F.a.q. proposal
 

What Phex is really missing is a good faq for new users.
I understand that at the moment, the development team is only 2 persons, Gregor and Peter, and we can't expect them to to everything.
So what if some of the more experienced users start writing on a faq and make it sticky ?
I am willing to contribute

RaaF

As a new user, it would sure be appriciated. Most of what I do is in a Windows platform. I've bumbled through setting up the Java environment, but it looks like I've got a ways to go!

FF

Installing Phex for Windows
 

Installing Phex,

This is simple, just unzip the zipfile you downloaded to the directory of your choise.
That's all, no instalation, no setup !

Now in order to run Phex, you need a Java Runtime Enviroment (JRE)
If it is not yet installed on your system you can download it HERE .
Have you used Limewire ? ok don't bother about downloading and installing the JRE, Phex runs on the JRE that came with Limewire.

Starting Phex,
If you go to the directory where you unzipped the Phex-zipfile you downloaded, you will find a phex.jar file.
Try double clicking on it and phex should start up.

If this fails you need to change the application Windows uses, to open a .jar file.
R-click on the phex.jar file and choose:
open with > select programme > browse the list with programme's you'll see and choose "javajaw"
Don't forget to mark "always use this programme to....."
(sorry I am using a dutch version of windows an don't know what it says in other language versions)

The simpelest way to start-up Phex in future times is to make a shotcut to your desktop from the phex.jar file (just R-click again to make the shortcut)
And if you want the Phex shortcut to look better, you could try the Icon that's added.

Connection Problems
 

As Gnutella is a decenteralised network your client needs IP adresses that run a gnutella client in order to connect .
Normally Phex gets these adresses from the Hostcaches in your Auto Connect Hosts screen ( C ) and they are stored in your Host Catcher screen ( D )
But sometimes the default hostcaches don't work for several reasons (to busy, offline) ,so in order to get adresses you could try 3 possible solutions.

1 The first thing you could try is to add exta hostcaches in your Auto Connect Hosts screen ( C ).
At gnutella uk they keep a list of working hostcaches.
Here are a few from their list you could add, Just copy (crtl-c) and paste (crtl-v) them to the box above your Auto Connect Hosts screen and click add.

gnet2.ath.cx:6346
gnutella-again.hostscache.com:6346
gnutella.hostscache.com:6346
gnotella.fileflash.com:6346
public.bearshare.net:6346


2 You could go to a "manual hostcache" Gnufrog and copy a adress from their website into the connect box ( B ) and click connect.
If this fails just use another adress, once you are connected to a client you will get more adresses from that client.


3 You can download a large phex.hosts file from the Phex developers site at Sourceforge
Just place this file into your phex directory where your phex.cfg is located and also raise the value mNetMaxHostToCatch in your phex.cfg file to 3000 or higher.

At gnutella uk they also have a hosts file, they call it a gnutella.net file.
You can copy the adresses from that file and replace the adresses in your phex.hosts file (use a tekst editor like notepad to open your phex.hosts file)


If your Hostcatcher screen is nicely filled, but all connection attempts in the Connections screen ( A ) fail,
(this possible becouse the adresses you have don't always have a Gnutella client running)
you could refresh your Host Catcher screen by clicking reset so you get fresh adresses to connect to.
And make shure Auto Connect is enabled

Connection settings?
 

Can anyone describe the connection settings? For example, what does "maximum bandwidth" refer to? Is that how much of my total bandwidth will be used for any Phex function, or does it only refer to one type of connection or what?

I'm trying to figure out how to adjust my settings so I can:
- conduct searches well
- contribute my files well
- download at reasonable speed
- still surf the web without slowdown

With DSL, I can get pretty good download speed, but only 64 upload. I don't want Phex to use all that upload speed because a lot of web browsing requires two-way communication....


P.S. Using MacPhex, OS X http://homepage.mac.com/macxster/index.html#macphex

Connection settings (not yet)
 

The connection settings in the new 0.6.2 version look pretty straight forward to me, and are a great improvement when compared with the earlier versions.

But before you start to adjust, make shure you got an global idea of how the gnutella network works.
The Knowbuddy's gnutella FAQ is a good place to go .

I suggest to just play around a bit with your bandwith settings in order to get the performance you want .

New user question
 

Well, I am a new user to p2p in general. From a plethora on gnutella clients, I arbitrarily chose Phex.. (well, 2 vague reasons - java, and cause LimeWire failed to install)..

How do I actually use these clients? Is there a FAQ? (guess not as per the earlier post) or any place on a web which describes how to use these clients in general??

I am a developer and am willing to contribute too, once I get a feel of things.

Thanks.

Re: Installing Phex for Windows
 

I made this one; just sharing it in case anyone wants it:

http://saskatoon.d2g.com:1248/phex.ico

Looks good !

Re: Installing Phex for Windows
 

As mentioned in another thread, JRE 1.4 is out and Phex seems to run better on it in Windows.

JRE 1.4 is certainly better and faster but Phex has not been fully tested with it. So you might run into some little problems here or there. Please tell me if you find anything strange.

Currently we will stick with support for JRE 1.3.

Re: F.a.q. proposal
 

I've taken ideas from this tread (and a couple of others) and written up a quick 'getting started' page describing the initial setup using a few pictures. Let me know what you think:

http://saskatoon.d2g.com:1248/phex/phex.htm

Actually yes; I just noticed something- the Unreadable Percent numbers mentioned in
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...?threadid=7775
are now fixed ^_^; Perfectly centered and everything...

The "Remove" function on the Search window acts a bit oddly compared to previously (removing search results but not white space (at least not immediately), not always removing search history from pull down menu)

I got the wellknown problem, that phex just ran once, second time it hangs up whith the splashscreen.

got jre 1.4

btw.: there is no "phexgui.xml" on my HDD /Win32

help would be highly appreciated
;-]]]

z/berlin

If there is no phexgui.xml delete your complete phex configuration directory that contains the phex.cfg
Look into your user profile directory or user home directory to find it.

Gregor

PHex hangs on splash screen
 

Phex ran many times fine. Suddenly it hangs on th e splash screen. Unistalling and reinstalling make no difference (it hangs always now). I have
JRE 1.4. Hope this adds some help.

Don

Re: PHex hangs on splash screen
 

Please read this thread:
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=11949

Remote Host Types
 

Under the Gnutella Net Tab when I have a bunch of remote hosts, it lists their type as being "incoming" or "outgoing"

Now obviously if I'm still being served files with all incoming servers then this "type" is not exclusively what the server is doing.

Just curious what type represents.

Re: Remote Host Types
 

Hello Unregistered,

there are always two kinds of connection, first there is the gnutella network on the netwok tab. Search requests are routed here.
Then there are uploads and downloads, but download doesn't always mean outgoing as it is possible to send a push request over the gnutella network so you are connected back from the other side to receive your request. Uploads and downloads are not part of the gnutella network, so you can press disconnect while a dowload or upload is performing.
This principle is utilized on all gnutella servants.

Helge

i just recently switched from windows to linux. i am starting to learn how to use linux but i'm still in the dark about somethings. how do i install java in linux and how do i get phex to run after that?

commands line
 

i currently am learning how to use gnome 2 linux, i have phex installed, but gnome 2 right now doesnt allow u to use the shortcut for it. is there a command line i can type in the terminal?

Java 1.4.2_01-b06 on Solaris X86
 

I've been running Phex 0.9.5.54 for a week now, with the Java JDK version in the subject above, on Solaris 8 for Intel (a dual-cpu system @1GHZ), and it behaves just like it did with the 1.3.1 verison of Java. As far as I can tell, there were no problems.

I did notice on Solaris that after running for many hours, and also leaving a passive search running the entire time, I got a slew of 'out of memory' errors from Java when I closed Phex down.

As a result, I created a little wrapper script that starts phex up with the command line options for Java to increase the default memory settings.

On Solaris, Java defaults to a minimum memory size of 2MB, and defaults to a maximum size of 64MB. I increased the startup minimum to 4MB (which probably has no effect at all, except maybe to make it load faster), and set the maximum memory size to 256MB (I have over 2.5GB of memory, including virtual ram). Since changing these settings, I have seen no errors at all. But I do need to let the program run a day or to, to reach the point where I am sure it would have triggered the error with the default settings.

Still, if you expect to leave the program up for days at a time, you might want to be aware of the need for expanding the memory available to Java. I suspect that the continuous passive search was what ate all the ram. There must have been thousands of entries in the list when I exited the program.

Regards....

Re: Re: F.a.q. proposal
 

What ever happened to this concept? Seems like Phex could really use some documentation!

-Bob

Is there a need to configure a routers virtual server so that Phex can properly connect?

Which ports need to be forwarded, and which protocol (TCP or UDP). I saw that Phex has a listnig port on 4604, and connections are made on port 6346. Do these both need to be forwarded?

Thanks for any help :)

Phex uses a random listening port which gets selected at first start.

You need to forward only that port, afaik.

sharing host IP issue
 

I'm downloading a file and I "browse host" in the download screen...

The result in the search tab confuse me:
Under the "Search Term" in the top left of the screen it show "68.174.3.xxx:6346" but under the file list information it is showing the file "Sharing Host" is "192.168.0.xxx:6346" !

As far as I know, it always show me the same IP:Port Number for this two entries... What's cause the difference in the case?

Thanks for reply...:)

The host you are browsing could be firewalled (PUSH browsing).

In this case it does not know its real IP and tells you its internal private network IP in the browse results.

Download could still work via PUSH too, though with lower chance.

What is score and rating?
 

Thanks GregorK for explaining regarding host IP...

Under search tab file list, what is indicated by the Score of "0" or "100"... the Rating of 0, 1, 6, or 8 ?

Finally, is the Speed there indicated the speed of connection or uploading or ...?

Thanks for replying.... ;)

score is a percentage indicating how many of your search terms are in the result filename 100 is all search terms are available, 50 means only one of two terms are in the filename. 0 if none are in the filename, this can be the case if maybe the search matches a pathname.

Rating indicates the quality of the candidate. 8 is very high quality and likley a download success, 0 means there is almost no way that you will download from this candidate.

The speed is the reported speed of the other client. Every vendor might use a different value here. Some are real measured speeds and others report just guesses.

sharing and uploading
 

Thanks for explaining, GregorK !

I'm currently using both Phex and LimeWire in Windows 98SE. I have some common files I would like to share across both file sharing software... Is it possible I share the same folder for both Phex and LimeWire ?

And is it possible for a file to be uploading simultaneously by 2 or more hosts?

Thanks for any answer... :p

Yes I dont see a problem it should both work, though I have not tested it.

But Windows 98 has some restrictions in the number of open connections allowed, if you are running two clients at once you might run into this limit more easily