WinMXGroup Beta Test

[KM]

A new beta version of the WinMXGroup Patch is available. If all goes well then a final release shouldn't be too long, but due to the complexity of it I wanted more thorough beta testing than has been required for previous versions.

The biggest feature of this version is that it now contains a fake file filter.

If you search for flooded files then you should no longer receive any search results from flooders. of course this feature depends on the blocklist being kept up to date so if a new flooder comes on line it may take a short period before it is filtered from the search results, however it will remain fake free the majority of the time.

So, use it, abuse it, break it, then tell me how to fix it

btw, before someone makes the comment about connection times, compare it with what you normally take to connect (yes, had a few people report "took a little longer to connect" then realise it was the same as normal, just they were paying more attention to the 5 second delay than they normally do!)

Downloads:
https://www.winmxgroup.com/Install-3.0-3.54b4.exe WinMX 3.54 + Patch, the main version that will be recommended for all users (IE7 issue and 9x issues have both been resolved)
https://www.winmxgroup.com/Install-3.0-MultiVer.exe Various WinMX Versions + Patch, for those wanting other WinMX versions
https://www.winmxgroup.com/Install-3.0-noMX.exe Patch without WinMX, for those who already have WinMX installed.

Of course if you find any bugs then report them here - but also if you don't find any bugs that information can be just as helpful!

[Josh]

Works Great for me!!!


Now that theres a splash screen mxpie wont be claiming it is theres now

And, Since you cant do this with some stupid Hosts file we are bound to have almost all the pie users switching over to the WinMX Group patch to get rid of the fake files from searches

[bughunter]

great stuff km........it works well..........
as usuall the solutions come from the winmxworld side..........perhaps pie can update their out of date hosts file........ROFL...........
there is simply no excuse for anyone to be running a hosts file which is so destructive to the network now ...........winmxworld has provided the solutions to riaa and fakes and continue to lead the way in reviving winmx, and as usuall we have to drag pie along kicking and screaming..................
if your serious about winmx its users and the community then get the real patch get connected and search for your fav files safe in the knowledge that the patch provided from km thru winmxworld is protecting you better then any other system/patch  avalable........
winmxworld will continue to devolpe systems that enhance your winmx experience while protecting you the user from possible legal troubles from riaa or their associates..........

[SamSeeSam]

Erm.. do you have to re download the winmx exe from the site? The IE bar in winmx doesn't show that any update in avaiable.

[GhostShip]

Its a public test beta Samseesam, until its a final beta it wont be mentioned on the update bar.

Nice Job KM, I hope we see more users switch to this all in one solution, if every user made the effort to change over now the network could be free of flooders in about 2 weeks, its even possible to message primary users who are flooding the network if things got to small flooding levels.

What more can be said eh folks 

[GnarlySnarly]

when i ran the installer, winmx opened and green lighted almost instantly.

just before installing it, i had run several tests and got connections in 2-4 seconds with my hosts list.

So I clicked the disconnect button to run some connection tests.  I never waa able to connect after that.  It just continued flashing yellow for minutes on end.  I closed winmx and reopened it and the same.. i can't get a green light.  I even turned my firewall off momentarily to see if it might have some weird rule block.. no matter.. still no connect.

btw, where is the uninstaller?  I can't find it.

What do I have to remove to revert back to my trusty hosts list until this is fixed?

[GhostShip]

This absolutely suprises me I have been helping with the testing over a long time and not one installer has failed to work ever.

Can you confirm you closed winmx and waited 5 or 6 seconds before installing the new beta ?

Also can you try reinstalling it and repeating the test, checking to ensure your winmx folder contains a dll file, I,m not sure which one this beta uses, there have been a few tested, but you should see only one in the file.

To remove the patch merely remove the dll while winmx is closed

[KM]

oledlg.dll is the file that should be there (no other dlls... unless you have some other addons of course)

can you confirm that file is there?

also:
1. when you open winmx do you see a splash screen come up? (if you have bendmx then you might not see it as bendmx covers it up)
2. does it say patch operational in the top left?

[GnarlySnarly]

oledlg.dll is the file that should be there (no other dlls... unless you have some other addons of course)

can you confirm that file is there?

also:
1. when you open winmx do you see a splash screen come up? (if you have bendmx then you might not see it as bendmx covers it up)
2. does it say patch operational in the top left?

a] Yes, oledlg.dll is/was there.
1] yes, the winmx splashscreen from WG flashed. [i don't use any other 3rd party stuff except wcs.]
2] i don't recall at the moment.

but first things first..

When I renamed oledlg.dll so that I could connect back with my hosts list, I discovered that your patch had trashed it.  Sure, I can rewrite one, but that is crappy that your installers alters my hosts list - IF it may pose some interferences, then rename it to hosts.20060604 - don't just erase the entries. 
That type of program behavior is unaccepable.

When the installer is doing its dirty deeds, I can see it listing the steps it is going through, but then it disappears without a pause to allow readung it.  I have seen installers that allow holding that screen until a [finish] button is clicked.  A better idea.

Additionally, there should be an install log, to document just what the installer does and allow manual or automated reversal, with any and all altered or over written files saved as backups to restore the original state, such as the original working hosts list.

I'll have more to say about some other quirks and disfunction, but this matter of trashing the hosts list needs to be fixed now.

[GnarlySnarly]

This absolutely suprises me I have been helping with the testing over a long time and not one installer has failed to work ever.

It is not without reason they call me the BugMagnet

[Bearded Blunder]

there is a reason it "trashed" it.. it won't work with redirects to winmx caches in there, neither will the current public release, had you been using the winmxgroup patch to connect rather than a hosts file it wouldn't have needed to remove references

[GnarlySnarly]

there is a reason it "trashed" it.. it won't work with redirects to winmx caches in there, neither will the current public release, had you been using the winmxgroup patch to connect rather than a hosts file it wouldn't have needed to remove references

That misses the point.

If the dll can't work right with the hosts list, that is no reason to destroy the hosts list.  It simply should be renamed, to preserve it for later restoration if desired.  renaming would also remove any potential clash.

[GnarlySnarly]

This absolutely suprises me I have been helping with the testing over a long time and not one installer has failed to work ever.

Can you confirm you closed winmx and waited 5 or 6 seconds before installing the new beta ?

Also can you try reinstalling it and repeating the test, checking to ensure your winmx folder contains a dll file, I,m not sure which one this beta uses, there have been a few tested, but you should see only one in the file.

To remove the patch merely remove the dll while winmx is closed

No I can't confirm winmx was off.  It may have been minimized to the tooltray and overlooked.  But I think you are on to something there.

removing the DLL does not remove the patch.  The patch alters other things besides installing the DLL.  Merely deleting the test DLL does not restore the system to its prior working state.  An uninstall with a log and file backups is needed for such a fall back.

[Bearded Blunder]

removing the dll uninstalls on an unmodified system, perhaps there is a case for backing hosts file up during install.. i have yet to test with other (non winmx) entries in my hosts file, pc is too bogged down

[GnarlySnarly]

follow up:

First, this is on an xp box with v3.54b4
I was using a custom hosts list before installing the v3 DLL beta

As I mentioned initially, on installation of v3 beta, winmx opened and was near instantly green. -- As Ghostship hinted, I may have overlooked winmx running minimized in the tooltray and it was already connected, green.

When I did a disconnect to test reconnect times, it failed.  I then tried a /flushdns, and that worked.

After the feedback, i tested more.  To test the filtering, I tried a search on a song I know was recently being chaffed on winmx.  I got nothing, not a single hit.  Not even from real copies.  I then searched for 'elvis', and not a single hit.  I connected to 2 opennap servers and tried again, getting 1500 hits on elvis, but not a single match from wpn.  wow.. that filter does work

I then decided to try v2.2 patch, and still, 0 hits on 'elvis'.

I decided to revert to my original hosts setup and begin again.  I removed the DLL and did a /flushdns.  with the hosts list, excellent connection time, always < 5 sec.  a search for 'elvis' got lots of wpn hits.  Later with v2.2 and v3.0b, i did start getting search results.  I have no idea why I got 0 hits on pop searches at first.

Also, I noted some strange behavior as to trashing the hosts list.  After I re-wrote my hosts list, I set it to 'Read Only'.  When i installed the DLL after that, it left the hosts file in place and made a backup copy hosts2.  Great.  if you protect your hosts list, the installer will help by making a backup.  But if you leave it in the normal 'unprotected' read/write state, then the installer erases it.  Seems sort of backwards there eh?

Bottom line - suggestions:

1] If, as ghostship suggests and as seems likely, winmx needs to be stopped before the install.. can't the installer test to see if it is running and have a popup instructing to close it before proceeding?

2] Have the installer make backups of or rename all files being replaced, altered and/or deleted.

3] produce an install log to facilitate automated or manual restoration of prior state.

Or maybe just a text file explaining what to expect and with a checklist of things to do before the install.  These though all relate to mere installation issues.

As to the more important function and filtering.. i'm lost.  i have no idea why I got 0 hits on 'elvis' from wpn while getting 1500 from just 2 opennap servers.  I haven't been able to replicate that, although search results seem to be very eratic right now.  As to connection, once I got it installed and did /flushdns.. it seemed to make fast connects..

[GnarlySnarly]

removing the dll uninstalls on an unmodified system, perhaps there is a case for backing hosts file up during install.. i have yet to test with other (non winmx) entries in my hosts file, pc is too bogged down

After I understood what files were involved, I saw that v2.2 installed ws2_32.dll.  Installing the beta to test deletes this file and adds OLEDLG.DLL.  If you find problems in the beta and want to roll back, manually removing OLEDLG.DLL doesn't quite do it.  Not that it is such a task to reinstall v2.2.. I just figured that installers usually had this sort of capability, to uninstall and restore prior state.  It certainly isn't worth any major dev time if it is more complicated.

[Bearded Blunder]

* Bearded Blunder wonders what it does if it encounters BendMX with winmxgroup patch

However, I can now report it working apparently faultlessly with Windows 95 & NT4 sp6

[SamSeeSam]

What is the download link? When I downloaded from www.winmxgroup.com, All I got was the 2.2 patch...
ws2_32.dll was the dll in the winmx folder.

Please help
Cheers

[KM]

* Bearded Blunder wonders what it does if it encounters BendMX with winmxgroup patch

during install it will test various files, if ws2_32.dll or olepro32.dll are found to be older patch versions they are deleted, if however ws2_32r.dll or ws2_32o.dll are detected to be old versions of the patch (ie ws2_32.dll is RCMS/bendmx) then it will replace it with the original (by taking a copy from the system directory)

What is the download link? When I downloaded from www.winmxgroup.com, All I got was the 2.2 patch...
ws2_32.dll was the dll in the winmx folder.

check the initial post for the download links - it is a beta test version it is not a new release, so it is not the main download link on the site

as for the 2.2 installer not getting rid of oledlg.dll, how could it do so? do you know any installer that knows about changes to future versions that were not even thought of at the time of release? running the 3.0 uninstaller will remove it as you would expect, and no it doesn't make a backup of the hosts file - why? because it doesn't touch it, the patch modifies that at run time in order to allow parts to function properly, something that has been in it for several versions.

Anyone else having any problems? I'm sure you'll understand if i find it suspicious that the only person to report any kind of problem just happens to claim no version works, hosts files are great blah blah blah

[Bearded Blunder]

Now installed under Win 2K Server, indeed it does leave custom hosts entries untouched (I have some used by something else).

However, while BendMX still APPEARS to load (splash screen appears, settings menu is present) right click in chatroom doesn't bring the BendMX menu up anymore, so all the BendMX functions (RCMS admin window, winamp reporting, text tricks, away control etc) are effectively disabled.. tried reinstalling BendMX, no joy.. in order for BendMX to actually work, I had to revert to the 2.2 patch.

* Bearded Blunder goes away to see if he can break 3.31 with old BendMX with it