Print this article  |  E-mail this article  |  Comment on this article

Exclusive: Nullsoft Gnutella Beta Test

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

March 13, 2000, 11:06 PM

Gnullsoft, the open source, freeware extension of Nullsoft, Inc., has sent word requesting BetaNews visitors to test their new application, Gnutella. Gnutella will be a GPL, open-source fully distributed search and download system for media and archive files. Currently being developed on Windows, once version 1.0 is released source will be available for bringing Gnutella to many platforms. Gnutella's distributed structure gives it many advantages over current systems (Napster, CuteMX), including fast searches, firewall-friendly downloads, bandwidth limiting, ability to see what others are searching for, ability to stream files, and the ability to change port and define internal network making it next to impossible for college system admins to block access. Update: The beta test has been closed. GNullsoft will be starting a mailing list for testers soon. Keep checking BetaNews for more information.

Add a Comment (52 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Name (required):

E-mail (required):

Enter Your Comment:

By zbuffered

posted Mar 16, 2000 - 10:47 AM

they're coming under fire, but they're not stopping! Justin Frankel had to know that AOL wouldn't like this. It's interesting to see whether the source ever gets out.

gnullsoft.org is offline, at AOL's demand.

http://allskin.com/gnutella/ is a nice little site w/info and what not.

Score: 0

By zbuffered

posted Mar 16, 2000 - 10:49 AM

Gnutella.org
my bad

Score: 0

By CFerra

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 5:29 PM

I guess I am lucky I got it not that bad but slow due to no connection profiles you have to manually set the connection speed.

Score: 0

By betanewsname

posted Mar 18, 2000 - 6:25 AM

Please send a copy to source@iafrica.com

Score: 0

By Korgun

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 7:18 PM

please send a copy to me

Korgun@hotmail.com

Score: 0

By roycoker

posted May 30, 2000 - 2:12 PM

Please send a copy Gnutella software to ipresentv@qwikpages.com thanks :)

Score: 0

By jpwise

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 4:04 PM

Well, looks like there's a whole pile of us wanting to try this, even tho we wouldn't be official, anyone have a copy they can post online somewhere for us to grab (providing it doesn't bend too badly whatever t&c's were agreed to with NullSoft) ?

Thanks.

Score: 0

By zbuffered

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 12:48 PM

Gnullsoft == Nullsoft (makers of winamp)
Nullsoft is owned by AOL.
AOL and Time-Warner are merging.
Time-Warner is, indirectly, suing Napster.
Therefore, Time-Warner, which owns Gnullsoft, is suing it's competition.
Isn't corporate America crazy?

Score: 0

By fizz

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 8:33 AM

Send a copy to fizz@bomb.net please :)

Score: 0

By kcraig

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 3:43 AM

if anyone has this "PLEASE" send it to lrdendorian@aol.com and yes i know aol sux lol

Score: 0

By KevinM

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 10:15 PM

If someone could send me a copy, It would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail address is kevinmarsh@earthlink.net Thanks in advance!

Score: 0

By MothBoy

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 12:13 AM

same here, if someone could also send a copy to me at mothboy_99@yahoo.com

Thanks

Score: 0

By pluralsingularity

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 10:48 PM

it was closed to the people who have already downloaded or applied before the announcement of beta close

Score: 0

By pluralsingularity

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 9:58 PM

who thinks the net is going to get cheaper, xvariable. You forgetting about those politicians trying to tax the net? If they ever succeed, it might end up cheaper to buy a retail audio cd than to download a pirated track.

And don't try to pretend you download legally purchased mp3s either, hehe.

Score: 0

By radams

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 4:44 PM

You know I love the idea of cutemx, Napster and now this one. But there is one huge problem on all these applications. It's only as good as the users. I've seen in message bases people complain how they started there download and then it died. Well that happens when the user decides to close there connection. They don't care who is downloading from there computer. I suggest that these people who continue to use and abuse should get banned from the service.

Randall

Score: 0

By Yadam

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 12:07 AM

This is why a direct chat connection would be so useful. Napster has it, but how often do people have that particular window in focus? I've made it a habit to send a private message to whomever I'm DLing from, saying "thanks," or whatever. So far I've had only one response out of five-hundred or so. It would be just so nice to be able to engage in a direct chat with the other party to ensure they'll be connected for the duration it's going to take for you to grab their file(s).

Score: 0

By DigitalSin

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 2:07 PM

It's pretty damn sad when application developers have such ill-regard towards network policies which are critical to ensuring that precious network resources (including bandwidth) are available to network users. Stupid, useless applications like this aren't absolutely essential for making corporations "go". The network is. Think about that the next time you order a book from bn.com and wonder why the site is so slow, or why your book is 3 days late. Lastly, I can guarantee my network policies aren't exploited, and I can just as well guarantee nobody on my network will be running this application. This dev team obviously underestimates network administrators. - Keith

Score: 0

By xVariable

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 4:32 PM

Read what Keith (aka DigitalSin) has to say about the release of the Napster plugin for Win Amp ( http://betanews.efront.c...icle.php3?sid=952934189 ):

"I don't know about the technical issues some folks are experiencing, but I think this is a great plugin. Napster doesn't exactly have a great interface, so this plugin kind of eliminates having to use that big clunky thing =) Keep up the great work. -Keith"

So let's get this straight Keith, you like Napster (the concept, at least), and the WA plugin, but you feel this new Nullsoft app is a "Stupid, useless application"? Go soak your head dillweed. Everyone be on notice about this guy. I for one got you pegged DigitalSin....

Score: 0

By DigitalSin

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 5:16 PM

Napamp is a great plugin, I love it. Useless? Yes. Network friendly? Nope. Thats why I use it at home and nobody will be using it on my network. I dont know what exactly your problem is pal, I guess you're one of the users who think there is unlimited bandwidth and the world centers around you, thus you don't have to abide by any network policy. I don't think you're capable of "pegging" anyone.

Score: 0

By xVariable

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 9:05 AM

Hmm, at this point I'm almost positive you have no clue what you're talking about. First you go off on a rant about limited network resources and then talk about the slow performance of the Barnes & Noble web site due to misuse of said resources. I call you on it, directly quoting you. Then you come back saying you use Napster at home not work? What does that have to do with your arguement, you clearly are talking about Internet resources, not office LAN resources, since you cite B&N as an example. Oh I get it, the B&N web site is actually on your local network at the office? I guess you work for Barnes & Noble then? I'm thinking you don't actually work yet, that you're still in high school. :-) What the hell are you talking about man? Seriously LOL :-P ....

Score: 0

By DigitalSin

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 11:04 AM

My point was that each internal, corporate (or even government) network has to establish policies for its users. It makes me furious when programs like this try to circumvent these policies with little regard towards the fact that network resources are limited. As far as the internet in general or ISPs complaining about a program like this, I understand your point. ISPs' whole mission in life is to provide bandwidth for its users, and yes they do have to evolve with the internet. Conversely, corporations have a set task at hand, and trying to continually add bandwidth to the network so that users can share their hard drives with internet users is not a goal of the company. Perhaps I wasn't clear on if I was talking about the internet as a whole or corporate lans\wans. When I mentioned B&N, I was trying to further my point that if internally B&N wasn't able to manage their network because of these rogue programs, we, the users, would suffer (not probable, but possible). Clear? =)

Score: 0

By jmelli

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 1:42 AM

Sproul!?!?!

Score: 0

By anthony-s

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 6:20 PM

Oh please....... lol...... maybe u would like to go read the Gnullsoft website a little before making such stupid comments. If u had bothered to do that, u would read that yes part of the idea is to make it harder to block.... but also there ARE/going to be bandwidth controls in it for the user to manage themselves..... and if the sysadmins are THAT worried about it, then they should have a good firewall + bandwidth shaping products in place already, blocking all or limited all ports on all machines from exceeding anything too greedy.

Score: 0

By DigitalSin

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 6:38 PM

I guess in your middle school they don't have a network. So I'll enlighten you by saying that its not up to the users to manage bandwidth. If it was, people like you and xVariable would make sure nobody could even check their e-mail.

Score: 0

By xVariable

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 7:02 PM

*Sigh*. I speak as someone whom mentored in the IT dept of a large company not so long ago. It comes down to the controls that management places on bandwidth-comsuming activities, and the consequences that are handed down for violations. That's _in_the_workplace_. If management and IT can't keep a handle on who's using what network resources, it's a pretty undiciplined operation that's being run. The fact is that the will isn't there in many companies, either with management or IT, to put the brakes on. In fact, the more bandwidth is used, often the more funds that are allocated to meet demand (from IT's perspective). The implication of your comments DS, and the guy before you in the previous thread, was that somehow overuse of multimedia on the greater net was responsible for poor Internet performance. To this I say yes, but only to a degree. Overuse is spurring on developement of the network to meet the demand. Anyway, soon bandwidth will be cheap and ubiquitous so it won't matter....

Score: 0

By rhughes

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 11:13 AM

If I find my users running this (or anything else) that attempts to thwart my policies regarding bandwidth usage or acceptable applications, they'll suddenly find themselves with no access whatsoever. They will, in fact, be counting themselves lucky to have access to the local network. Its time the "entitlement generation" learned that you have a right to what people in my position and the people that set the policies, and therefore determine what I do, say you have a right to.

Score: 0

By xVariable

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 4:23 PM

Hah! I sure am glad you're not my network admin. If you were, I'd be changing high-speed providers so fast it'd make your head spin. Get with the times, Hitler. In case you haven't figured it out already, multimedia is the future of the Internet. I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble making due with what "meagre" bandwidth your institution has budgeted for you. Rest assured your days of suffering will be over soon, once emerging technologies mature and come down from their artificially inflated costs.

Score: 0

By rhughes

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 10:24 AM

Hokay, moron boi. I'm referring to the corporate networks that I manage. You know, the ones with data on them that is actually valuable to someone? The ones that are providing jobs for idiots like you so that you can buy some high speed home access? The ones where security concerns are only superceeded by business needs?

Score: 0

By xVariable

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 1:20 PM

Hehe, ok, I'm just being an a-hole at this point, but....

If your corporate networks were the only ones with data on them of value, I guess we wouldn't be having this conversation eh? As far as business concerns superceding security, isn't that kind of like puting the cart before the horse? Come to think of it, isn't security, in fact, a business concern in itself? It's the # 1 concern, no? After all, it takes only one good security lapse and you've just thrown all your bosses business plans right out the window. I'm sure you know that, and your network is smartly secure. If so, sit back and relax, noone's gonna be using gnutella, napster or whatever on your systems....

Score: 0

By rhughes

posted Mar 16, 2000 - 12:39 PM

Unfortunately, you have to balance them. For instance, if it was up to me I'd take our net off the Internet. That's not going to happen due to business needs. There's our first compromise. Next, we need both to be able to send and receive email (second security compromise) and both host and reach web sites (more compromises). Do you see where I'm going with this? As soon as a company gets a route from the internal network to the internet and visa versa, you start creating security concerns. Therefore the business is dictating to a large degree how much freedom I have to implement policies. Combine this with a bunch of bean counters who only know what they want to be able to run without being able to fully comprehend the bandwidth and security ramifications of this, and you can see the kind of wall I'm up against. Granted, I can put my foot down to a degree, but if someone high enough up says "do it", I have to do it or start sending out resumes. This has happened even when I've had ample documentation showing it was bad idea. Whether this is the case everywhere or not I can't say, but I strongly suspect this is the case in most non-security and or non-technology focused businesses.

Score: 0

By DigitalSin

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 5:21 PM

You just don't seem to comprehend the fact that there is a limit to network resources. It makes no difference how much damn multimedia is out there, bandwidth is still limited. In a real world corporation, transfering llama warez and mp3s isn't necessary. I wish I was your net admin, you'd get a nice lesson in humility.

Score: 0

By michaelkean

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 7:03 AM

Umm. I can understand that in some cases monitoring bandwidth requirements is a problem, however I can only assume that you are referring to ISP connection bandwidth rather than inter-office bandwidth as transferring a 5 MB MP3 file on a 10M network takes about 5 to 10 seconds depending on the LAN and PC adaptors :) (And it's time to go 100M LANs anyway :) ) If its a real concern, just run a proxy on port 80 and block everything else :)

Score: 0

By rhughes

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 10:43 AM

This is exactly what I'm referring to. If enough users are clogging up the pipes transferring MP3s then the people that want to give us money can't get to our website, we can't get to our vendors websites, etc. Hey, if everyone would play nice and bandwidth was free, it would all be a much different story. Unfortunately, there are people who want to trash computers just to trash computers, many of my competitors would grab my data if they had a chance, and of course, let's not forget the other assorted freaks looking to invoke all kinds of mayhem. On top of it all, I get only so many bits in and out per sec. and that's just the way it is. If anyone wants to provide me with a couple of free OC128 pipes, I'll be happy to host quite a bit of this crap.

Score: 0

By Shark

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 1:32 PM

and what policies might that be that we are not entitled to?

Score: 0

By rhughes

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 10:27 AM

Mainly anything that compromises security and/or bandwidth limitations. Yes, I know this thing is going to have built-in band-width limiting ability, but I don't trust my users to do a proper job administring that. Hell, half of them are under the mistaken impression that being able to received their stock reports and hit their hotmail accounts are the most important functions of the network.

Score: 0

By kentauren

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 11:32 AM

aha !! So youre the (in?)famous BOFH that wanna have all the bandwidth for yer selves...

Score: 0

By jshadow

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 11:25 AM

ACK!!! Bandwidth Nazi!!
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR:)

Score: 0

By daztop

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 9:01 AM

I load the app and it says it's connecting to finds***.gnutella.org:8015. This then disappears and that's it? I don't have any other servers listed ... nothing happens!?

Score: 0

By Steelyguy

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 10:59 AM

Ditto. I also agree with Yadam - it's vital that I can search for bitrate. If Gnutella doesn't implement this feature, then I won't use it.

Score: 0

By kentauren

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 10:04 AM

sames*** here, tries to connect to finds***, and don't find s*** ! Umm..nothing much to mess around with config-wise either...any suggestions ?

Score: 0

By Jim

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 8:10 AM

It's Awesome, I love the multiple extentions, this has hudge potential, including mpeg movies search! possibly direct person to person download warez as well...
In my opinion It needs 3 things:
1: Info on the file, (mp3 bitrate, lenth, etc.)
2: Direct person to person chat (leave irc for irc, lets talk to who we download from) (talk to ppl who like the same music you do)
3: A way to look at all items on just one host
There was a number 4 I had in mind but it excapes me

Score: 0

By Yadam

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 1:06 AM

It seems to me that the reason that the searches are faster than others is that the results information is quite limited, compared to Napster. I'd really like to know before I DL an mp3 what bitrate it was encoded at, how long the track is, etc. It's such a fine line between 96, 112, 128, 160 and 192 sizewise, and I care for nothing less than 128 (preferably 192). I don't mind waiting a few seconds longer for this exceptional information to be included.

Score: 0

By Yadam

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 1:10 AM

...but unlike some other APPs, I was able to resume instantly without having to jump across 10+ servers to find the same person I was previously DLing from. Nice.

Score: 0

By Yadam

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 1:34 AM

Make that 3rd DL -- 2nd crash. Oh well, that's enough for me right now. It will be interesting to see how Gnutella devolops.

Score: 0

By NaNoGoD

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 12:38 AM

This program seems very good with it's nice features not found in other programs.

Things needed to be implamented
* IRC type of chat, voice streaming in .mp3 or .wma compression on the fly, video (mp4 I hope instead of asf), or gpl aol's aim protocal
* A way to look at all items on just one host
* Be capable of changing the positions of the files in the queue/downloads screen by either draging them into position or use something like newssharks queue functions.
* Show descriptive help when going over things like TTL.
* besides all the bugs others may have and other ideas.

I am sure you guys already thought of this stuff but I was bored and happy to play with this cool program.

Score: 0

By peppert

posted Mar 13, 2000 - 11:15 PM

IT'S PHAT PHAT PHAT!!!!

Score: 0

By asdf

posted Mar 13, 2000 - 11:37 PM

Ohhh yeah it is... :)

Score: 0

By ryan.heywood

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 7:53 PM

Hey all. Can anyone mail me the app? I was unable to download it earier.

Thanks

ryan@ixuk.com

Score: 0

By quake2guy

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 8:25 PM

Also, if you could, please send me a copy of Gnutella.
Zipped preferably and unchanged from the initial distribution.

Please mail it to quake2guyNOSPAM@hotmail.com
(remove NOSPAM from the address first though :-)

quake2guy

Score: 0

By ryan.heywood

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 8:22 AM

Please? I'm still waiting and would love to try this app out.

Thanks

Score: 0

By toddhd

posted Mar 15, 2000 - 2:38 PM

Send me a copy too if you've got it! I was on the web at 6:30am this morning - read the story - went right to the site - it was already closed!! Sheesh! If they couldnt' handle the volume, why open it up to a source as big as BetaNews?

But I'm still dying to try it!

Score: 0

By ryan.heywood

posted Mar 14, 2000 - 7:53 PM

Hey all. Can anyone mail me the app? I was unable to download it earier.

Thanks

ryan@ixuk.com

Score: 0

Nov 21 - 9:29 PM ET Hurd's the word in Ballmer's e-mail nightmares

Nov 21 - 6:51 PM ET Coalition urges better laws for e-mail and cell phone privacy

Nov 21 - 6:42 PM ET How is Internet advertising faring in this bad economy?

Nov 21 - 6:15 PM ET From out of the Amazon Cloud, an AWS winner emerges

Nov 21 - 5:20 PM ET Mufin music finder enters public beta, adds widgets

Nov 21 - 5:01 PM ET Google launches its SearchWiki semantics plug-in

Nov 21 - 4:57 PM ET Asus previews a slimmer, less costly Eee PC

Nov 21 - 4:32 PM ET New Adobe Media Player ushers in AIR 1.5

Nov 21 - 2:11 PM ET AT&T to add Pantech's low-cost C630 phone to 3G lineup

Nov 21 - 1:11 PM ET iPhone gets firmware 2.2 update