VeeshanVault

Currently I am using:

Gnucleus
Limewire
Shareaza

So far I get the best results from Limewire. It has a minimum of advertisements and even those are only self promoting.

Gnucleus is nice due to lack of any type of ads or popups but it lacks useful information like what kind of connection I am downloading from. It also is a bit hard to configure.

Shareaza is totally new so there are not a lot of people using it. One of the reasons I started this thread is so that people know that this exists. It is like a cross between Limewire and Gnucleus, taking the best from both. Like I said though, it lacks a user base so it is tough to find things that you want. This also is utilizing Gnutella 2, the next step in peer to peer.

I just thought I'd post this seeing as how I am at work downloading like a feind.

I still use kazaa lite and get everything I look for. I don't see myself switching until I can't find particular songs or videos.

Kazaa Lite owns

I just make everyone I know rip their cds for me and then d/l it from them, heh.

If you guys are interested in sharing some stuff send me a PM and I can set you up an account on my FTP site - currently I have about 30gigs of mp3s - full albums - 256kbps and up

Kazaa lite++ "www.k-lite.tk" is what I've been using after testing out a few Kazaa clients.

It's got a couple of features that put it a head above the rest. The creators of the program didn't agree with kazaa's implementation of user levels so they locked the client at 1000 user level, and have all users connecting to you recognized as having a 666 level so that everyone is equal, uploads to people are done on a first come first served basis. I've never been a fan of the user levels that kazaa put in, since forcing people to be credited with a 1:1 upload/download ratio isn't very fair. Many people are stuck on 56k modems, or DSL with only a 128k upload, and many others are stuck with a download limit imposed on them by their ISP. Giving people a 2:1 or 3:1 upload/download credit ratio would've been a lot more fair, hopefully they'll change that in the future.

The big thing about K++ is the unlimited "search more" option. Normal kazaa lite limits you to one search, and one "search more". With K++'s unlimited searches you're a lot more likely to find files that aren't as popular. You'll also be able to find more users with high bandwidth, instead of having to settle for one source who's on a 56k modem.

Another advantage is the"Auto Search More" program. Once executed it will run along side Kazaa++. As the name implies, once you start the program and begin a search in kazaa for a file, the search will continue until you tell it to stop. This normally results in finding 100 or more sources for a file after 5 to 10 minutes of searching. It can also be a great tool for finding REALLY rare files.

The last good thing is that it comes with a program called "Speed Up". This program isn't exclusive to K++, I believe it also comes with the normal version of kazaa lite, but it seems to me that a lot of people don't understand what it does. This program also runs along side your kazaa client and basically goes down your list of queued download files doing "find more sources" on each file at an interval that you set. I've got mine set to go down the list pausing 2 seconds between each file and restarting the process every 20 seconds. This normally results in me downloading almost all of my files at anywhere between 50 and 100k a second due to it constantly trying to find faster sources, or adding on extra sources to speed up the transfer. Kazaa on it's own doesn't try to find more sources very often, something like once every 5 minutes or more, which is why this program can be so helpful.

It took me a while to figure this stuff out since most kazaa related documentation isn't very thorough, but it was worth it. After messing around with it for a while, I've started to believe that you can find anything on kazaa if you look around long enough. I've found every single album I've ever looked for, although a few took a couple of days of searching. I've also managed to grab entire seasons of television shows like undeclared (why'd that get cancelled?!), undergrads, sex and the city seasons 4 and 5, the newest season of oz, six feet under season 2 (HBO isn't available where I live), and the new season of the osbournes (MTV isn't either).

Anyway, check out kazaa lite++, it's definitly the best kazaa client available.

Echols/Morrow

anyone use mp3u.com? just saw it today, it advertises itself as napster replacement