Hi,

here's another idea. I have been thinking about a way to make it easier to find "that one user" ;-) that has the file you are looking for.

First idea was having a user name. Problem here is, that you would need a central server to
a) ensure that each user name is unique
and
b) to keep a list of all users that are online

so basically the user name Idea does not make much sense. There is however, another possibility.

Organizations like dyndns.org offer free dynamic dns servers, i.e. your IP changes, but you can alway be reached under somename.dyndns.org.

Why not allow the user to enter this information in Xolox (preferrably in a non-plain text format ;-). This would allow for the following:

- I have a file that someone else wants. Either
a) the other user has a static hostname (that is mapped to a dynamic DNS). Once I go online, my Xolxo client contacts that user (directly, no server needed !) to let him know that I am online and the requested file is available again or
b) I have the static hostname and the other user's Xolox client tries to connect to my static hostname, so chances are he wil find me once I go online.

This would, of course, also work the other way around. I am not sure how complicated it would be to implement, but it would make completing downloads a lot easier and probably even help decrease the load on the Gnutella network.

I do see one problem: While I don't mind another Xolox client knowing my static hostname, it would s**k if someone working for the RIAA / MPAA could easily get it through Xolox.

What do you think about it ?

The queue guy ;-)

Handing out that many DNS's would not be resourceful and there are easier ways at going about this. The concept of being able to browse another user , etc has been thought about and may be included in the future.

Browsing another user's shared files would be nice, but how would that help me find that particular user ('s files) the next day, unless he had a static IP?

Would sending the information "myaddress.dyndns.org" along with my IP and agent version (i.e. Xolox, Limewire...) really use that many network resources ?

The dynamic DNS service itself would not be hosted by Xolox. Xolox would only use the information (user myaddress.dyndns.org has file "y").

It would be wasteful, require some type of username and be well, pointless. If you want to download from a friend, use a client specifically for that purpose. If you want a particular file, searching 10000 comps and getting it at 5times the speed is better than looking through 1 comp.

Getting your ip is already very easy [although somewhat random], but there's no way in hell the riaa/mpaa would go after a normal user on it when they can try and takedown the entire network =)