been renamed in between those two searches. I will be careful about this in the future.

More on this can be found in the feature request form under "combining similar downloads".

Coolio.

So thats way these large file get bad CRC's in them
when complete......AHH

I have just started using xolox, and I like it a lot mostly because it tends to start downloads right away. It would be good though if it worked a bit more like edonkey2000 (www.edonkey2000.com)
edonkey makes a CRC and filesize of a given file and then makes a identifier out of that.
So if people rename the file edonkey still finds the files with the same content. I am still trying out which one of these 2 programs I like more

have fun and share

[quote]how about
MI2.mpg
Mission Impossible 2.mpg
Movies-missionimpossible2.mpg[/quote
If you search for mission impossible you will get the last two, but not the first one, naming files with acronyms isn't a good idea anyway imo.

As for using CRCs, well, XoloX was going to do this, but there is no support in any other client yet. Hopefully the XoloX team has been reading up on the Full File Hashes and subsequently the HUGE specification at The GDF.

Is Xolox really the only P2P software to use multiple source downloading for the same file??? I'm fairly sure the latest Gnotella version does this.

www.gnotella.com


Also, do you hate pop-up windows?? I sure do, as I visit many sites that have a lot of them (wink, wink). Try this little program. It's free and has no spyware.

http://www.popupstopper.net/product_dpps.html