Author Topic: On security (Read 3926 times)

shamil · « **on:** August 13, 2010, 01:04:58 am »

Winmx does a great job keeping out the media cartels. And the mxpie info hole will be blocked for more security.

My questions arise from exactly what is up with ip addresses? Can my isp tell what i'm connected to and who's connected to me through winmx? Through winmx can my isp tell what's going over my internet connection through my computer; say if i was downloading something? Would they know what protocol and service i was using?

Also, occasionally around here i hear the encryption word being dropped, and it's sort of confusing because i couldn't find any elaboration on the subject. But, largely if any encryption, what encryption is used and how much of winmx is encrypted?

How secure is winmx really aside from keeping out the media cartels?

White Stripes · « **Reply #1 on:** August 13, 2010, 01:27:36 am »

to be totally honest everything but the data of file transfers themselves (even then tho the transfers are a bit scattered so it would take someone with some patience to peice back together what it is you are transferring since the handshakes are encrypted) are encrypted with winmx...

DPI (deep packet inspection) could identify and block or throttle the winmx protocol...

the talk of encryption is to encrypt the whole thing and bring winmx up to date... as everyone knows the winmx software is more than a bit long in the tooth....

as for who is connected to who via IP addresses they would need to know who the other user is... an ip address does not link to a name... (at least not without legal action and even then the identification is far from 100%)

--edit--

how secure is winmx? .... well.. it beats the hell out of gnutella (and its variants)... so its more secure than limewire and ares... as for comparison with other networks.... well... theres no 100% concensus on that...

shamil · « **Reply #2 on:** August 13, 2010, 02:00:05 am »

I know of the decentralized nature of winmx. That right there is fantastic and does add a layer of security itself through the way the network is built.

In other words you're telling me with the current nature of encryption in winmx along with decentralization and schemes keeping out the media cartels is that the winmx protocol is pretty anonymous?

White Stripes · « **Reply #3 on:** August 13, 2010, 02:47:33 am »

as anonymous as you can get on a 'open' network.... nullsoft waste would be the next step...

shamil · « **Reply #4 on:** August 13, 2010, 04:41:14 am »

Cool, well thanks for the answers. That makes the operation of winmx more clear than what it was.

Max™ · « **Reply #5 on:** August 13, 2010, 07:43:49 am »

Hiya,
as Limewire was mentioned, ages ago it was publicised that Limewire, Kazza, emule and many more had been closed down,
well this was just for the press, as we know, Kazza & Limewire are still going,
but unlike WinMx, Limewire & Kazza are riddled with viruses and possibly trackers too,
to me, it was a trade-off, "ok you can stay running as long as you infest everyone with viruses and trackers"
WinMx is clean, we are proud of that fact,
Filetopia and Ares have chat, but nothing touches the servers, bots, colour and customisation in WinMx

shamil · « **Reply #6 on:** August 13, 2010, 09:43:49 am »

A lot of things the winmx client still blows out of the water is basically the whole featureset it has and what it can do, not to mention the protocol and it's file transfer features (despite the fact that the protocol needs a modernizing). I love this p2p program to death, it even has tabs and the client is the tab bar for anything, and you can even undock tabs! I always took that for granted until i was using firefox and came back to winmx a little while ago.

I really find winmx to be ahead of it's time in the file transfer area. The fact that you could download from multiple sources, resume partials (and if you're tricky, resume a partial from a different source), etc. was what a lot of other p2p programs never had back in the day.

GhostShip · « **Reply #7 on:** August 13, 2010, 09:55:39 am »

We all take the selection of file bitrates for granted but aside from opennap I,m not aware of any other p2p network that allows for users to base their choice of file on such a criteria, 128K does not "cut the mustard" for me.