Maintained By nouser.
Modified by Marc Molinaro.
Last update: June 26, 2000 by Manuka
Please read the section of the site about what exactly Gnutella is.
How To Download
How To Install
How To Uninstall
How Gnutella Works
Let's Get Started
Interface Rundown
Getting Connected
How To Search
Searching Tips
Limiting Shares
Client Configuration
Ok, so maybe you've already downloaded Gnutella and maybe
you're not quite sure how to use it. I don't blame you. At first
glance, yeah, it might seem like something for the techie but
once you learn how to use it'll be a tool you'll use everyday.
How To Download
Click on the Download section after you've gone to http://www.gnutelliums.com/. Download the latest version, which should be listed first.
- Hit that link and choose to Save File.
- Once you have downloaded it double-click on the file and install it using
the install program, which should take you step by step through the
installation process. See: How To Install.
How To Install
If you are prompted with the install program leave the type of install as normal and hit next.
At this point you will be asked to choose a directory to install the program in.
The default is "c:\Program Files\gnutella". This screen will also tell you if you have enough
room to install Gnutella, after you have specified a directory hit next and the files will
be installed. After you have installed Gnutella you will have shortcuts on the desktop, and
the start menu. Hit one of these shortcuts and Gnutella will be launched.
How To
Uninstall
There is no
uninstall program for Gnutella, which means that you'll have to delete Gnutella
manually. Gnutella saves none of its settings in the registery so there should
be no problem there. All you need to do is delete the folder where you installed
Gnutella. For most people they would goto My Computer, then to Program Files and
delete the Gnutella folder they see. If you didn't install it in the default
directory, you're not going to find it here.
How Gnutella Works
Before we start, we need to get some things clear. For one,
Gnutella doesn't use servers to connect to like Napster or CuteMX.
You connect to one person on the network, by entering their IP in
the IP text box and that connects you directly to that one person
on the network. When you search, though, it will do a recursive
search throughout the network starting with that one person you
are connected to.
As you can see the box that says, "You" connects to another box or computer. "You" is directly connected to that box and indirectly connected to all of the other boxes. When a search is done, "You" send the search to the box it is directly connected to, and that box sends the search to all the boxes it is connected and so on and so forth.
For Techies
Gnutella is a peer-to-per network. Each person on the network is considered a hub.
In other terms, everybody on the network is a client and a server.
Let's Get Started
Back
to The Top
Just Tell Me How To Get Connected!
When you first load up Gnutella, it doesn't
automatically connect to any servers or anything which is why you have to find
somebody to connect to before you can start search for files and downloading
them.
First thing you need to do is find one of the computers on the network. You need to
at least have the IP of the computer that is on the network.
You would enter IP address in the format as shown below:
IP : Port
findshit.gnutella.com:8015 and 24.15.16.29 are
examples.
If you are connecting to somebody on the
default port (6346) then you don't need to add ':6346'
The IP addresses listed in this tutorial page probably won't work for you. To get an IP on the network you might want to check out the list on the main page.
Don't give up on the first IP address that you try, it may take several tries before you actually get connected to any part of the network. If you can't seem to find any IP addresses there you might want to check out the channel topic on #gnutella on the EFnet IRC network (use mIRC if you don't have a windows IRC client). Please do NOT ask for an address in-channel.
Interface Rundown
When you first look at Gnutella for Windows it may appear not appear to be the powerful
program that it is, but Gnutella covers a good range of functionality.
The upper left-hand corner contains the tabs GnutellaNet, Uploads, Download, Search, Monitor,
and Config.
|
Feature
|
Function
|
|
GnutellaNet |
The main screen it shows your connected hosts, network
information,
host catcher, and a text box to add servers |
|
Uploads |
Shows
what people are downloading from you and their download progress |
|
Downloads |
Shows you are downloading and your
download progress |
|
Search |
Where you search for
files to download. You must be connected to somebody in order to download
or even search for files to download |
|
Search
Monitor |
In this screen you can see what people are searching for.
NOTE: THE SEARCH MONITOR IS NOT FOR CHATTING. |
|
Config |
Where you can change the options relating to the way that your Gnutella
client functions |
Techie Explanation Of The Interface
Next lets start by going over the picture above and what it means to you.
|
List
|
Definition of Contents |
| Connection
List |
This is the list of people you are
directly connected to |
| Header |
Definition of Contents Under The Header
|
|
Host
|
IP of computer you are connected to |
|
Type |
Type of connection. If you add an
IP to your connection list the type is
considered outgoing and the other way around is an incoming connection. |
|
Info |
Packets
Sent,
Packets Received, Lost/Dropped Packets |
| List |
Definition of Contents |
| Connection
Stats |
This is the list of people you are
directly connected to |
| Header |
Definition of Contents Under The Header
|
|
gnutellaNet |
Number of direct connections
you have open |
|
Uploads |
Number of uploads in progress
|
|
Downloads |
Number of downloads in progress
|
| List |
Definition of Contents |
| GnutellaNet
Stats |
Contains information on network you and your connections
make
|
| Header |
Definition of Contents Under The Header
|
|
Hosts |
Number of direct connections and the
number of the direct connections' connections. This makes up your network. |
|
Files |
Number
of files in the network |
|
MB |
Size of
files in the network |
|
Ms Avg. Ping |
Average
ping time in milliseconds to all the Hosts in the network |
|
Feature
|
Function
|
|
Add/Remove
Button |
Adds or
removes an IP from your connections list. |
|
Keep # Connections Up |
How many connections
to other computers Gnutella should try to keep open. If this number is lower than the number of connections
Gnutella has open then Gnutella adds hosts from the Host Catcher
list and tries to
connect to them. |
|
Host Catcher |
When your stats are updated
or information is sent from one computer to another in which an IP is
required to send the data, the IP is added to this list. When Gnutella is
then in need of hosts to connect to it uses the IP addresses in this list. |
How To Search
Back
to The Top
Again, you have to be connected to somebody for searching to work. (See Just
Get Me Connected!)
To search for anything on the network just enter what you are search for in the search text box and press the 'Search' button.
The search button works like the button on an elevator. No matter how many times you search for the same thing over and over, it will not make the searching go any faster than it is.
If you are not getting as many search results as you would like, try connecting to another computer on the network which will allow you to connect to even more computers on the network. Dialup users shouldn't connect to more than 1 or 2 other peers, and high-bandwidth users should limit themselves to 10 connections. Too many connections will consume all your available bandwidth (each one uses 500-1000 bytes/second) and cause dropped packets due to redundancy on the network. Also make sure you have more than 1 host in the Gnutella stats on the side screen. You need to press 'update' to manually check how many people you are direct and indirectly connected to.
Searching Tips
Most of the time if you want to search for file
types other than mp3's then you'll need to specify the file type as shown above.
- Periods and wild cards and Regular Expressions are not supported
- Search terms also look in a file's pathname
- Errors on uploads/downloads either because of firewall/proxy or routing to other system
- *.AVI is the same as AVI
- Search terms are separated by spaces and wild cards and periods are converted to spaces on the remote computer when searching
When you do a search using Gnutella, it searches the files of
everybody you have in your list and searches each one of their lists as well for
what you?re looking for. This is what you call the hosts.
Limiting Searches
There are a few ways to limit searches. One way
is by using the Minimum Connection Speed (kbps) as
shown in the graphic above. The Minimum Connection Speed will only search
people who are higher than the speed that you've specified.
Techie Explanation Of The Interface
|
Feature
|
Function
|
|
Stream Selected Files |
This only works for MP3 files and you must have
WinAMP to begin with. All this does is put the MP3 file name in your WinAMP
playlist so that you can list to the song as it downloads. |
|
Download Selected Files |
Downloads the selected files. You can see
the progress of all downloads in the Download screen |
Client Configuration
Back
to The Top
|
Feature
|
Function
|
|
Save New Files To |
AKA Your
Download Directory. Specifies the directory in which all files that are downloaded
will be placed. Click on the button to change the directory. |
|
Add Directory Button |
Adds a directory to the list of shared folders. You have to
press 'Rescan' before files in any new directories are shared. |
|
Rescan
Button |
Sets the Files Scanned property at 0 and starts to scanning each
one of the shared folders for files of all types. When it is done Files Scanned
will show how many files you are sharing in the directories scanned. |
|
Path(s) To Files |
AKA Your
Shared Folders Specifies the folders that are scanned and then shared
to the outside world! Each
directory path is separated by a semi-colon. |
|
Search Extensions |
This tells Gnutella what file extensions are to be shared from your system. Notice that each file type does not include a period at the beginning, and that each one is separated
by a semi-colon. This does not affect searches that you make. |
|
Searches
(Limit search results
to...) |
This does not limit the number of results you get when you
search for something, but only limits the number of
results Gnutella returns when other people are searching through your files. |
|
Word |
Definition |
| Listen Port |
Port in
which people connect to you. |
| Time To Live |
Number of computers
a single packet goes through before it is stopped |
| Connection Speed |
Your connection speed in KBPS |
| Files Scanned |
Number of files you are
sharing |
|
