Sorry I must have grabbed the wrong link. I'll remove it from my previous post. Glad to hear you're up and connected. 27th June is the last list I posted yes. A member called BearShare posts lists occasionally, but only seems to be very occasional. BearShare connection lists go out of date very quickly as you are probably aware. So I try to keep them updated every 3-5 weeks.

It would definitely be a bonus if someone volunteered to post some BearShare connection lists on the forum. Perhaps monthly. I might not always be around or as frequently. By next year I will probably spend less time connection-data collating and posting. (Once I've moved house.)

OK, one last question and then I promise to stop bothering you. As mentioned, I copied the connect.txt file I found from that previous link you posted and every thing seems fine. I connect fairly quickly usually with about 8 of 26 peers after a few minutes. My question is: Is there any benefit to running that "BearShare ConnectFix 27 June 2013.zip" you posted if I already seem to be connecting OK.

Thanks,

Bob

No, the connectfix is only intended for those with connection problems. Either first time users or those who have not used BearShare in a long time and their connection file is stale and cannot connect. Once you get connected you will be fine from there after.

A high percentage of regular BearShare peers use dynamic addresses, some are sticky and last for between a few weeks to a year. Some are highly dynamic and change daily. Some hosts try BS out and vanish a week or month later. This has been my observation at least. I'm not sure what percentage of overall BS hosts I get to see or whether I'm only in one bubble of the entire BS peer population. Over the past month I've seen a few hosts I had not seen for between 6-12 months which was a positive sign. The point being that BS's connection file can go stale if not used for a couple of months or more due to the dynamics mentioned above.

I did some testing with BSLoader last night. Trying to combine both methods (which I had tried in the beginning but it didn't work.) Similar issues. I discovered that the action of changing the date back to today generates an error code, which then sends the program to the error handling portion of code. I'm not sure how to work around this without setting up some kind of error log generation to find what the error is to work with it. I have at least cleaned up the error handling section and made sure the program closes and clears its memory at same time. But not sure how to deal with the dual options. When I get to close BS down next I will test the code on Win 8 to see if it will accept the dual options of changing date without hanging at one of the options despite the date-change working with the other option as happens on Win 7 & XP. Probably Win 8 is the only one that needs a dual option of reverting the date.
It would be handy if you could test out the program I've done so far since your Win 8 uses a different option for changing date. This version only changes date, I removed the launch BearShare for testing purposes.

Sure, I'll test it. Just post the link/filename. I appreciate all the work you do for the community.

Bob

I'll need to review how it works. Same issue as Win 7 & earlier for me on Win 8 with the combined option, although the date changes, it then hangs and does not close down properly.

Edit: I'm going to seek some advice, my script skills are too basic to sort this one out.

I would like to thank foxidrive who has provided an alternative Windows 8 approach to change and revert the date. Both bfollett and my testing of it worked and seems to be a universal Windows 8 approach. An added bonus for both of us was we did not need to go through the extra step of setting the BSLoader to Run as Administrator.

I will upload the newer BSLoader sometime over the next day or two. I might also add some more variation of the delays before reverting date back to today so people can use a custom delay to suit the speed of their system.

Edit: foxidrive provided a variation of the above to cater for various date formats which I may or may not end up using.
Edit: works for both bfollett and I so will be used instead.

I finally got around to re-doing the base BSLoader installer and re-installing BearShare to fully test it out on Win XP. The shortcuts seem fine except you do need to disable the Desktop shortcut in the original BearShare installer. Alternative would be for me to name the desktop shortcut BearShare instead. So I will re-upload the BearShare Beta package and the BSLoader within the next day. I had been wanting to test this out before re-uploading the BSLoader.

Removed my original shortcut design of one BSLoader installed into Windows folder and used specifically for shortcuts. That was a technique based on my early ignorance at trying to get shortcuts to work but solved the issue at the time.

If anybody has problems with the 2nd version supplied by foxidrive to use on Windows 8 then I will revert to foxidrive's first version. The second version caters for different date formats if using Win 8. Example dd/mm/yy or or mm/dd/yy or yy/dd/mm etc.

Edit: I have added a function to remove the BearShare desktop shortcut in case anybody did not unselect the option with the BearShare Beta installer. I'll upload the new version in next 24 hours or so.

Did you ever get around to putting up the last installer that removes the BearShare shortcut? If so can you post the link.

Thanks,

Bob

I did upload it yes. Find the BSLoader only (version 2).zip here https://hotfile.com/list/2069537/a7428e3 Tell me if it doesn't work. It worked in testing at least. It worked in testing on XP a few minutes ago also. (Alternative link here via mediafire.)
When installing it should simultaneously remove the 'BearShare Test' shortcuts from both common and user desktops and common & user Start Menus. If the shortcut is not called 'BearShare Test' then it won't work. From memory the shortcuts BearShare Test installer installs are called 'BearShare Test', if not my error.

The BSLoader installer does create a Start Menu shortcut called 'BearShare Test' which links to BSLoader. I guess I could now remove this since it was originally intended to replace the original BSTest shortcut if it existed.