Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Special > Miscellaneous > Beginner's Guide to P2P

Shereaza And Xolox

11:12 - Sunday 11 June 2006 by Benjamin Webb

Summary: Shereaza and Xolox are the new kids on the block when it comes to large P2P communities. Shareaza can find and download files shared by EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Gnutella2 (G2) users and Xolox can search and download from fMorpheus, Gnutella, Kazaa, eDonkey, iMesh, Overnet, Grokster, Limewire, and G2 users.

Figure 9: Shareaza User Interface

Speed: While the multi-network idea sounds good, reality was disappointing. For some reason, the only network working with Xolox was eDonkey and so downloads could not be established without waiting for a long period of time. Shereaza seemed to have a similar problem. So I waited for 30 minutes for each one of these programs to start a download, but in the end quit without downloading anything.

Variety of Content: With multi-network access, should be large. I found three Red vs. Blue files on Shereaza and 20 or 30 on Xolox.

Figure 10: Xolox User Interface

Comments: The searches were extremely slow. Even though these programs are cleaner of adware and don't do anything sneaky (at least that I could detect) they are not yet mature at providing fast downloads; at least with my router configuration and location. I did everything short of setting up a DMZ on my router to let the downloads through but in the end got nowhere.

I will keep an eye on these programs since they some day may challenge their big brothers for the crown. With the limited results I got, however, I would suggest waiting. As a side note I might have had trouble establishing connections with these programs as a result of having already installed applications that access the same networks. Also note that Xolox occasionally locked up on me and had to be Ctrl+Alt+Deleted.

Summary Table

To pull everything together into one handy place, here's a table that summarizes the key info on each program.

Program	Pros	Cons	Max speed	Avg Speed	Adware or Annoyances	Download completion of files with one source	Number of DVR-MS files
DC++	-Can set up private sharing network -Great download speeds	-You can only connect to one person at a time	-12 MB/s on LAN -200 kB/s internet	0-200 kB /s depends on user	None	All files are downloaded from only one source	Varies
BitTorrent	-Excellent speeds with enough seeds	-Finding torrents -Poorly seeded torrents go slowly	200 kB /s	20-50 kB /s	None	0% (takes forever)	Everything you can find a torrent for
Morpheus	-Good download speed -Huge User base	-Unstable sometimes - Lots of adware	50 kB /s	20-30 kB /s	-Pop ups -Autostarts with computer -Installs toolbar	50%	14
IMesh	-Huge User Base -Artist can publish their own works	-Content being filtered? -No video	?	16 kB /s	-Tries to change homepage -Likes hiding in taskbar	0% for 3 Red vs. Blue files	None (video content appears to be filtered)
LimeWire	-Fast -Huge User Base -Easy to Use		60 kB /s	20-30 kB /s	-Likes hiding in taskbar	50%	4
eMule and eDonkey2000	-Large variety of content	-Adware on eDonkey2000 -Port forwarding - Extremely slow for new users but increases with sharing	Varies with use	Varies with use	-WhenUSave (eDonkey2000)	?	-eMule 7 -eDonkey would not function after antivirus zapped adware
Shereaza and Xolox	-Show promise -Advertisement free	-Slow -Xolox locked up	- Could not complete for testing	- Could not complete for testing	-Shereaza autostarts with windows - Both like hiding in taskbar	?	0