Phex

Last updated
Phex
Developer(s) Phex Development Team
Initial releaseApril, 2001
Stable release 3.4.2.116 (February 1, 2009;14 years ago (2009-02-01)) [±]
Repository
Written in Java
Platform Java SE
Available inEnglish, Dutch, German, French, Turkish, Spanish and Portuguese. [1]
Type Peer-to-peer file sharing
License GNU General Public License
Website phex.org

Phex is a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the gnutella network, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, so Phex is free software. Phex is based on Java SE 5.0 or later.

Contents

Features

Phex supports most of the recent features of the gnutella network. [2] [3] Additionally it enables the creation of private networks over the internet, [4] has a powerful search result filter, [5] shows client country flags, and can export the list of shared files into multiple formats, some of which can also be read out and downloaded directly by another Phex.

Version 3.2.0.102 also supports Tiger Tree hashes for uploads and downloads, providing full protection against poisoned downloads. Together with Swarming, segmented file transfer, [6] and the Download Mesh [7] this makes downloads as efficient and safe as BitTorrent downloads, yet completely decentralized by design.

History

FURI was an early gnutella client written by William W. Wong and released under the GNU General Public License. The software was notable at the time of its release for being written entirely in Java. The software was capable of running on Java 1.1 as long as the user downloaded external Swing libraries. If these libraries were unavailable, Java 1.2 was required.

Officially, the program never left Beta status. The author eventually stopped maintaining the software, resulting in users migrating to other clients like LimeWire. The last update to the software was on May 1, 2000. [8]

In April 2001 Konrad Haenel forked the rarely updated gnutella client FURI to form Phex. While he participated in the Phex project initially, he left in late 2001. The project member Gregor K. continued to develop Phex and is the lead developer today.

Early versions of Phex were released simply as a java jar file, limiting their ease of use on some platforms such as the Mac OS. MacPhex was an alternative version made available on the Phex website and supported by macXster. It wrapped Phex in a double click-able application and occasionally added small additional features unique to the Mac OS.

Anonymous Phex

Since 2006, an anonymous version of Phex has been available: I2Phex, which uses the I2p network to hide the IP address of the users of this gnutella client. The future roadmap is to integrate the I2Phex code into one of the next Phex versions. [9]

Rather than use the public IP network, I2Phex uses encrypted tunnels through the I2p privacy/encryption network.

Traffic is mixed with other network traffic (see mix network) through a garlic routing system, making it difficult for outside observers to identify originators or the recipients of a file through traffic analysis.

Anonymous networks have been remiss to host file sharing protocols due to bandwidth considerations. Often only searching (or tracking for BitTorrent) are supported. [10] Nodes within the garlic routing system could refuse to route file sharing traffic. This makes inbound and outbound connections easier to locate. Outbound traffic is unencrypted so associating it with the inbound node will break the anonymity.

LimeWire, FrostWire, gtk-gnutella, and Phex all support the use of TLS to encrypt traffic between nodes. TLS is not anonymous like I2P, however, it does prevent ISPs from filtering gnutella content and makes it more difficult to trace traffic.

Phex with Tor

It is possible to use Phex with SOCKS5 proxy. Using that feature it is possible to route gnutella traffic via Tor and then to Phex. This is possible by using SOCKS5 cascading proxy to Tor client.

Academic studies

Various academic studies are based on Phex:

See also

Related Research Articles

Gnutella is a peer-to-peer network protocol. Founded in 2000, it was the first decentralized peer-to-peer network of its kind, leading to other, later networks adopting the model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LimeWire</span> Peer-to-peer file sharing application

LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated music. In 2007, LimeWire was estimated to be installed on over one-third of all computers globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peer-to-peer</span> Type of decentralized and distributed network architecture

Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shareaza</span> Peer-to-peer file sharing application

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

eDonkey2000

eDonkey2000 was a peer-to-peer file sharing application developed by US company MetaMachine, using the Multisource File Transfer Protocol. This client supports both the eDonkey2000 network and the Overnet network.

BitTorrent is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner.

gtk-gnutella

gtk-gnutella is a peer-to-peer file sharing application which runs on the gnutella network. gtk-gnutella uses the GTK+ toolkit for its graphical user interface. Released under the GNU General Public License, gtk-gnutella is free software.

An anonymous P2P communication system is a peer-to-peer distributed application in which the nodes, which are used to share resources, or participants are anonymous or pseudonymous. Anonymity of participants is usually achieved by special routing overlay networks that hide the physical location of each node from other participants.

The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic, and sending it through a volunteer-run network of roughly 55,000 computers distributed around the world. Given the high number of possible paths the traffic can transit, a third party watching a full connection is unlikely. The software that implements this layer is called an "I2P router", and a computer running I2P is called an "I2P node". I2P is free and open sourced, and is published under multiple licenses.

A dark net or darknet is an overlay network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization, and often uses a unique customized communication protocol. Two typical darknet types are social networks, and anonymity proxy networks such as Tor via an anonymized series of connections.

The eDonkey Network is a decentralized, mostly server-based, peer-to-peer file sharing network created in 2000 by US developers Jed McCaleb and Sam Yagan that is best suited to share big files among users, and to provide long term availability of files. Like most sharing networks, it is decentralized, as there is no central hub for the network; also, files are not stored on a central server but are exchanged directly between users based on the peer-to-peer principle.

BitTorrent is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. There are currently two versions of the software, "BitTorrent Classic" which inherits the historical version numbering, and "BitTorrent Web", which uses its own version numbering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FrostWire</span> Free and open-source BitTorrent client

FrostWire is a free and open-source BitTorrent client first released in September 2004, as a fork of LimeWire. It was initially very similar to LimeWire in appearance and functionality, but over time developers added more features, including support for the BitTorrent protocol. In version 5, support for the Gnutella network was dropped entirely, and FrostWire became a BitTorrent-only client.

File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. Below is a list of file sharing applications, most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribler</span> Peer-to-peer filesharing software and protocol

Tribler is an open source decentralized BitTorrent client which allows anonymous peer-to-peer by default. Tribler is based on the BitTorrent protocol and uses an overlay network for content searching. Due to this overlay network, Tribler does not require an external website or indexing service to discover content. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use instead of diversity of features. Tribler is available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.

The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol.

Peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) systems like Gnutella, KaZaA, and eDonkey/eMule, have become extremely popular in recent years, with the estimated user population in the millions. An academic research paper analyzed Gnutella and eMule protocols and found weaknesses in the protocol; many of the issues found in these networks are fundamental and probably common on other P2P networks. Users of file sharing networks, such as eMule and Gnutella, are subject to monitoring of their activity. Clients may be tracked by IP address, DNS name, software version they use, files they share, queries they initiate, and queries they answer to. Clients may also share their private files to the network without notice due to inappropriate settings.

An anonymizer or an anonymous proxy is a tool that attempts to make activity on the Internet untraceable. It is a proxy server computer that acts as an intermediary and privacy shield between a client computer and the rest of the Internet. It accesses the Internet on the user's behalf, protecting personal information of the user by hiding the client computer's identifying information. Anonymous proxy is the opposite of transparent proxy, which sends user information in the connection request header.

Bitblinder was an open source software program that allows users to share bandwidth and IP addresses in order to anonymously download torrents and browse the internet. It was first released in June 2009. under an MIT open-source license. It was developed by Josh Albrecht and Matthew Kaniaris of Innominet. The software is based on the principles that Tor uses to create anonymity but was designed to be faster and encourage file sharing in addition to anonymous browsing. It currently comes bundled with an anonymous browser based on Mozilla Firefox and an anonymous BitTorrent client based on BitTornado. The software was planned to provide anonymity for instant messaging and Internet Relay Chat.

File sharing in Japan is notable for both its size and sophistication.

References

  1. ↑ "Translate and Localize Phex".
  2. ↑ "Phex Feature comparison".
  3. ↑ "The Gnutella network explained".
  4. ↑ "Private Networks with Phex".
  5. ↑ "Search Result Filter System".
  6. ↑ "Swarming and Partial File Sharing explained".
  7. ↑ "The Download Mesh explained".
  8. ↑ "GnutellaDev: Source: Furi". Archived from the original on 2007-10-07. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  9. ↑ I2Phex Roadmap
  10. ↑ "Tor and BitTorrent". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
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