BearShare
is a popular closed source Gnutella client software
package from a company called Free Peers, Inc.
The software allows its users to share files directly
from person to person by using the Gnutella protocol.
It runs under Microsoft Windows and comes in several
versions, including an advertising supported version,
and a paid pro version with no advertisements,
and a Lite (stripped down) free version.
When it comes to Gnutella clients and participation
in the Gnutella Developers Forum (GDF), BearShare
is seen as one of the forerunners alongside LimeWire
due to its wide implementation of GDF proposals
and stable networking. Unfortunately, it has not
achieved the same fame as the eDonkey network
due to a lack of Partial-File Sharing (PFS). However,
current versions contain PFS support.
There is, though, bad blood between Free Peers
and the developer of Shareaza, Michael Stokes
for naming the network his client introduced Gnutella2,
without asking or making any note of it in the
GDF. Vincent Falco, main developer of BearShare,
threatened to ban connections to Shareaza clients
for this action. It should be noted that Gnutella2's
specifications were quickly released in full,
and Shareaza has now been released under the GNU
GPL.
Following the June 27th, 2005 United States Supreme
Court Decision on the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster,
Ltd. case the BearShare support forums have been
closed. Most of the forum regulars have gone across
to the Technutopia forum pages where support is
now available for BearShare. Download
Bearshare
Bearshare review
This program starts out on the right foot. BearShare
does all of my setup for the ever-confusing Gnutella
network properly and promptly. All of your options
are laid out near the top of the program with
tabs separating your options, much like Napster.
It seems as though BearShare is all about getting
the user what they want, the files, and not the
in-your-face design. You want ease of use for
searching? I typed in Dave Matthews and was returned
over 4,100 matches in under 30 seconds (on a cable
modem at 2:30 in the am). This program looks unstoppable
so far, and maybe that’s why it blew Lime Wire
out of the water for total downloads in it’s first
week on C/Net downloads.
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Layout/Design:
This is the only category where BearShare won’t
score many points. It’s a very Napsteresque looking
and bland. However, it does have some cool ideas
at the same time. In the host section, as you
connect to different networks around the world,
the country’s flag will show up as an icon if
it’s available. Also, the Yogi-bearish icon is
a nice little touch.
Speed of Download:
BearShare is run over the Gnutella network, which
usually means it’s a pain to connect to because
there is no central server listing all the users
and files like Napster uses. However, BearShare
was able to connect quickly to the Gnutella network
and I never once lost my connection. Once I began
downloading files, speed was not a question. It
has a very easy to read download speed bar that
is green. If the whole bar is green, it should
be a fast download, if the bar is partially green,
download speeds may not be as fast. Pretty straightforward,
don’t you think?
Overall:
Even though this one is kind of an ugly looking
one, personality takes it to the top. I would
recommend this program with the likes of Napster,
and as soon as Napster starts charging, look for
BearShare to be at the top of P2P software. Even
if you do have Napster and aren’t looking for
another search program, give BearShare a try.
About P2P
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network
that relies on the computing power and bandwidth
of the participants in the network rather than concentrating
it in a relatively low number of servers. P2P networks
are typically used for connecting nodes via largely
ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for
many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing)
containing audio, video, data or anything in digital
format is very common, and realtime data, such as
telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.
A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the
notion of clients or servers, but only equal peer
nodes that simultaneously function as both "clients"
and "servers" to the other nodes on
the network. This model of network arrangement
differs from the client-server model where communication
is usually to and from a central server. A typical
example for a non peer-to-peer file transfer is
an FTP server where the client and server programs
are quite distinct, and the clients initiate the
download/uploads and the servers react to and
satisfy these requests.
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