Ares - the next p2p giant or next "what could have been

by **BlueThunder** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:25 am

Right now, we can all agree that the BitTorrent and eDonkey protocols share the crown. However, is Ares not far behind?

Within the past year, they've moved foward with 3 huge steps. Opening the protocol, Firewall-to-firewall transfers, and DHT. While there's no exact usercount (and really when is there one in p2p?), it's estimated to be well over 500,000 users.

Check out SourceForge.net. In one year, Ares is almost in the top 3 most downloaded programs of all time on SourceForge. It's number 2 on the most downloaded weekly programs, getting killed by #1 eMule.

However, virtually no community and lack of development seem to be halting Ares' drive to reign supreme. The 3 developers offer zero interaction with the community, and despite the two giantic developments with F2F and DHT, development has been pretty quiet since then (almost a year).

What do you think the future holds for Ares? The next eMule great for large and rare files? On the other hand, it could very well become the next Kazaa-littered with fake files and viruses and only useful for popular files. Do you think this is the case? What's holding it back? Thoughts and opinions requested.

By the way, I wanted to stick this here in general discussion because it's about Ares on the whole p2p landscape, not just about Ares the program/network.

P.S. I can't believe I registered on these forums more than 4 years ago! It seems like yesterday I discovered the reopened Slyck and joined up. I've been a lurker for that long? Yikes.

by **Myrak** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:40 am

It's a good program/network, I use it from time to time when the opportunity warrants it. But I can't see it being the next BT/ED2K, simply because it wasn't designed for that; it was originally a fork from Gnutella.

eMule has intrinsically developed queue/credit systems and whatnot; BitTorrent has ratios, trackers etc and all its little intricacies. It simply wasn't built to handle that sort of stuff. Ares has 'ask for the file and I'll send it', which is what it does, quite well I might add (no wait times and often uses the full upload pipe of the sender/s).

Plus the userbase is pretty slim now compared to other networks. Perhaps once Limewire/Gnutella end up being f*cked by the corporates (ala Kazaa) then Ares will take on some more users and hopefully that'll help it along.

I'm not saying it can't and/or won't become big, I just can't see it happening, personally.

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:42 am

99.99% Ares users don't even know how to open AVI/RAR/ISO/BIN. It will probably become a next lame network, with very popular MP3 files only. Good users are using BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect, all other networks are full of lamers.
And Ares has a very high overhead. I don't want to be a supernode/ultrapeer, but it isn't possible to configure this. My connection is fast, but I can only transfer 25GB per month. Constant 15kB/s overhead isn't acceptable for me.

It simply wasn't built to handle that sort of stuff. Ares has 'ask for the file and I'll send it', which is what it does, quite well I might add (no wait times and often uses the full upload pipe of the sender/s).

Ares can be very good for large files. It doesn't have many large files because Ares users don't share them.
Ares supports partial file sharing (it's chunk size is smaller than eMule, so it is more efficient) and FIFO queues.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:42 am

Now when people finnaly gets of Fasttrack, they gets on gnutella, limewire mostly. And now, gnutella has many fakes

Ares is the next big network for getting mp3s...Gnutella is very usefull...for mp3s only cuz almost all the movies are fakes :/ Why is emule so known? cuz people needs rare files, and its very hard to find them on a decentrelized notworks, cuz you can't search all users on the network, with emule you can search all users with a Global search, and you will find soo many files! eMule has aloso an "comment-feature" i mean people can comment the files, only works if your connected to KAD. And i don't think that eMule will have many fakes, cuz many people uses sites with eD2k links. Ares might get a bit shittier soon...but not in a long time...gnutella is going down i think

And after that people will go over to Ares or other networks, winmx might be something in the future too, the patches that blooks flooders are great! I think that Ares has over 1 million users...cuz i know that many people uses it..

Ares will become a big thing but not like eD2k or BT. People will stopp use gnutella soon and go over to Ares, and yes, its true that Ares is like mp3 and mpeg/avi movies only

Albums and such belongs to eMule and bittorrent. And i don't care if its a "fork of gnutella" i mean its allways good with new networks, so if the one "dies"(gets like kazaa) people can use some other network. War3z is a good network too...OpenFT might be the next thing too.. All i can say, long live p2p

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:47 am

"useful for mp3 only" = newbie-only network

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:48 am

ColinPL wrote:"useful for mp3 only" = newbie-only network

Soo? what's wrong with mp3s? theres plenty of movies on Ares too.

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:51 am

I can legally record MP3s from shoutcast streams, so there is no reason to download illegal MP3s from filesharing networks.

Ares/Gnutella has no files other than MP3s because it's users are too stupid to share larger files (yes, most users don't know how to install xvid or burn iso/bin files).

theres plenty of movies on Ares too.

Almost 0.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:54 am

Lol, why the hell would i recored bad-ass quality music from shout-cast when i can legally download high quality mp3s from p2p networks?

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:55 am

Most streams have a higher quality than p2p downloads.
There are many AAC+ streams which have a high quality at low bitrates.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:58 am

ColinPL wrote:Most streams have a higher quality than p2p downloads.
There are many AAC+ streams which have a high quality at low bitrates.

Still crappy...and how easy is it to record some song that you really want? are you going to listen to radio the whole time? :roll:

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:01 am

After a week of recording you will have almost all songs, including some song that you really want.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:17 am

I can get the songs in some minutes, and with good quality. And wtf are you talking about that Ares doesn't have movies? have you tried Ares or what? it has alot more than Gnutella...and the speed on Ares is sweet!

by **ColinPL** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:22 am

I can find many movies on ED2K, DC++, BitTorrent.
I can find only very popular movies on Gnutella.
I can't find any non-fake movies on Ares.

It's the same for software/games - Ares doesn't have any software, Gnutella has only very popular, old files, ED2K/DC++/BitTorrent has many files.

by **tm,** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:27 am

While DHT is a giant leap for Bittorrent, it is only a tiny step forward for traditional P2P clients, which were already using some type of decentralized network.

Ares is the only open-source P2P that includes chatrooms, so that feature in itself is significant. (fasttrack and Gnutella have no chatroom features)

Abandoned by the developer and without any available source code, the WinMX network will eventually whither away as a leading P2P, leaving Ares as the next-best alternative.

But compared to other open-source projects like eMule or Azureus, there has been very little interest from independent programmers in creating Ares mods.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:29 am

ColinPL wrote:I can find many movies on ED2K, DC++, BitTorrent.
I can find only very popular movies on Gnutella.
I can't find any non-fake movies on Ares.

It's the same for software/games - Ares doesn't have any software, Gnutella has only very popular, old files, ED2K/DC++/BitTorrent has many files.

omg, lol no, Gnutella has only fake movies. Ares has many movies and theres no fakes at all, and try to use a good media player like VLC and no WMP. And Ares has good software, gnutella has only 100kb viruses.

by **LANjackal** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:56 am

Several months ago, I never thought I'd ever say this, but Ares has overtaken Limewire as my first choice for music downloading now. The ironic thing is that it's not really the search results, or fakes or whatnot - both are pretty even when it comes to those I think. It's because Limewire's GUI is so damn slow. I simply got tired of it after a while.

by **Fartingbob** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:20 pm

LANjackal wrote:Several months ago, I never thought I'd ever say this, but Ares has overtaken Limewire as my first choice for music downloading now. The ironic thing is that it's not really the search results, or fakes or whatnot - both are pretty even when it comes to those I think. It's because Limewire's GUI is so damn slow. I simply got tired of it after a while.

Try kCeasy. Sure tis not that pretty, but its GUI is fast and it connects to both networks.

As for ares, its been around for a while, and i suspect it has already reached its biggest userbase in the past. "1 click shared folder" style clients IMO are ripe for the killing. Emule is about the only shared folder client/network that actually continues to grow and maintain quality and fewer fakes. Shame 90% of files crawl down the line, 1 bit a minute.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:29 pm

Fartingbob wrote:
LANjackal wrote:Several months ago, I never thought I'd ever say this, but Ares has overtaken Limewire as my first choice for music downloading now. The ironic thing is that it's not really the search results, or fakes or whatnot - both are pretty even when it comes to those I think. It's because Limewire's GUI is so damn slow. I simply got tired of it after a while.

Try kCeasy. Sure tis not that pretty, but its GUI is fast and it connects to both networks.

As for ares, its been around for a while, and i suspect it has already reached its biggest userbase in the past. "1 click shared folder" style clients IMO are ripe for the killing. Emule is about the only shared folder client/network that actually continues to grow and maintain quality and fewer fakes. Shame 90% of files crawl down the line, 1 bit a minute.

KCeasy isn't bad, but it has very bad gnutella suport. And the Ares support isn't the best. The OpenFT network is very good and fast... Why do i prefer Ares and not gnutella? Gnutella is one of the biggest networks out there and that why many anti-p2p companys spreads fakes there. Downloading mp3's is still okey on gnutella but if you wanna get movies, don't get them there, cuz many of them are fakes. Ares has alot more better quality files.

by **Fartingbob** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:34 pm

If you want good quality encodes (not 200mb .rm rips) you shouldnt go to either of them.

by **lordpake** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:01 pm

P2P_G wrote:Why do i prefer Ares and not gnutella? Gnutella is one of the biggest networks out there and that why many anti-p2p companys spreads fakes there.

Expect conditions in Ares network to change to worse as its popularity soars :evil:

This is unavoidable

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:52 pm

Fartingbob wrote:If you want good quality encodes (not 200mb .rm rips) you shouldnt go to either of them.

Lol theres alot of 700mb .avi/.mpeg movies on Ares, but i like private sites better, iPlay has very much good divX movies

by **Fartingbob** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 4:00 pm

P2P_G wrote:
Fartingbob wrote:If you want good quality encodes (not 200mb .rm rips) you shouldnt go to either of them.

Lol theres alot of 700mb .avi/.mpeg movies on Ares, but i like private sites better, iPlay has very much good divX movies

Yes but when all you have to go on is the filename its not ideal. And usually would be slower than getting it off bit torrent.
Im sure kazaa has 700mb movies as well, but that doesnt mean it would be logical to use it for getting them.

by **P2P_G** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 4:16 pm

Kazaa to get movies?! I mean sure, ya can get them of kazaa but when you play them, it wont be a real movies, only some animal-porn

All of movies i downloaded from Ares was real, and good quality.

by **abou105** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:05 pm

you knwo what.

Bit torrent is the killer of other P2P

It is more than a network, it has many sites offering different and often specialized content, fast, reliable and the files are never fake....

ED2K is a relic of old p2p, other clients are there for noobs. I like ares, but i was using it when it just split from gnutella and it was not a popuilar network. It was an amazing netowrk, know why? cause its small userbase shared good quality files and not just popular ones, this has gone, there sharers have gone, when i search the networks these days for music, i get 128 mp3s as standard if im lucky il get 192. Its just not worth the effort any more.

by **lordpake** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:34 am

I really would not call BitTorrent "the killer of other p2p", or call ed2k relic of old. Just because something is old does not make somehow unusable. Both have their uses.

Ares - the next p2p giant or next "what could have been

Ares - the next p2p giant or next "what could have been

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