Share P2P search has won't work

[Dreams of Destiny]

Hello

I've downloaded and tried share program but failed to get the search function to work

Here's the list I've did...

* I've opened the ports on my router and firewall and set up up/download bandwidth
* made a cache, upload, and download folder
* paste the name of the stuff i'm searching for into my clusters
* and on the site http://www.anonymous-p2p.org/tutorial_share.html on step #2 it says "Download the English locale / hint / readme / info files from Uguu.org and overwrite the files in your Share folder."... i'm not sure what it means but I've overwriten the text in those 4 files by copy and pasting the bunch of text from the links into those 4 files(locale, hint, readme, and inf) and and then save those 4 files.

I'm lost and confused about all these mechanism and purpose of the clusters, nodes, and cache. : /

Please help me anyone, I've been trying to get this program to work for days but still failed, made a post in the share p2p boards but yet to receive a reply for days. And please forgive me for my awkward tone.

[Doughnuts]

-Put something in your upload folder and hit 'check' in the folder tab
-Make sure you have your clusters in kanji/katakana and not English as in the guide you posted.
-Add some nodes and it connect

[GHDpro]

In my experience, Share doesn't quite work like other P2P. There are a number of factors that come into play:

- You need some nodes to connect. After that, Share will find other nodes automatically.

- You need to add appropriate clusters for what you are looking for.

- Share is mainly used by Japanese, so enter cluster names and what you're searching for in Japanese. I doubt there is a lot of English content on Share.

- Make sure you stay connected. If you find "disconnected due to port error" in the logs, the ports aren't properly forwarded. Essentially there should always be some activity on the connect (nodes) screen, even if you're not downloading anything. No activity = you're not properly connected.

- Don't expect a "search" to return anything immediately. It's better to set up a "trigger", which essentially is an auto-search. If you're doing a rather wide search, you might want to tick the box "add to db only", which means it won't start downloading immediately.

[Dreams of Destiny]

Somehow my share p2p still won't search for me

- I've double check to make sure all my clusters and texted entered in search are all Japanese
- Added another set of encrypted nodes

@GHDpro

Under the nodes tab, it keeps popping up this "test" thingy(right under the catagory 'type') for a duration of 6seconds, then after it dissapears and appears again for around 6secs and dissapears in a cycle.

@Doughnuts

I've putted some Disgaea anime in my upload folder(all file names are in English), but when I opened share and clicked on the folder tab, the recheck and quick check buttons are greyed out not letting me click on them : /.

Please forgive me for my awkward tone and thank you in advance.

[Dreams of Destiny]

I was wondering could anyone see if the problem on my pc could be fixed with windows xp remote assistance, i'm not sure does xp home edition has it.

[Ledgem]

I'm going to give you a brief explanation of some of the terminology and how to use the program. As GHDPro mentioned, Share (and Winny) don't work like the standard P2P programs that you're used to.

But in return for helping you, I want you to do something for me. DO NOT SHARE YOUR ENGLISH FILES ON THERE! Those of us who are not Japanese and use networks like Share are there for Japanese files. I'd imagine that the Japanese using Share are also there for Japanese files. None of us on there care for or want things like English fansubs, yet I've seen them on the network and it's like spam in the results. I don't believe that the program requires you to start out with any files to be shared (Winny didn't, at least) but for potential performance purposes have your download folder shared, and keep your Share download folder separate from your English download folders.

Now for the brief explanation:

First, you need a node list to begin with. There are websites that update node lists, so do a search for "share node list" to find some. Simply copy them and then under some option in Share (forgot which but it should be relatively obvious) you'll choose to import node list, and you can either paste the nodes in or import from a file. Just paste them. Nodes should look something like scrambled letters and numbers.

Having the node list alone won't get you an instant connection. Your program may spend a few minutes attempting to connect to one or two nodes at a time before it successfully makes a connection. Once it's connected it will receive information about other nodes from nodes it has successfully connected with (this is similar to BitTorrent's PEX (peer exchnge) usage). The longer you leave the program running, the better your performance will be. If you don't use the program for a long time you may need to start this process from the very beginning (seeking out nodes from a website and letting the program run with it for a while).

The cluster keywords are what allow Share to determine which nodes are more valuable. Suppose I want アニメ - each node (computer) states what it's looking for, and in this way nodes interested in similar things can get grouped together. You can enter multiple keywords in a single cluster, but try not to enter vastly different subjects. If you can read even Hiragana and Katakana, examine the nodes and their cluster search terms on Share's main connection screen to get an idea of how it should be done. Keep your cluster keywords as static as possible. If you change cluster keywords you will start to be shunned by nodes that had your old cluster search terms, and you will need to wait for your client to build up enough nodes that have the new cluster search term that you want. Depending on how drastic your switch is and how specialized your client had become before, this could take a long time and may make your searches completely useless. If the change is extremely drastic, go back to the first step of finding a node list.

If you're not able to connect at all and you've been patient (give the program an hour to attempt connections), search for another node list. Monitor the "Log" area as well - if it mentions a port error then you've done something wrong. Pay attention to whether you're forwarding UDP or TCP ports. A year or so ago Share had two client versions, a UDP client and a TCP client. I don't know if they've merged them or eliminated one of the two versions, but be aware of which one you have and forward appropriately.

Assuming that you have active connections, the searches work differently than you'd expect (also mentioned by GHDPro). The regular search is nearly useless. Instead, create a search trigger. The trigger will constantly scan your connections and add downloads based on what it finds. This is extremely powerful but you need to know how to use it. First, the trigger can be told to stop once it finds a single result - in other words, once it finds any matching file it will delete itself (stop searching). Otherwise, it will continue to search and add downloads until you tell it to stop.

Because this is your search term adding downloads you will want to narrow the search. Rather than making the filename incredibly specific or including the node of origin (the first person to put the file on the network - you probably won't know this), narrow the filesizes. If you're looking for an anime raw, you know that it isn't going to be any smaller than 100 MB, so set 100 MB as the lower filesize limit. Similarly it shouldn't be over 500 MB (unless this is a movie), so set that as the upper size. As you use the program you should get an idea of how to make this even more specific.

What the trigger will do is add specific files that it finds to your download tab. The download tab takes note of the exact filename and the node of origin, and searches for that file based on that. When it finds a node that has it, it downloads. Downloads can take an extremely long time, so be patient. Also, you can delete downloads that don't match what you had in mind. When a download completes Share will build the file into a usable form (this can take a few minutes, depending on your computer and how large the file is). This is because Share downloads the file in chunks based on its own format of sorts; the file isn't usable in this form. You can force Share to build the file from what it has, or to re-build the file from its cached files if you delete the file.

The problem is that because Share downloads the file in a cache format of sorts and then rebuilds it, a single download will take double the disk space (the cache files take up the space of the file, and then when Share builds the actual file it doesn't clear the cache). There is an option to have Share manage the cache and not allow it to go beyond a certain file size, but this option never worked for me. You may be able to tell which files/downloads the cache files correspond to based on their size, but be careful about deleting them on your own. If you delete the cache files of a download that you had in progress, your download will be lost.

That's the gist of it. Please remember my request about what files you share on that network.

[bayoab]

Minor note since this was even poorly explained on the sites I used when I set up share: When you put something in the upload folder, it means "I want to cache AND directly upload this into the share network". It does not mean "I want to cache this to indicate I have it if someone wants it" like Winny does.

[Dreams of Destiny]

I gotta admit it kinda took me a while to absorb that post, hehe. I promise not to upload any non-Japanese related files into my Share program and help tell anyone I know using share to do the same.

This might be a dumb question but how can I check if my share program is connected or not, I clicked on my log tab and on the the very latest status/log it says connected, does it mean atm I'm connected onto share? Other thing is I'm lost on how to create a search trigger, atm I'm still only using the regular search, assume it's the one I just paste the keyword in Japanese and click on the search button.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Dreams of Destiny

This might be a dumb question but how can I check if my share program is connected or not, I clicked on my log tab and on the the very latest status/log it says connected, does it mean atm I'm connected onto share?

Yes, it should. The left-most tab/button is your Connections window. There's an option to hide "sleeping nodes" I believe, but otherwise you should see various things coming up in different colors, as well as information like the connection time and cluster keywords. If the node is blue, it's a node you're transferring with (I forgot if there's a different color for upload and download; blue is download for certain). One very common color (yellow, maybe) is just a node that your computer is testing. Another color (green or orange?) is a connection where your system is sending search queries. If you're seeing activity like that in your connections window you're in good shape. If your connections window is dead and you've been waiting for a while, consider adding new nodes from a website.

Other thing is I'm lost on how to create a search trigger, atm I'm still only using the regular search, assume it's the one I just paste the keyword in Japanese and click on the search button.

There should be an area called "Triggers" - just create a new one. It'll prompt you for the name, filesizes, etc. and at the very bottom ask if it should stop when it finds one result (I don't remember how this is phrased). Add the trigger. You should see it on the Triggers area - that's fine. As long as it's there, it'll be automatically searching the network for you. If you didn't tell it to stop once it finds a result, it'll continue to search endlessly and add any matching files to your Download area. To stop it manually either delete it or uncheck it (this will temporarily disable it until you check it again).

[Dreams of Destiny]

I still can't get it to work. I was wondering will it be okie if you can use xp remote assistance to check out my share, i swear tried my best to complete the steps you listed for me, i have to admit i'm a moron when it comes to programing, lol.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by Dreams of Destiny

This might be a dumb question but how can I check if my share program is connected or not, I clicked on my log tab and on the the very latest status/log it says connected, does it mean atm I'm connected onto share? Other thing is I'm lost on how to create a search trigger, atm I'm still only using the regular search, assume it's the one I just paste the keyword in Japanese and click on the search button.

If you select the left tab "Info", you can actually see infomation about your current session. Do you actually have somekind of IP blocking program or desktop firewall running?

[Dreams of Destiny]

Originally Posted by Sides

If you select the left tab "Info", you can actually see infomation about your current session. Do you actually have somekind of IP blocking program or desktop firewall running?

I made sure to turned off my firewall and open both UCP and TCP port in my router before using share. I guess I might have probably missed a step. : /

[Ledgem]

When I said it takes a while I wasn't using the term lightly. I think that I've waited a full 24 hours before having Share work nicely, and the system was up and online the entire time. You probably don't need to wait 24 hours, but it wouldn't surprise me if you needed to wait a few hours. A large part of it may have to do with the fact that those networks probably weren't designed for worldwide usage, and connections within Japan are very fast to each other. Not only are our connections slower in general, but by virtue of being outside of Japan our connections to and from Japan are also slower. I've maxed out a 10 mbps connection through Share and Winny both (multiple downloads) but then I'm in California, one of the closer non-Japan areas outside of Asia.

So what is the issue, exactly - your triggers aren't getting anything back? There's no network activity? If it's a triggers issue, post up an example trigger and we can determine if you're being too specific or if you botched your Japanese. If it's a connections issue and you see no activity, find a website and add nodes. Wait an hour or two, and if there's no change do it again.

[Dreams of Destiny]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

When I said it takes a while I wasn't using the term lightly. I think that I've waited a full 24 hours before having Share work nicely, and the system was up and online the entire time. You probably don't need to wait 24 hours, but it wouldn't surprise me if you needed to wait a few hours. A large part of it may have to do with the fact that those networks probably weren't designed for worldwide usage, and connections within Japan are very fast to each other. Not only are our connections slower in general, but by virtue of being outside of Japan our connections to and from Japan are also slower. I've maxed out a 10 mbps connection through Share and Winny both (multiple downloads) but then I'm in California, one of the closer non-Japan areas outside of Asia.

So what is the issue, exactly - your triggers aren't getting anything back? There's no network activity? If it's a triggers issue, post up an example trigger and we can determine if you're being too specific or if you botched your Japanese. If it's a connections issue and you see no activity, find a website and add nodes. Wait an hour or two, and if there's no change do it again.

I'm not too sure is this the correct step to add and activate the trigger...

I clicked on the 'triggers' tab and select add trigger, then pops up a window I enter the keyword in Japanese into the search box, then enter 100mb min and 500mb max into the filesize box, and check on 'Enable' and 'Delete matching query triggers' and click on 'Add' to close the window and start my search trigger.

[cyth]

If you have the right clusters set up and activated, you should already be getting some results after a few seconds, minutes, less likely hours. "Adding to DB only" means the metadata your trigger finds will be stored on your harddrive, which you can then search with that top search box using the same or similar denominators.

[Dreams of Destiny]

Originally Posted by Toua

If you have the right clusters set up and activated, you should already be getting some results after a few seconds, minutes, less likely hours. "Adding to DB only" means the metadata your trigger finds will be stored on your harddrive, which you can then search with that top search box using the same or similar denominators.

Top search box where you refering to regular search or the one in the trigger window? Please forgive my stupidity. Was wondering if I was searching for an anime called Gegege no Kitaro "鬼太郎", should I type in Anime and 鬼太郎 into the clusters?

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Dreams of Destiny

Top search box where you refering to regular search or the one in the trigger window? Please forgive my stupidity. Was wondering if I was searching for an anime called Gegege no Kitaro "鬼太郎", should I type in Anime and 鬼太郎 into the clusters?

No, I don't recommend using series names as cluster keywords. It's too specific. Just use アニメ (not "anime").

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Dreams of Destiny

Top search box where you refering to regular search or the one in the trigger window?

The former.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by Dreams of Destiny

I made sure to turned off my firewall and open both UCP and TCP port in my router before using share. I guess I might have probably missed a step. : /

Have you tried to use a different port? (something in the region of 50000 to 65535).
It is actually quite strange i normally get a few results after an hour connected. But then again, i only use it for latest anime shows and not for older stuff.

[Dreams of Destiny]

Originally Posted by Sides

Have you tried to use a different port? (something in the region of 50000 to 65535).
It is actually quite strange i normally get a few results after an hour connected. But then again, i only use it for latest anime shows and not for older stuff.

I've only tried one so far(34567), but gonna give it a shot and see how it goes, hehe.