IS THERE ANY POINT OR IS IT TIME TO SAY RIP WINMX?

[jmbrighton]

Is the issue affecting WINMX something that can be repaired or is it time to accept that the hackers have won? I see nothing that suggests it will ever be fixed here... Month after month we slog along in hope... month after month nothing seems to change.

I’ve been loyal to WINMX for a good number of years and still have two instances of WINMX running that shares something in the region of 19,000 high quality files.  Like many others I have been forced to jump ship and host my many other files elsewhere such as Shareaza, to be frank I can have a considerably higher UL and DL speed on Shareaza than here which can at times be at a standstill. WINMX monitor seems to be ineffective now and the programme in general is struggling.

With so many of the main traders now elsewhere and no evidence of any solution perhaps we should be put out of our misery? Some primary traders remain here but mostly it is small traders left with minimal files. Most of my new files are from elsewhere nowadays, I have to copy them to my WINMX folders to make available here.

I’ve seen mention of considerable work being done here for a good many months but I can’t see any improvements or evidence of what is being done. By reviewing this forum every few months I see little to encourage us.

Is there somewhere here where progress is logged with a brief overview of what has been happening?

It is not my intention to insult the voluntary programmers and technical team who contribute to running this programme I’m just asking the question that many others would like to ask but are afraid to do so.

[achilles]

I believe there will be a fix but I do not believe it will be soon contrary to what I have been informed here at the forum.  I will be waiting for when that day comes. Decentralized networks like WinMx will once again be in high demand since it appears Government and Corporations may soon make torrent sites extinct. It's a shame that technology and innovation is being declared illegal and not the users that share copyrighted material.

[wonderer]

Another try to make us believe one P2P program can give faster downloads than another one can give

Anyone that suggests this should make a deeper investigation how TCP/IP works and then return to this bord,

WinMx has some limitations that have to do with windows95 compatibility but can compete with any multi p2p client

As far as development of a a new client concerns, please be patient.

WinMx has been declared death many years ago and look, we still are here and if it all should depend on me we will be here many years after this.

We are NOT going down

[silicon_toad2000]

jmbrighton maybe check this thread

https://forum.winmxworld.com/index.php?topic=11644.0.html

Many others have already read it.

[jmbrighton]

@ achilles.
Thanks for your encouraging comments. I do hope you are right.

@ wonderer.
My reference to another P2P program was for comparison and not a veiled attempt to promote another service.

WINMX when functioning properly can and does compete well with other P2P clients and in most cases it is superior. The truth is that for the past seven or eight months it has failed and resolving the problem has been slow.

I’m not trying to be rude or nasty, just frank. We have been told that WINMX will be fixed and that developers are working on it already, yet we are still in the same predicament as we were several months ago. There appears to be little, if any noticeable progress.

From time to time you can search for a file and the results will return a list of what you ask for, but this doesn’t last long. The truth is for most of us that the results received is an endless list of digits ££/FF^%$/~^+*%%$$£##~. If you are not getting this on a regular basis you are indeed lucky.

[GhostShip]

The problems associated with WinMX are ones that are not trivial to resolve so the "nuclear" option is the one that's being followed and that's a complete rebuild of the client JM, as you may guess this is neither the simplest nor the fastest solution but it is the only long term one that will end the childish stupidity.

In case your not aware of the history of the network, we here are a support site but not the originators of the network client software and thus we don't have the src code that would make updates and bug fixes trivial, so as you can guess its an uphill battle but one we are undertaking with good progress and what keeps us all holding firm is our trust in each other, we have faced attacks before and always been able to recover the situation and we hope to once again, I hope the users who have been driven away return at that stage and those holding out continue to do so, but one thing that is guaranteed never to happen is for anyone here to give up on doing the best we can to deliver solutions and support when its required.

[achilles]

Major problem  with this project is that more talented coders are needed, but there's no way of knowing who can be trusted to grant  access to the project due to the malicious attacks on the network. Coders  have offered assistance but  very few have been given access to the source code for the current client In progress..

[¿Åliçe]

As far as I can see - there are still a lot of users on winmx with huge file collections of all types, it's just that the search function cannot find them due to the attacks. You have probably already read the ways around this, parking in chat rooms and asking people, or using the room search bot. 
I have to agree with Achilles about the safety of torrent sites vs decentralized p2p, in light of recent events.  Even if I wasn't such a diehard supporter of winmx, I would be seriously rethinking abandoning ship now.

[GhostShip]

You hit the nail on the head Achilles in one way, src code can be turned from something useful into a weapon in the right hands and this would be an issue in the first few builds as many of the required new safety mechanisms are incompatible with our current network and we would need major user support to move ahead and its also true that few are felt trustworthy/responsible enough to gamble the networks future on, its also felt some who have offered their help are believed have done so only to try to grab the work already completed for their own private projects, and that leaves the rest who are not able to code in the right languages or to the right level of expertise.

All that aside I dont feel there are any major problems, each hurdle is being jumped as it arises and progress has not stopped since the project was started as the top priority project in august, prior to that it was simply a side project along with the secondary client and patch developement research, its a slow slog I agree but it will reach its climax and then greater client functionality and new features will become possible rather than sit as a pipe dream amongst some of the more disgruntled users, and any exploit fixes for as-yet-unknown issues can be rolled out within hours rather than months.

[cuttingedge]

Even if EVERY LAST USER takes their files and goes home, I Cutting Edge will still be here....Waiting for the connection to return. I doubt that will ever happen but still....The point is there thousands of users out there that will not walk away as long as WinMX makes a connection.  Ya can put that in ya shareaza and smoke on it! I gotta say that after reading all kinds of bad shareaza all over the globe about file sharing for the past few months I would think people would be greatful to still have this even if its a bit broken. HEY....This is free, Ask yourself what else is free today? NOTHING! Nothing is free.
For all the users that feel like they want to lash out (Whens it gonna be done! Whens it gonna be ready!) Ya think a new client comes out like a shareazen pancake???? NO! It's going to be done when it's done and if ya don't like that answer, blow it out ya shareaza!!!!!

*CE takes deep breaths now....

Woha be gone......Serenity now!
 I need to take a physical vacation soon.....

 :vomit:SHAREAZAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[White Stripes]

Some primary traders remain here but mostly it is small traders left with minimal files.

(emphasis mine)

Even if EVERY LAST USER takes their files and goes home, ........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opennap

..thats my take on the wpn situation anyway (since the search function on nap works)... amazing what the opennap using mxers are sharing... ...the selfish 'traders' can take their files elsewhere for all i care... ...last thing folks need in a time of a seriously screwed up network is ppl who hide behind a 100+ deep queue that only 'moves' for their 'friends'...

* Silver Stripes grumbles

[jmbrighton]

WINMX is indeed free to use, as are several others, therefore it is not exclusive in that respect. Other P2P also suffer operational issues and again it is not exclusive to WINMX. The difference is the speed at which the operational issues affecting these other services is attended to and resolved.

To flourish again, WINMX needs users to upload and share content with ease and be accessible. It would be arrogant to believe that any community can grow if it views users in a negative way, such as suggesting that if they don’t like it they can go away. This approach has been adopted a number of times in various sectors of society where certain people or departments remain blinkered and ignore what is required of them in an ever changing world, failing to understand this usually results in disaster.

Thankfully there are people here who have more encouraging news and I thank those for their input. It is what WINMX needs.

The solution is simple.

Continue working to resolve the issues affecting WINMX and communicate clearly, professionally and effectively.

Why not a status announcement on the opening front page, a paragraph that clearly informs readers without the need to troll through pages to try and find some hope?

[White Stripes]

Why not a status announcement on the opening front page, a paragraph that clearly informs readers without the need to troll through pages to try and find some hope?

since its a mix of reverse engineering, hardining of the parts that are found to be weak, and making a stable end product out of such an effort.... a 'status' would be very much a moving target... also need a team that can keep that status up to date... not easy when the team is very small and works in spare time on a project whose source has to be kept under wraps less a leak do more damage than good....

[cuttingedge]

Woha! Free???? again Is there anything free??? And to add to that is there anything in life worth while that doesn't take a bit a work? I'll tell ya a secret Jimbo..... Those search results you get you were talkin about in an earlier post? I dont use open nap too often, I use the WPN and rarely get those screwy results, and all I did was screw with my patch to limit my conections. I am by far no programmer and most of it is Greek to me but with a bit of WORK and experimentation, I dont have thoses problems....Am I willing to elaborate? I think I gave away too much already.....
And for those Guests and members creating and following these rant threads......FIGURE IT OUT! THIS IS P2P!

CE GIVES MUCH RESPECT TO THE STAFF HERE AT THIS SITE FOR ALL THEY HAVE GIVEN FOR FREE
AND CONTINUE TO GIVE, I FEEL YOU GUYS DESERVE SO MUCH MORE THAN THESE CONTINUAL KICKS IN THE
SHAREAZA.

[MinersLantern]

When the attacks stop, as they do once in awhile, randomly.
The rooms and files suddenly reappear.
Yes the user base has dropped but winmx is far from dead.
I would think it would be helpful if the constant (outgoing attempts) against the Defense Dept would come to a halt. 29.xxx.xxx.xxx-30.xxx.xxx.xxx. PG is slow, does too much just to block traffic.
A firewall set to block anything in or out to those ips could work, if the peeps using winmx generally knew how to do it. Not to rehash my old complaints (well, actually yes to) 
Time, at least for the time being, to make some kind of temp patch to block those ips (outgoing).
Unpatched users to be not allowed to connect at all. With a warning in the winmx window as to what is about to take place. Every single winmx client on earth constantly trying for the Dod does not make for efficient traffic flow. If the blocklist were to apply to outgoing ips as well as incoming, it will need updating from time to time. So what? How many ip ranges is KM or whoever going to try? Is this going to be his full time job? If so, I dont think its going to pay very well.
Maybe KM can get himself a limitless supply of meth and stay up 24/7/365 changing attack ips while paying his rent with mastercard... A bunch of people on winmx watching and making changes to such a blocklist that applies globally (or near so) is something that KM cannot compete with.
Moreover, I dont understand the extreme secrecy as to exactly how the attacks work. Look around... as long as these attacks are happening, winmx is dead and buried. If some people that have shown interest in winmx and have some idea of programming are informed, what are they going to do? Kill it? Cant kill whats already dead.

[GhostShip]

I don't agree its dead , its crippled for sure but hardly dead, as for the secrecy its pretty obvious what happened last time information was released by a reckless person and folks who used to be regular critics here came by saying we where overreacting etc when we tried to clean up the mess, I don't see any of those ignorant folks here anymore, one attacker is enough without empowering others to attack the network.

The reason why your simple blocking strategy will not work in this instance is currently the attacker is utilising a sequential counter and its trivial to undertake this style of attack on any range or even all of them, we have already seen the attacks pretend to come from ourselves so do we add all IP's to the blocklist ?

One thing we do agree on Miners is that something needs to be done and pronto, I cant speak for the whole site but I know that besides the client build other work is going on that could be used to turn the tide and as usual its research based and thus I,m not going to say much more about it but please watch the blocklist over the next week and evaluate for yourself if we are making any dent in the flow of attacks.

I too want to see the criminals and cowards driven away but please bear in mind we don't have all the answers all of the time, if you have a strategy you think will work then outline it in further detail and I will see if it holds water or not, I don't come here to say "no" to people I come here to listen and learn and folks do the same with my words, all I,m saying is try not to pre judge when you may not have all the information in hand, I know you come to post here out of frustration and not malice however you have to have some faith in us here, if there was some jiffy solution I assure you it would be deployed by now.

[White Stripes]

PG is slow, does too much just to block traffic.

pg2 is obsolete ... use peerblock...

and as far as 'slow' goes its the UIs logic (specifically the scrolling window of blocked ips) thats slow... the driver itself catches all the ips... just minimize the main window to lower cpu load to nill when blocking mass amounts of ips...