Features
From PhexWiki
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Description
Phex is a file sharing program running on the Gnutella Network. It will run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and other operating systems supporting Java 1.5 or later.
- Phex is a FREE of spyware and adware
Phex never contained any kind of spyware, adware or any other kind of bundled software. (Softpedia award)
- Multi-plattform support
Whether you use MAC OS X, Linux, Solaris, or Windows Phex is able to run on them all. All you need is a operation system that offers Java 1.5 or later.
- Multi-source downloads (Swarming)
Often the file you like to download is available on several different hosts. Phex will request different segments of the file from each host in parallel. After successfully downloading a segment Phex will merge it with the other segments of that file. This results in a much higher download speed. If a host is too slow the segment is split during download and given to another host. To make sure you never run out of hosts Phex is able to find new download hosts by itself with the automatic search functionality and features the Download Mesh.
You can choose for each download whether the segments should be chosen according to their availability (rarest first, BitTorrent-Style), their place in the file (earlier segments first, useful for previewing the file) or for previewing (the first 10MB according to their place in the file, after that according to their availability).
- Advanced configuration options
Phex offers very advanced configuration options. Much more than many other clients can offer. Especially advanced user can configure Phex according to their needs and are able to tune and see the effect of different settings.
- Passive searching and snooping for files
With the passive search functionality Phex is able to constantly monitor the traffic that goes through the network and collect search results that match your passive search term. Also Phex snoops the traffic for new download candidates you need to finish your downloads faster. This type of searching is useful for longtime monitoring of available files on the network.
- Powerful User-Defined Filters
The search filters in Phex are based on rules and consequences. You can filter files by size, name or type, specifying if Phex should hide or delete matching results, or delete all those which don't match. You can save them and make them active by default. Additionally Phex comes with a predefined porn-filter and a scam-file filter.
- Advanced Mirror-Downloading
With custom Magma-Lists you can download from many mirror servers at the same time and get far quicker downloads that way, without placing undue strain unto any one server. You can also make the magmas avaible on your website to give all of your Phex using visitors far better downloads.
- Other features include:
- Multiple searches.
- Ultrapeer and compression technology for reduced bandwidth.
- Integrated chat.
- Browse host support.
- Bitzi metadata lookup.
- Private Networks made easy
- Magma Support
- Network optimisations (i.e: QRP and Dynamic Querying, saving about 90% bandwidth)
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Feature Comparision
The Phex-Team doesn't stint at comparing Phex to other programs (and hell, the competition is good in the Gnutella network).
There might not exist one very best gnutella-program for everyone, but maybe this list can help you find the single program, which suits you best.
Naturally we hope, you'll choose Phex, but we believe, that you should have the right to know the competition.
Compared Clients:
- Phex - We hope you'll decide on this one, Java-based :)
- LimeWire - Maybe THE major player in Gnutella, has an open source base. One spinoff is Frostwire, Java-based.
- Bearshare - DEAD, Closed source and Windows only. Sold out to the music-industry. Unknown future.
- gtk-gnutella - A client very similar to Phex, but written in C
- Gnucleus - The source of the GnucDNA-core which is used in some other apps.
- Shareaza - A multinetwork-client for Windows.
Disclaimer: At the point of writing, this is the state of the knowledge of Arne, If you know of any wrongs in here, please let me know on the Discussion-page to this article or simply correct it yourself.
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General Features
| Price | GUI-polish-rating (0-10) | free of ad- or spyware | Platforms | Free Software | Languages | Statistics | Chat | headless mode | Spam filter | |
| Phex | Free | 6 | Yes | Windows, MacOSX, Linux (with Gentoo-ebuild), *nix, all other Java-enabled. | Yes (GPL) | English, Deutsch, Nederlands, Turkish | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| LimeWire | Free basic, Pro for 18,88$ | 7 | Yes | Windows, MacOSX, Linux, *nix, all other Java-enabled. | Yes (GPL) | Get the List | Yes, hidden | YES | No | Yes |
| Bearshare | Ad-Supported Basic, Pro for 3.29$/month | 7 | Basic: NO, Pro: Yes | Windows | No | English, Español, Francaise, Deutsch, Italian, Nederlands, Mandarin, Polsku | unknown, assumed | YES | No | No |
| gtk-gnutella | Free | 6 | Yes | Linux and other Unix systems, Windows, MacOSX (with fink) | Yes (GPL) | Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shareaza | Free | 7 | Yes | Windows (uses MFC) | Yes (GPL) | 27 languages | Yes | user-to-user chat, IRC in development | No | Yes |
| Gnucleus |
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Searching
| Search Filter | Passive Searching | Bitzi | Metadata | |
| Phex | Search-String(contains), Size (max, min), Filetype(Audio, Video, Programs, Pictures, Documents, Roms, Meta) | Yes | Open Item in Browser | No |
| LimeWire | By Type, Artist, Album (Metadata) | No | Open Item in Browser | Readout and Send |
| Bearshare | Keywords, Filetype | No | Open Item in Browser | unknown |
| gtk-gnutella | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Shareaza | Search-String(contains), Size (max, min), Filetype, metadata | Open Item in Browser | Yes | |
| Gnucleus |
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Downloading and Sharing
| Swarming | PFSP (Partial File Sharing Protocol) | Push-Proxy | Download-Mesh | Queue | System-strain | |
| Phex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Alt/NAlt) | Yes, Length configurable | Low (can bear over 2.000 inactive downloads) |
| LimeWire | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Alt/NAlt) | Yes | Mid (System (Especially OSX) gets slow at over 2000 Downlaods) |
| Bearshare | Yes | Yes | unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| gtk-gnutella | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Alt/NAlt) | Yes, PARQ (unique protocol which allows a queue to stick over restarts and IP-changes) | Low |
| Shareaza | Yes | Yes | Yes | Mid | ||
| Gnucleus |
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Network-Protocol
| Ultrapeer-Leaf-Model | Dynamic Querying (Saves ~80% bandwidth) | QRP (Query Routing Protocol, saves ~90% bandwidth) | GWebCache | UHC | |
| Phex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LimeWire | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bearshare | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| gtk-gnutella | Yes | Yes | Yes | No longer | Yes |
| Shareaza | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gnucleus |
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Network-level
| Compression | IPv6 | TLS (Encryption) | Bandwidth-Throttling | |
| Phex | Yes | No | Yes | General(Speed, exact)-Network-Download(Speed+Hosts)-Uploads(Speed+Hosts) |
| LimeWire | Yes | No | since 4.14 | Download(Speed)-Upload(Speed) |
| Bearshare | Yes | No | No | Download(Speed+Hosts)-Upload(Speed+Hosts) |
| gtk-gnutella | Yes | Yes | Yes | General(Speed, exact)-Network-Download(Speed+Hosts)-Uploads(Speed+Hosts) |
| Shareaza | Yes | No | No | Max or Avg. upload, Max download |
| Gnucleus |
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Meta-Features
| Magnet | Magma | Other file-lists | Configurability | Good Network-Citizen | Friendly to other clients | |
| Phex | Yes | Yes (Readout and creation) | Yes (RSS and PodCasts) | High | Yes | Yes (undiscriminating) |
| LimeWire | Yes | No | No | Low | Yes | Mostly (Keeps slots free, but preferences Limewire) |
| Bearshare | Yes | No | No | Low | Yes | Mostly (keeps Slots free, but Bearshare-Leafs connect only to Bearshare-UPs) |
| gtk-gnutella | Yes | No | No | High | Yes | Yes (max-% of a single client configurable, min-% of GTKG configurable) |
| Shareaza | Yes | No | Yes (collections) | High | New versions only | Yes (undiscriminating) |
| Gnucleus |
or 