Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic WinMX

Does anyone know what's going on with WinMX? I haven't been able to connect for a while, and when I try to go to winmx.com it says it can't be found. Has it been shut down? If so, does anyone know of another spyware free program for downloading music?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Regarding WinMX, I recommend this Wikipedia article , which seems to have information on what happened as well as several links to news articles.

As for a good file-sharing program, I highly recommend Filetopia . I have a post on it on another thread, if you´d like to check out my recommendation. I´ve used it for 2 1/2 years (though sadly don´t have much access to Internet down here in Honduras, so can´t be on it much at all), and thoroughly loved it. The human factor is the best touch, I think . . .

To quote a recommendation I made elsewhere (can´t link to that, I´m afraid, so will copy here):

I still recomment FT, aka Filetopia. No viruses, spyware, nothing, filesharing police have *not* hit on it as far as I know (the userbase is surprisingly small, for the amount of stuff you can find), and it has a *wealth* of stuff available. There, it's more a matter of finding the right people to connect with--some users have lists with 600+ gig of files. It's *awesome*--cannot recommend it more highly. Have used it for 2 1/2 years, no viruses, no problems other than the usual quirks every program has. And I have made some great friends there--it vaguely reminds me of IRC (I think IRC must have been used for the general structure of FT).
There *is* a global search option, but a lot of people have it turned off due to leeches. Your best bet for finding stuff is to go to a channel geared towards the theme of what you want, and do a channel search to find them in people's lists (this is particularly helpful if you want to make sure *which* file this is, in the case of identical names--just ask the user). I.e. if you want TV eps, go for #TVseries or #TV Eps Express (I prefer the former). If you want movies, #FBO is one of the best. If you're looking for folk music, #Folk Fans or one of the offshoots that have sprung up recently (since leeches started coming into Folk Fans and the owner isn't around much any more). Other types of music . . . I don't know what you want, so can't point you to it. It's not as sure at finding everything, but if you find the right people who have stuff like what you want, the personal touch is worth *so* much. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted some specific file that no one had on FT, and a friend or two would search SoulSeek or whatever other program and find it for me (and the more people get from outside, the better FT's offerings will be). Do favors for people, share all you got, and you're set for finding most anything (you can also go channel-hopping, one great method of finding stuff). (The messaging system--sort of like internal e-mail--is a bonus also. Great for asking a question of someone who's Away--which many are, due to leaving their computers on 24/7, and being from all over the world. You can also leave messages on each channel's message board, and users will check and read, reply, if you have something you're looking for.)

Thanks Doranwen!! I've been playing around with the program and it works great. My little music-loving heart feels much better now. *G*

~Anna

There's now a patch online which gets WinMX to work again. I installed it this morning and I can now connect once more!

WinMX patch

For anyone wondering what happened, the people behind WinMX were served a cease and desist notice. :p But various users have been working ever since on a way to get the p2p software working again.


Wendy

Hm, although I've had a similar problem with WinMX for a few days and also used google for solutions, I didn't find this patch you linked to. That will probably be a problem for a large group of WinMX users.
So I doubt very much that the network will ever be as good as it once was. Less users means less choice and after installing the 'patch' I noticed how crowded all online-users seem to be. I had to wait for about half an hour until the first file was able to download.

But WinMX was always my last resort for random music, mostly for a single song or bootleg/live versions. I mostly use the BitTorrent network as there are lots of groups and forums out there who use this one for publishing new albums and I often take interest in music you wouldn't even be able to purchase in Austria. A drawback is the complicated way to find the music, without a search engine it's kind of complicated. I mostly use Demonoid, but there are lots of other offers out there.

http://www.demonoid.com/
http://www.orbdesign.net/bt/


Then there's another p2p network, I remember from a few years ago which I'm going to try out now. It also had similar problems with domains and signup-servers but as it is still online, my hopes are up. In the past it was an insiders' tip for non-mainstream music, hopefully that is still true. Oh, by the way .. it's called SoulSeek.

http://www.slsknet.org/

Anna, thanks for starting this one and thanks everyone who answered. I'd been wondering the same thing myself for the last few days. I don't often dl music these days - although I've become a huge fan of bittorrant and mininova for dl TV shows. But I need a particular song and was a bit lost as to where I might look for dl sites.

Hopefully, one of these will come up trumps.

LabRat

Glad you like it, Anna! What's your nick there? I may get on occasionally, would be neat to add you to my friends' list. I'm "doranwen", of course.

wow i thought i was the only one with problems with winmix so i took it off. can i put it back, or is there more free downloads. need more music.

If you go back to the page I linked to and scroll right down to the bottom, you'll find links to sites where you can still download WinMX. Don't forget to install the patch too, or it won't work.


Wendy