You mean WinMX still Works?

[SlyckTom]

There was a time when WinMX was the king of file-sharing. For a brief time, it was arguably larger than FastTrack (Kazaa, Grokster), eDonkey2000, and Gnutella. But that was a long time ago, when the P2P community actually meant something. When FrontCode Technologies, the company behind WinMX, received a “cease and desist” letter from the music industry in 2005, the entire project was abandoned.

The WinMX decentralized network, as it turned out, wasn’t so decentralized. The WinMX client depended on active IP addresses to connect to the network, which were stored on cache servers maintained by FrontCode Technologies. Once these servers went offline, it was impossible to connect, trade, or share files. Although WinMX had been in a slow state of decline for about a year, thanks to the unfulfilled promises of WinMX 4.0 and the arrival of BitTorrent, it remained an excellent resource for MP3s.

Once WinMX was taken offline, much of its population scattered. But the core community remained, and within days, third party cache servers were constructed in an attempt to resurrect the network. However, the resurrected WinMX network bore virtually no resemblance to the former community, as the population had been thoroughly depleted. The existing patch attempts at the time were frustratingly inefficient, and those who gave the network a chance were quickly discouraged and moved on. WinMX was, for all intentions, dead in the water.

But if you’re still longing for the days of high quality MP3s and a solid community to hang out with, it appears that 3 years of brooding have finally done the WinMX community some good. WinMXWorld.com, a leading WinMX community dedicated to reviving, maintaining, and furthering the network, has designed a very reliable method for connecting to the WinMX network. The method for reconnecting is rather simple: a redesigned DLL redirects the WinMX client to their own cache server farm, instead of WinMX.com. This is a virtually identical design as the initial WinMX resurrection attempts, however 3 years of community-building has changed the ballgame completely. The days of waiting, only to be followed by an unresourceful network, appear to be over.


It's alive!

It’s important to recognize what the resurrected WinMX network is, and what it is not. The resurrected network is not the same place we all remember back in the day. At its peak, WinMX had well over 1 million simultaneous users at any given time. Since FrontCode is long gone, it’s impossible to know the current population – but according to statistics gathered by WinMxWorld, WInMX has swelled to well over 200,000 individuals.

WinMX may not be the network it once was, however, that’s still a large number of individuals, and a considerable depository for MP3s. The network still has its problems, such as long queues for some MP3s, but looking at the overall picture, WinMX is a network on the rebound (considering it was at zero when FrontCode pulled the plug). If you’re expecting miracles, it’s probably best to look elsewhere. However, for the MP3 hungry populace, WinMX has once again become a viable resource, and might just help find the files you want.

[HEAT84]

Wow a WinMX article! Never thought I'd see one of these around here again. It must be a really slow newsday. Or SlyckTom must be really bored.

A best guess estimate would place the population somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 users

No way there's gotta be way more than that. I don't use it very much anymore but when I do it seems as easy to find a file as it ever was. Being able to download that file is a different story. It still has that nasty queuing problem.

[jay-jay]

Wow, WinMX takes me back...Such a shame what happened to it. I'm gonna fire it up again now, for old times sake

[SlyckTom]

Wow a WinMX article! Never thought I'd see one of these around here again. It must be a really slow newsday. Or SlyckTom must be really bored.

Boredom is for those with an inactive mind

More than 30k-50k? That's possible...so hard to tell tho. I'd be willing to up that to 100,000 or more, but I'm not sure if it's much more than that...

[Paladwyn]

Never did use WinMX much. I started out with Audiogalaxy, then found Napster. What that hit the rocks, I went to Kazaa/iMesh. Those both took turns for the worse, with Kazaa backstabbing all it's users with crapware and iMesh shelling out to the industries...I basically turned to Overnet.

I stayed with eMule for quite a while...but I really didn't do much sharing of music past Napster anyways, I only listen to a few artists, and like to support them by buying their discs. Software is another story Now it's all about Usenet and Torrents. I even tended to stay away from Limewire, as being in the spotlight means it will be targetted - and it is.

[ejonesss]

it is probably that it had decentralized p2p built in so it probably is no longer connecting to a server but rather to users directly.

[MrFredPFL]

it is probably that it had decentralized p2p built in so it probably is no longer connecting to a server but rather to users directly.

wrong. it is hardcoded to connect to a server. the DLL simply changes the server it connects to.

did you just assume tom had no idea what he was talking about?

[..Ñøßߥ..]

It’s important to recognize what the resurrected WinMX network is, and what it is not. The resurrected network is not the same place we all remember back in the day. At its peak, WinMX had well over 1 million simultaneous users at any given time. Since FrontCode is long gone, it’s impossible to know the current population – but it’s fairly apparent that WinMX is nowhere near what it once was.

But this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it uses. A best guess estimate would place the population somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 users, a far cry from its heyday.

Nice article Tom, i should point out though, i think your userbase estimates do the Winmx community a dis-service, i think you will find numbers are substantially higher than that!

[Golgo1]

I dont use MX, but I think he meant user online at one time, not in total.

But as i dont use it, maybe 50k at once is still low?

[Lee1001]

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9434/ZeroP ... WinMXWorld

Like many I used winMX,trouble is today there seems to be more than one

[Dazzle_2]

Not only does it still work it is also nearly 3 years since the users took over the operating of the vital peer caches and introduced anti p2p filtering technology

Like many I used winMX,trouble is today there seems to be more than one

The WPN network is still a single large network with what may to the new user look like a wide selection of support groups but the two main ones are mxpie and of course winmxworld and so while the users may use different connection methods they will still end up on the same network and be able to search for files and chat to each other as before the frontcode/winmx tech closure.

When I saw this article I was very pleasantly suprised, but after a quick read I too have to take umbrage with the low userbase sugested here Tom, we are able to generate statistics via the peer caches and rest assured there are many more clients than a mere 30k, recently winmworld was watching figures of between 200k and 300k of users and thats just those using our deployed peer caches, add to this the figures the amount of users on the mxpie solution those using their own update bar page as a few Japanese sites have done and your most definitely looking at a figure more nearer to 1/2 Million users that 30,000, I,m sure pie will confirm they have more than 200k of users, maybe double that, who knows.

How are our statistics gathered ?
This is a simple operation once you know one of winmx's more helpful attributes, namely the update bar, this checks for an update notification periodicly and by monitoring the web server statistics on update message delivery (currently "patch online" ), we are able to give an nearly exact count of users using that particular connection solution, we imagine mxpie does something similar.

We have a tool also for counting network primaries left to us by King Macro when he closed winmxgroup, and this too will be able to generate a sensible figure over a short period of time, but is best averaged out over a week, I must confess to not watching the figures of late but facilities do exist to deliver statistically viable figures if anyone wants to know them.

Nice article as usual Tom and my thanks to you for your continued interest in what has been over the last few years a struggling but lively network

[Overnet User]

good to hear that the network is still alive and kickin

[IslandGirl]

yes, winmx still works, I think I only stopped using it for 2 or 3 days when winmx.com closed. slycktoms guesstimate of 50 thousand users is way too low, it is reportedly more like 500 thousand. I share and download all kinds of media and so far [in 6 years], everything I search for on winmx, I get. I have a fairly slow connection [adsl 256/64] and a low spec computer and find winmx uses very little resources and downloads at my maximum speed 24/7. Other people I know with better computers/connections download at up to 20mg. The connection patch is now integrated into winmx installer and is very easy to install/use. You can download it from patch.winmxconex.com

[SlyckTom]

happy to update the stats, and I mean that!

[HalOfBorg]

I hardly missed a day on WinMX when frontcode went down. My name on Youtube is LyingBastardWinMX. I currently use the 3.54Beta and it's all good.

When I want am MP3, I go to WinMX and I am DLing it in moments. Of course, these are public domain MP3s.

And the chatrooms are busy as ever. Look for me as "Lying Bastard".

I use that name because I was and never want to be again. AND - it's from 'Ringworld'.

[Psycho Ced]

So .. .. When is Winmx 4.0 coming out?

[Dazzle_2]

So .. .. When is Winmx 4.0 coming out?

That's not really a question anyone here can answer as the official closed src client was halted by its creator and no one has heard from him since that day despite numerous calls for him to either appear or just open src his client code.

Regardless, we plod on and currently have one project for a primary client that's on hold till the key developer gets time to finish off the secondary handling array and the other project is a currently a secondary only client but will also one day become a primary client, both have issues with developer time constraints but solid amounts of code are in hand and a high degree of confidence is placed on both projects to deliver in time, we are famous for our patient community.

The theoretical hurdles to creating a from-scratch code base have long since been disposed of by the communities research groups, so all projects are being built with much building block success and high developer confidence, the waiting game for the first "primary" release is of course something we have taken on board, progress has always been slow but the rewards in terms of future user-base expansion and increased technical improvement will be worth waiting for.

[Your_Mentor]

What killed the network was mostly its users after they hacked their way back up..
1. No filesharing.. Its trading. Users wont let you download or connect to them to download songs unless you have something they want.
2. Users were pretty rude in the rooms, and people lied.
3. When I Say lied.. They put them selfs as a 56k modem user when they had essentially cable/dsl or T1.. I guess its so many people wouldnt clogg their speed or that they can show that their sharing.
4. The queues were forever, and then so many low quality byte rate of files.. Bad description of them too.
5. Speed and stability.

If you want to be a step above the rest yet a step back in file sharing.. Go and do this on mIRC with chatting, dedicated rooms, and the ability to trade among others with scripts and bots to help take the workload off. The only down fall is some queues, and netsplits or disconnection from users while file transfering. But it is over all better then winmx.

[Dazzle_2]

The network I use does not seem to feature any of those issues you list exclusively Your_Mentor, what I see is a happy place to discuss the state of the world while you share and obtain files and help one another to other to locate often rare and obscure files.

Speeds on the network are very reasonble given the major assualt by ISP's on all types of filesharing and its this and poor setups that will decide the maximum speed of the files passing between two users.
Currently in public testing is a new patch that features dynamic UPNP to aid in configuring users routers to help strengthen their setup, a prime source of download disaster.

The fake filtering system introduced some time ago in relaity places this nework head and shoulders above many of its bigger rivals that offer no such system to weed out the time wasting downloads, Ares, Limewire and in fact most gnutella client are awash with such unwanted items. This is a WinMX gem that the other networks look at with envy but seem unable or unwilling to replicate.

The policy we promote at wmw is one of tolerance and education for those not sharing, hardline jihads against our fellows are unlikley to encourage sharing, a message offering help is often a intro to broach the subject and many are happy to share something or other they feel comfortable with, there are after all a whole raft of files not under the control of the RIAA or their ilk to share safely if thats their concern, often its the case that the user has no idea how to add files or even knows how your message reached them, education then is the example we offer and encourage, we like to think this is common sense when on a filesharing network, whats good for yourself is likely good for other users also.

I forgot to reiterate that searches are not global on winmx and there is for this reason always the chance to find yet further sources of rare files, once you have located a required file you can search globally by the hash to find any source on the network, I havent myself been unable to locate a file I was searching for

[tiny4eva]

Well i am so made up too see a bigup for WinMX,

Its a shame someone who obviously hasnt tried the network for awhile decided Mirc is better, but at the end of the day it is all down to personal prefrence, if you didnt like it, thats ok, your more than entitled to use many of the other countless networks that are out their. I also resent the remark of hacking our way up. If you can show me how we have somehow hacked anything i will be more than glad to discuss this with you, as you will find their has never been hacking of any sort, may have been a propaganda remark during the times of when the diffrent groups wernt on speaking terms, but as slyck has pointed out things are changing for Winmx. The patch that dazzle pointed out, a comunity patch currently posted on Winmxworld.com's forum in the news section, This is a test patch but is a comunity effort, ie two of the major groups mxpie.com and winmxworld.com having been in long peaceful discusions about its roll out after this final stage of testing.

If this patch is finalised which i would imagine is going to be very soon pretty much the whole of winmx will be moving over to this solution, once this happens some 98% of the network will be running the DLL making flooding the network virtually impossible, but for the users using the DLL the search results will be filtered to competly eradicate fakes from the results. Meaning every file that shows will be from a REAL user. The current patch supported from winmxworld does all of this as pointed out by Dazzle already but mxpie.com wouldnt support that paticular DLL. Now though will not be the case and you will find Winmx will be one of the few P2P clients in exsistance that can boast NO interuption from R.I.A.A type association's. Something the likes of limewire, emule, even torrents can not boast, as all detected Flooding IP's are blocked, and monitored by a team that has been doing this for along time.

So thank-you Tom for bringing a new story reminding folks that winmx is still here. We have all worked hard and strived for what we belive in and its coming to fruit. Winmx will be a network very hard to beat.

[MrFredPFL]

2. Users were pretty rude in the rooms, and people lied.
3. When I Say lied.. They put them selfs as a 56k modem user when they had essentially cable/dsl or T1.. I guess its so many people wouldnt clogg their speed or that they can show that their sharing.

ok, point 2: welcome to the internet. rude people are everywhere. just like on forums. some rooms are moderated better than others.

point 3: yes, people often report dialup speed. but were you aware that this was a default behavior of their client, and not a conscious decision of their own, in many of not most cases? MX included a "feature" to automatically report dialup speed by default when a user had 2 or more running uploads. unless you are downloading from someone at a high rate of speed to begin with, how would you know their reported dialup speed was a lie anyway? and if you were downloading from them at a high speed, then what's the problem?

[MrFredPFL]

ps: am i the only one who thinks it's strange that someone would complain about rude people in chat rooms, and then turn around and recommend IRC?

[Your_Mentor]

ps: am i the only one who thinks it's strange that someone would complain about rude people in chat rooms, and then turn around and recommend IRC?

So many scripts are running on MIRC as people arent in the channels to chat or talk. Its all script and they are searching for songs.. You cant get a conversation going with 30-60 people sending messages for songs and bots replying back with bold and colorful letters.
I have used winmx..
When you turn it on and setup.. DOES it not ask to state what type of connection you have?? And when you search a song do you see more people using the 56k modem option? And when you download from them are you then receiving speeds higher than what they should be able to output as a modem user?? They do it so you wont download from them and they can list many files available and know seeing a 56k user with the song would be discouraging enough.
Their chat rooms are mainly for trade only and have it listed as the title. You have to have something for them to get in or for you to get songs.
To make it worst.. They had a program add on.. Leech hammer so if you dont want to share your songs with the RIAA and everyone else, you would list yourself as someone who isnt sharing any songs.. Then when you tried to obtain songs, the leech hammer sees what you made available and then disconnects you from getting any songs.
http://www.winmxworld.com/goodies/uploads.html
I have used it and recommend going back to mIRC over winmx. The computers are baby sitting the room and rarely you can find abuse as no one answers or on the other side of the PC (Bot).
You can read about it here if you forgot the lame experience it left you with. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winmx

Winmx is as bad as Album_wraps. Just Rar or zip it.

[MrFredPFL]

i have spoken with the developer of leechammer many times. to be honest, i was very disappointed when he stopped development, as LH was by far the more attractive anti-leeching tool out there for mx users. i am very familiar with it - i daresay i am not going out on a limb if i say i am much more familiar with it than you are

the fact that you cite leechammer as a negative about winmx and fail to mention mxmonitor clearly shows your ignorance about the network. period. leechammer is far less abuseable, and far less common, than mxmonitor is. anyone who actually knows anything about WinMX is well aware of this.

yes, the program asks you what your connection speed is. and many, if not all versions, also CHANGED the speed it reported, regardless of what you told it your speed was, if you left the default settings intact, whenever you had 2 or more uploads going.

thanks, but having used it personally, i have no need to have some anonymous internet user on wikipedia tell me what to think about it. i am capable of forming my own opinions, without needing someone of unknown credentials to supply one for me.

if you prefer irc, that's fine. but in this case, you are certainly not MY mentor, nor do i think you are the mentor of the several other people in this thread who actually use winmx.

afterthought: maybe it was the presumptuous condescending nature of your nickname that brought out the rudeness in some people

[Dazzle_2]

To be honest the Wiki link posted here was way out of date and is rather inaccurate as was the file sharing entry on Wiki regarding winmx, both seem to imply winmx uses central servers to operate, this is not so, the servers only purpose in the chain is to deliver an initial list of nodes to users connecting to the network, after that you are the captain of your own ship on the network, having the ability to open your own chat room on any theme you choose all the whilst enjoying either the sheer pleasure to be had from uploading and downloading content that you actually have to seek out yourself rather than the "delivered content" mindset that sort of takes over with bit torrent/newsgroup only users.

I like to think each network compliments the other, sure we don't always get the latest movies as fast as the jumbo torrent sites, but to be honest how many torrents have anything like the amount of rare and otherwise unobtainable files our network users do, whilst torrents act as an initial waterfall for many files the p2p networks act sponge-like to soak up all the content and store it, this is not anything new I,m stating here but it serves I hope to remind folks that not everything is as clear cut as it may seem on the surface, giving a little thought to where all the medium to small files end up is often enough to make many ppl fire up winmx and get looking for that hidden gem they though was gone forever.

I ask you simply to fire up your old mx client Your_Mentor and come to the winmxworld help room, see for yourself how many clients are reporting 56k line types, I cant see any at the time of posting and in fact only know of one regular in the outbacks of the US who has dial-up still, this is of course due to the effect of increased global broadband usage and so tbh I cannot fathom what has offended you so much.

Give it another try and see what its like today, being a long term user I have had bad days on the network when it looked like things where all doom and gloom, thankfully I learned a lot of new skills and talents and made many new friends and following their advice I was able to become a dab hand at gathering what content I required, its my belief if you fire up your mx and use one of the filtering patches you will find its got a lot to offer in terms of helpful users and decent content, I hope you at least take a fresh look, I,m certain you will be happy to utilise the network at the least as a secondary source for the content you enjoy.