The reason I stopped using Limewire in favor of WinMX is because Limewire stupidly returns IP addresses with query results, which gives pirate hunters all the info they need to send a complaint letter to your ISP and get your account cancelled.

Hey Unregistered,

IP addresses are hardwired into the program.....Sure, you can use a program that doesn't display them, but the pirate hunters are going to be using the ones that do....


When your machine sends a request for information to another machine, it HAS to know where that machine is! If another machine replies that "I have what you're looking for," it MUST return an address to begin negotiation for the transfer. If you've used Gnucleus, you can see the handshake between the machines as http requests (or some such...).

That's just one of the weaknesses right now with this type of program. Only defense is to play like the B-17's did during WWII.....that's to fly tight and bring all you can muster.....the more people using this P2P, and the more files that each person has....the better! Even if you aren't interested in Brittany Spears, having some of her stuff on your server will draw attention from the people who are hardcore about getting whole albums out right after their release. This will keep things even and prevent the great selection from being squashed. This will also make it difficult to select the "ring-leaders" that the RIAA will try to take out first! The pirate hunters might get a few of us, but if we all have lots of stuff to share, it will never make a dent and their efforts will be futile.


Keep the freeloaders out too....they might be pirate hunters......It's just like good ole' GB says "If you're not with us...you're against us!" The freeloaders may be minions for the RIAA, and as such, not be "authorized" to share any real material. If you don't have at least 1 legit album to share, you don't belong here anyway.



Just a few thoughts......happy trading!


Danny

I know the IP address is built-in, but if you could set your IP-hiding client to only reply to incoming queries from other users of the same IP-hiding client, problem solved.

IP addresses should not be returned with query results, end of story. I don't understand why all gnutella clients are built this way. Using WinMX and connecting only to the WPNP network (not the OpenNAP stuff), the program knows the IP address of the person you're downloading from, but there's no way for you or the RIAA to see it. That's great design and should have been common sense for the architects of the gnutella network.

You're wrong, the RIAA certainly has tools that allow them to see which IP has what files shared. The only way to truly hide your IP from them is with a network like Freenet that has hops between two peers to shield the two sides.

There is no possible way to hide the IP.
Anyone that wants your IP can simply connect to you and run netstat regardless of if the client displays it or not.

Beyond that, the firewall logs would catch the IP for sure.

Well, I've found a P2P networking protocol (MANOLITO) used by the Blubster program that is anonymous...no IP address reporting there. It allows direct chat with users, and there's a definite vulnerability in that, but if you just turn that off no problem. Gnutella will live on for warez and porn, but as for as mp3 sharing goes, the future is definitely Blubster running on MANOLITO. It scales better, it's way faster, and once the network gets a little bigger it won't require any gateways at all.

For a minority of us the trouble is its a Winduhs only program. I need java to run on my Linux box.
I'm hoping to get enough time to write somekind of anonymizing proxy for limewire. Havent really worked how to interface it yet, but we'll see.