I have noticed that the network is getting worse and worse lately.
It takes longer to get connected, and usually a few hours before you
find some stable hosts. I have been trying everything to get the best
hosts, but its very hard to tell, since XoloX doesnt show who you are
connected to. I've been monitoring how xolox connects to hosts, and it
appears that it only connects to a few hosts at a time (less than five
on average). Now this would be alright if these five hoss were really
good, but most of the time they arent.

I Found a list of active hosts, which was very helpful, at http://gnufrog.com
and it sometimes helps to add a few of them in the preference window. Still
this was a long process, because usually you only connect to one out of the
ten that you put in. Then i was looking around and found my savior.........

<b>gnucache.......</b> its a program that connects to the gnutella network,
creates a list of active hosts, and then acts as a host cache server.
I'm still not quite sure how it works, because when i look at what ports the
program is listening to, they arent the ports that its setup to listen to. Its
originaly set to listen to 6346, 8080, 6667, 80 and 23, but my firewall shows
that it is listening on 0.0.0.0 ports 3904, 5, 6, and 3907. I'm not to keen on
TCP ports, so i'm not sure what its doing. What I do know is that IT WORKS!!!!!!

I spent three hours searching for files to download, and during that time i tried
everything i could think of, even going back to Limewire (Which still sucks, !@#@ing
supernodes!!!). Then I found Gnucache, and started it up, found about 500 hosts in 20 mins,
and started finding my files left and right. It really works.

This is DEFINATLY not something for novice users, but if you know what your doing,
i'd say give this a try. You can download the program from:
<b>
http://www.gnutelliums.com/download/gnucache.shtml
</b>
Just unzip it, run the program, And i think you have to change the 6346 port to something else,
since (atleast i think) Xolox runs on that port. Start Xolox, let it connect to a couple of hosts,
Then go to gnucache and enter in your own ip number (its the best way to connect to the Gnutella network)
It should connect, then start finding hosts like crazy! Since you are connected to the network
through xolox, it greatly increases the amount of hosts you can see.

Hope this helps someone, cuz it sure helped me

If anyone finds this helpfull, or understands it more than i do, i'd like to hear from you

Gbrayut

i've been working with it alittle bit more, still dont fully understand it
its working great. I havent tried restarting yet, but i've kept
a full download query since i started gnucache (which hasnt happened in a while).

the problem with the ports kindof fixed itself, i guess you have to exit the program
to re-assign the ports. They are working fine now, but Its still kindof tricky getting
xolox to connect to the cache server. I've tried using the add host feature in xolox,
connecting to my ip address, and also 127.0.0.1 (which
i understand is a loopback, right?) but it is hard to tell if that works. The best way
i have found so far to refresh you hosts in xolox is to enter the loopback ip (127.0.0.1) in gnucache. It will automatically connect to xolox on the default port of 6346, and it will usually give xolox a jump start.

Also if your going to install gnucache, i'd suggest also installing a firewall, here is
a link to a very good <b>free</b> firewall. You can also use it to monitor what xolox
is connecting to.

www.tinysoftware.com

Gbrayut

I have downloaded gnucache, and it sure finds a lot of hosts, but how can xolox make use of those?
Should I add 127.0.0.1:6347 to xolox?

Well, i'm still not sure, because i havent been able to connect
to it through xolox. In truth, you should just have to add
127.0.0.1 (or your own ip number) as a host in xolox (connecting
to one of the ports gnucache is listening to), but i haven been
able to verify that that acutually works. The only way i have
confirmed a connection between gnucache and Xolox is when I connect
to xolox through gnucache (confusing, huh...) by adding the loop back
ip as a connection. It shows that it connects, grabs a few extra
hosts, and (at least i think) acts as a bridge to the host list (or
atleast the 4 or 5 other connections). I havent tried using it again,
but i'll experiment some more. For right now, just try setting
gnucache to connect to about 5 hosts, change the 6346 port to
something else (probably 6347, another popular gnutella port),
and once you get a list of hosts, just add 127.0.0.1 as a connection
in gnucache. It should start out with a * infront of it (ex... *127.0...)
and then the star will go away if it connects. It will to connect
to the default port (6347), so if your client is listening on a
different port, you have to connect to that port instead. THis
should actually help out any gnutella client, so i'll try it with
gnotella (its easier to see the host connections).

The idea sure sounds great, but I need someone to put it step by step in newbie terms for me to understand. Do you have Xolox runnig when you start gnucache? I can't seem to get gnucache to work on any port, are there some suggested port numbers to try?

thanx
fasteddie

Well, i'm sorry to say that when i restarted xolox
and tried it again, it didnt work as well as i had
hoped. And when i tried removing all the entries in
the hostlist file, and using gnucache to connect,
it was even worse. I played around with gnucache and
gnotella, and it appears that when you connect to
gnucache, it sends you a few ip numbers (usually 20-
100) and then disconnects. This really doesnt help
too much. Also i must say that xolox's connections
are pretty bad. It doesnt stay connected to a host
for very long (under 30 mins) and i still havent
been able to get it to connect to my own ip number.
Anytime i add my own ip number to xolox, it doesnt
even try to connect (atleast not that i have seen)


Now that i know this, i am going to try, in my spare
time, to look through the source code for gnucache
and try to come up with a gnutella server program
that has the sole purpose of connecting to 10+
servents. Gnucache is open source, made in visual
basic, and i also found a VB gnutella client with
source code, so i think between the two i can put
something together. I also thought of adding in a
feature that takes the ip addresses from www.gnufrog.com
and tries to connect to them first. Then i could use
this program as a connection backbone to the network
for xolox. Its worth a try atleast.

Gbrayut