combining similar downloads
 

Often I see the same video clip available with two distinct names but the identical file size. Obviously someone has renamed the file after they received it but this reduces the score of the item and makes it more inconvient to other users who want to download it. It would be nice if people did not rename the files so the system can identify which file is which (although I have been quite guilty of this myself).

To deal with this, it would be nice if you could have Xolox combine two different files into one aggregated download (if the file sizes match). I realize that this could result in a corrupted download if two separately recorded media files were encoded with different codecs but just happen to end up the exact same size (come on really what's the chance of this?).

My point can be illustrated right now with the Tomb Raider video clip which is currently available as "tomb raider, divx.avi" and "tomb raider, divx(1) only fast downloads.avi". Both files are 701,370,608 bytes.

I believe there is a way to trick Xolox into resuming by modifying the resumeinfo.txt file but the problem I see if that if one version is online and you get a bit but then it goes offline so you fix the resumeinfo.txt file to get it going again. But then that server goes offline and you want to switch back to the original, etc...

This resumeinfo.txt fix requires a lot of work and I would like to see this process automated because the resumeinfo fix is too much of a bother for me to well.... bother.

Of course if people would not rename the files then it wouldn't be a problem. If...

Normally this shouldn't happen. When your search request fits both files and they are both exactly the same size Xolox normally automatically assumes that they are in fact the same file and will only display one of the two (the one it found first).

This could only happen if you made two different search requests and selected one file in each. Which would be unnecessary, since Xolox will see that the new file does fit your search terms AND is the same size ...

The Seeker had some very extensive descriptions about this. Maybe you should look them up.

Ah, ha. It is indeed possible that they were selected in two different searches thus causing the problem. I just did a search now and I no longer see the file that I had just been downloading a second ago. Well it's nice to see that my feature request has been taken care of even well, before I made it.

I will be careful about selecting the same file from different searches even if it has been renamed.

I take it then that I am free to rename the files that I download. I recently noticed that StarWars: Phantom menace had german titles and english vocals. I assume then that I can rename to the file to reflect this without damaging its score or affecting other users. Now I wonder if my name has made it onto the search of if it will still show the original name in the search.

Well, I can't really say how other gnutella clients handle this issue, but Xolox would probably be fine, as long as the search terms still match the file. For example if you had a file named

starwars_phantom_menace(divx).avi

and will rename it into

starwars_phantommenace(english_voice_german_titles ).avi

a search request for "phantom menace" would still hit both files. But a search for "phantom menace divx" would obviously not.

I for one am all for renaming files so that they represent as much info as possible, but that may just be because at the moment I'm trying to get the whole Dragonball Animes and I hate it when they are japanese without subtitles, but nobody says that... :rolleyes:

For your question which name will be displayed: that depends which file was found first. Since most files will have the "original" name it will most likely be found first and therefore be displayed and your renamed file will be included in this group by xolox without displaying it explicitely (one can look up those different names in the "resumeinfo.txt" in ones Xolox directory).