Perfect Dark was first released by 会長 (Kaichou, Chairman) in 2006. It was clearly based on Share, and uses the same method of pasting in an encrypted node list to connect to the network. While Share required clusters and triggers, the built-in Perfect Dark search engine can find files straight away, so search is much simpler. The interface can be displayed in English or Chinese.
The Perfect Dark network apparently hit its peak size of 50 000 nodes in 2009, but has declined to a little over 6 000 nodes today. It is still one of the biggest Japan-based peer-to-peer networks along with Share and Winny, and probably uses more bandwidth than these two. The official client for Perfect Dark requires 40 GB of hard drive space to set up a unity file, and a minimum download speed of 100 KB/s which explains why it is the heavy users who gravitate to it. There is a cracked version though which eliminates these restrictions, and even the mainline client seems to work on slower connections.
You can download either the official client or the cracked version at:
P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所
1.23 was released by 会長 in December 2015, and is the latest version subtitled 'Intolerance.' クラック済み translates as 'cracking carried out.'
You can run a speed test of your internet connection at Speedtest.net. When you start up Perfect Dark for the first time, it will take you to the Settings dialog box, and you can select your download speed from the dropdown menu. Copy the port number, and then in your webbrowser, open up your router settings, navigate to NAT, and open that port number TCP in and out. I don't think Perfect Dark supports uPnP, so you will probably have to do this manually for any firewalls you are running. If you are running Windows Firewall, make sure the ports are open there as well.
Next click on Information, and then 'Add ip address/port.' You then go to one of these sites, and copy the Node list to your clipboard, and then paste it into the 'Add ip address/port' dialog box where it says Encrypted text.
P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所
Perfect Dark Evolution
PerfectDark-jp
Click on Add, and now Perfect Dark will try to connect to these nodes, and add their own nodes to its database. Close the dialog box, and at the top of Information it should say 'perfect dark is online.'
On the search tab, type a word or phrase into the blank box, and then click on Add, just below. Perfect Dark will begin searching the nodes to which you are connected, gradually spidering out gathering more and more search results over time. You can nest search terms within other search terms by first clicking on the head term, and then adding a new search term underneath. Click New if you want to set up a separate search header.
In the search window, 'Review' is the rating assigned to the downloaded file by users. According to Kaicho, 'count' increases the more times a file has been downloaded. 'Sign' is the username of the original uploader.
Most of the searching is done within PD itself, but there is one Russian index site:
PerfectDark.org
You right-click on a file, and select 'Copy information to clipboard' if you want to check the translation on Google Translate.
Select 'download' from the same menu to download. Click on the download tab to see your progress. In the official client, you may need to let Perfect Dark run for a while, so it can build up a unity of 2 GB's before any downloads will start. The size of your unity is listed under the 'information' tab.
To upload, just click on the Upload tab, then 'upload file,' and browse to the location of the file you want to upload. It will disappear from the Uploads window once it has been uploaded. I believe any files you upload are probably added to your unity.
Board(ボード) and gather(ギャザー) are bulletin boards that can be downloaded, and contributed to. Under the information tab, flow is where people post notes that soon disappear.
There is a Perfect Dark thread at AnimeSuki Forums.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
One Click Direct Download Sites
One click direct download sites are a fairly popular way of sharing files in Japan, just as they are in the west. There are one click hosts in Japan called アップローダー (uploaders, eg. Doraupload), but western hosts such as Mediafire are arguably more popular.
- The Download board on 5 Channel currently has a thread 海外アップローダー総合 which deals with overseas uploaders general topics.
- The western site 4shared is notable in that the interface can be displayed in Japanese, and it has a search engine that can locate the files its hosts.
- Akiba-Online is a forum with links to many Japanese adult videos and some anime and manga hosted mainly on Filejoker.
- Anime-sharing is a similar forum with a focus on hentai manga, but also links to related anime, games and magazines.
- Ulozto.net is a searchable Slovakian file host which hosts some Japanese pdf's, torrents and videos.
- Dl-zip.com is a blog with links to raw (i.e. untranslated) manga, Japanese novels and other books and magazines.
- Jpfiles is a blog with links to Japanese books, music, movies, tv shows, anime, magazines, etc.
- Chomikuj.pl is a searchable Polish file host.
- Book Share ZIP is a blog with links to Japanese books, magazines and manga.
- Blogjav.net is unsurprisingly a blog with links to JAV.
- JAV Library started out as a database with pictures of actresses and DVD covers, but members sometimes post DDL links in the comment space below an entry.
- Doramax264 is a blog with links to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Filipino TV dramas. Project Restoration specializes in to old Japanese drama TV shows.
- Japan Share Blog has links to just about everything: books, games, manga, movies, music, software and TV shows, while Raw-zip is a blog linking to mainly manga and photobooks.
- Pdf-giant, Pdfmagazinesclub and Storemags are western blogs with links to some Japanese magazines.
- The Download board on 5 Channel currently has a thread 海外アップローダー総合 which deals with overseas uploaders general topics.
- The western site 4shared is notable in that the interface can be displayed in Japanese, and it has a search engine that can locate the files its hosts.
- Akiba-Online is a forum with links to many Japanese adult videos and some anime and manga hosted mainly on Filejoker.
- Anime-sharing is a similar forum with a focus on hentai manga, but also links to related anime, games and magazines.
- Ulozto.net is a searchable Slovakian file host which hosts some Japanese pdf's, torrents and videos.
- Dl-zip.com is a blog with links to raw (i.e. untranslated) manga, Japanese novels and other books and magazines.
- Jpfiles is a blog with links to Japanese books, music, movies, tv shows, anime, magazines, etc.
- Chomikuj.pl is a searchable Polish file host.
- Book Share ZIP is a blog with links to Japanese books, magazines and manga.
- Blogjav.net is unsurprisingly a blog with links to JAV.
- JAV Library started out as a database with pictures of actresses and DVD covers, but members sometimes post DDL links in the comment space below an entry.
- Doramax264 is a blog with links to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Filipino TV dramas. Project Restoration specializes in to old Japanese drama TV shows.
- Japan Share Blog has links to just about everything: books, games, manga, movies, music, software and TV shows, while Raw-zip is a blog linking to mainly manga and photobooks.
- Pdf-giant, Pdfmagazinesclub and Storemags are western blogs with links to some Japanese magazines.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Bittorrent
University of Buffalo student Bram Cohen released the first version of Bittorrent in 2001. Initially, Bittorrent had relatively little impact on the Japanese p2p scene, as first WinMX and then Winny and then Perfect Dark seemed to get the most use. Eventually though, western and Chinese developers released Japanese versions of their clients: Bittorrent, Bitcomet, qbittorrent, Deluge and Transmission. Qbittorrent has no ads, is lightweight, and is perhaps the best-regarded of the current crop of torrenting programs on the English web.
While programs like Perfect Dark try to provide anonymity, the IP address of a user is clearly visible in most torrent programs, so some users turn to anonymizing addons (e.g. i2p, Tor), clients (Tribler), proxies (Cybersyndrome), seedboxes (Seedr) or virtual private networks (Hide.me) in an effort to preserve their privacy.
The number of Japanese users on Bittorrent may be smaller than other networks, but by 2013, the bandwidth being used in Japan by torrent clients had apparently surpassed all other p2p networks.
I don't think there are any torrent trackers based in Japan, but there are quite a few trackers and index sites in the rest of the world that link to Japanese content.
- Nyaa is the largest Japanese tracker, and focuses on anime and music. It does have some manga and live action tv shows, often with an anime tie-in. Nyaa has an associated site for adult videos at Sukebei.
- Tokyo Toshokan 東京図書館 is a torrent index of adult videos, anime, games, hentai, manga, music and TV dramas. The torrents are often tracked on Nyaa or Sukebei or the other trackers listed here.
- Akiba Online is an English Language forum with a huge number of Japanese Adult Video downloads hosted on Filejoker, but it has a sizeable torrent section covering JAV, Idol and Hentai as well as more mainstream manga and anime.
- Rutracker is a tracker/forum completely in Russian, but it has a surprising amount of Japanese movies, books and CDs, often labelled in Japanese.
- Avistaz is a private tracker with Japanese, Chinese and Korean movie and TV drama torrents.
- Bt4g appears to be a Chinese torrent search engine compiled by scraping Distributed Hash Tables, and thus has torrents with Japanese content. BTDig, Solidtorrents and Bitsearch are western DHT torrent search engines. Torrentkitty is a Chinese/Singaporean torrent search engine with a Japanese interface. - Javbus, Onejav and Javjunkies are blogs where the webmaster posts torrents for Japanese adult videos. - The Download board on 2channel is one of the main forums for discussion of Japanese file sharing. At the moment, there are several Bittorrent related threads. The BTで拾えるエロ動画スレ thread deals with erotic videos that can be picked up on Bittorrent. The Nyaa thread is devoted to a discussion of torrents that can be found on the Nyaa tracker/index site. The BitTorrent総合スレ thread covers general Bittorrent matters. There are also now threads on Akiba Online and Javjunkies.
- Nipponsei Music Fresh from Japan is a torrent tracker/index of music, mainly anime soundtracks and J-pop.
- Jpopsuki is an invitation-only private torrent tracker for J-pop.
- Anime Sharing is a forum focused on links to direct downloads for hentai manga, but it also has a torrent section with hentai anime and games, and there is a smattering of music and magazines.
- Anirena is an English anime torrent tracker/database.
- D-Addicts was at one time a tracker for Japanese, Chinese and Korean dramas, but now it is just a forum where torrents are not allowed to be posted. it has some subtitles though, and lots of information about file sharing in Asia.
While programs like Perfect Dark try to provide anonymity, the IP address of a user is clearly visible in most torrent programs, so some users turn to anonymizing addons (e.g. i2p, Tor), clients (Tribler), proxies (Cybersyndrome), seedboxes (Seedr) or virtual private networks (Hide.me) in an effort to preserve their privacy.
The number of Japanese users on Bittorrent may be smaller than other networks, but by 2013, the bandwidth being used in Japan by torrent clients had apparently surpassed all other p2p networks.
I don't think there are any torrent trackers based in Japan, but there are quite a few trackers and index sites in the rest of the world that link to Japanese content.
- Nyaa is the largest Japanese tracker, and focuses on anime and music. It does have some manga and live action tv shows, often with an anime tie-in. Nyaa has an associated site for adult videos at Sukebei.
- Tokyo Toshokan 東京図書館 is a torrent index of adult videos, anime, games, hentai, manga, music and TV dramas. The torrents are often tracked on Nyaa or Sukebei or the other trackers listed here.
- Akiba Online is an English Language forum with a huge number of Japanese Adult Video downloads hosted on Filejoker, but it has a sizeable torrent section covering JAV, Idol and Hentai as well as more mainstream manga and anime.
- Rutracker is a tracker/forum completely in Russian, but it has a surprising amount of Japanese movies, books and CDs, often labelled in Japanese.
- Avistaz is a private tracker with Japanese, Chinese and Korean movie and TV drama torrents.
- Bt4g appears to be a Chinese torrent search engine compiled by scraping Distributed Hash Tables, and thus has torrents with Japanese content. BTDig, Solidtorrents and Bitsearch are western DHT torrent search engines. Torrentkitty is a Chinese/Singaporean torrent search engine with a Japanese interface. - Javbus, Onejav and Javjunkies are blogs where the webmaster posts torrents for Japanese adult videos. - The Download board on 2channel is one of the main forums for discussion of Japanese file sharing. At the moment, there are several Bittorrent related threads. The BTで拾えるエロ動画スレ thread deals with erotic videos that can be picked up on Bittorrent. The Nyaa thread is devoted to a discussion of torrents that can be found on the Nyaa tracker/index site. The BitTorrent総合スレ thread covers general Bittorrent matters. There are also now threads on Akiba Online and Javjunkies.
- Nipponsei Music Fresh from Japan is a torrent tracker/index of music, mainly anime soundtracks and J-pop.
- Jpopsuki is an invitation-only private torrent tracker for J-pop.
- Anime Sharing is a forum focused on links to direct downloads for hentai manga, but it also has a torrent section with hentai anime and games, and there is a smattering of music and magazines.
- Anirena is an English anime torrent tracker/database.
- D-Addicts was at one time a tracker for Japanese, Chinese and Korean dramas, but now it is just a forum where torrents are not allowed to be posted. it has some subtitles though, and lots of information about file sharing in Asia.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
OpenNap and Utatane Guide
For a long time, the Japanese OpenNap servers hosted a wider variety of Japanese movies and music than any other P2P network. New releases arrived there faster, and stayed available longer.
Most Japanese OpenNap users are traders, at least initially. After you message them, they scan your collection, and then pop up in your upload queue. This means that you have to put a fair bit of effort into labeling your collection and making text dummies of files you have burned to DVD. You will also need to use a little Japanese to communicate, and you should aim for times of the day when other users are online.
On the plus side though, queues are short or non-existent, most users are on very fast connections, and they will stay with you until your download is complete. Once you have completed a trade or two, they will normally add you to their buddies list, and let you download more freely.
The main public servers in Japan seem to be ENDLESS, ONT2ch, and Kujira くじら. They each have different rules, but all servers accept the use of the Utatane client to connect. (The word "utatane" is the Japanese word for "nap" i.e. sleep, and thus a pun taken from OpenNap). Many Japanese servers ban WinMX 3.x, but some will accept WinMX 2.6. Utatane is Windows based.
Utatane 0.253 English can be downloaded from WinMX World Archive and the Japanese versions are also on Face-products.
Unzip, and install the file. Open the Utatane folder under Program Files, and then click on Utatane Manual.chm. This opens an illustrated English help file which shows you how to get set up.
It seems that Utatane is a non-Unicode program, so you may have to change your Regional and Language Options in order to view Japanese. If you are using Windows, there are several settings that need to be changed:
To install the fonts, and add the code pages:
Regional and Language Options - Languages tab - tick the box next to "Install files for East Asian languages." You will need to have a Windows CD with the "lang" folder on it in order to install.
Regional and Language Options - Languages tab - Click Details under "Text services and input languages" - Advanced tab - tick the box next to "Extend support for advanced text services to all programs"
Regional and Language Options - Advanced tab - set the "Language for non-Unicode programs" to the CJK language you want.
After this in Windows Explorer and dialog boxes, back slashes will appear as yen marks. You will need to switch back to English when installing multilingual programs.
The next step is to open up Utatane, right click in the main Servers window, and choose Add. Input server names, addresses, ports and the redirect settings for the top servers from the websites above or the
Kosaba List BBS
If a server has more than one address, add each using the "Add" button in the bottom left-hand corner of the "Add a New Server" dialog. Utatane will automatically switch between the different addresses.
Before you go online, you'll need to open up a port for Utatane on your firewall. In Utatane, click on Setting, then Servers, input a Login Name and Password, set your connection type, and note down the port you are listening on for incoming TCP connections. This should be a number between 10000 and 65000. Some port numbers such as 8844 are blocked by some servers. Open your firewall, and then open that same port. For example, if you are using the Windows firewall, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Windows Firewall, Exceptions, and then Add Port, i.e. the same number as listed in Utatane. If you are using a router, check its manual for how to open ports.
Another thing you need to do is get your collection into presentable shape. Everyone you try to download from is going to be browsing your files, and if they can't find something they want, they will just leave you sitting in queue forever. You can share files named in English, but you need to append a short word in brackets at the beginning describing the genre, e.g. (Album), (Asia), (AV), (CD), (IV), (movie), (mp3), (Nude), (pic), (PV) or (TV). IV stands for image video i.e. bikini idols, and PV stands for promotional video, i.e. music videos. DVD product codes are not as common as in the west, but they would help people find things. It is better not to share incomplete files, single jpgs or files with unmeaningful file names. Some traders make text file dummies of videos they have saved to DVD-R, adding the tag 【DVD退避】 to the beginning of the file name.
Try to share as much content as possible because some servers and big traders have 200 file and/or 50-100GB minimums. Once you are all organized, add the files to the Share window in Utatane.
Also under Setting, Transfers, set your incoming folder, making sure this is different from your Shared folders. Under Setting, Queuing, set the Number of Downloads per User to 1. When set this way, if you try to queue a second file for the same user, it will just queue the file locally waiting for the first download to finish. Under Setting, Message, stick in a wav file to alert you when someone has sent you a message (There are wav files you can use in the folders for Windows Live Messenger or ICQ).
Once you are all set up, go back to the Server screen, and click on "Link All." Some of the servers take a while to scan all the files in your Share folders, so they may initially send you error messages saying you don't have enough files. Hang in there though, and eventually five or six of them should let you connect.
Next we are off to the NewSearch screen. Type in a title, actress name or genre, and hit Search. You'll get a long list of files with the user and the server they're on. Once you find a file you want, browse what files he has, and then send him a PM.
こんばんは。
Konban wa.
Good evening.
After you have PMed them, wait a second to see if they send you an auto-response. If you can't read Japanese, copy, and paste it into an online translator such as the one on Google to try to figure out what it says. Often it will tell you if he is offline, or what files he is looking for. Then send him another PM recommending some of your own videos that he might be interested in.
あのー、コメディの動画を持っていますよ。交換しませんか。
Anoo, komedi no douga wo motte imasu yo. Koukan shimasen ka.
Um, I have comedy videos. Do you want to trade?
Even if you get no response, you can still enter their queue by right clicking on the file, and choosing Download.
Then you go looking for other files. The servers prohibit you from requesting 2 files from the same user, or the same file from 2 different users who are both on the same server. You can however request the same file from a different user on a different server, so pay attention to what servers people are on. Some users use two different login names for two different servers, but you can usually recognize this by the number of files they are sharing and the time they came online. It also seems to me that you can only queue up about five files on each server before they start sending you error messages, so try to spread your downloads out among the different servers.
You should try to aim to be online at the same time as users in Japan. That means 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays, 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays. During these times, the number of users on Zerosen ゼロ戦 will swing up above 2000, and you are more likely to get a response. Some generous users allow random users to download files automatically, but quite a few people will browse your shares first, and add a file to your upload queue at the bottom of the Xfer window as a sign that they want to trade. Click on his file to start him, and then right click on both the upload and download, and choose Auto Complete, so it'll reconnect if broken off. It is quite common to add each other to your Hot list, and allot each other a free upload of one file at a time. Do this by clicking on Hot List, right click on the name of user you are trading with, choosing "Add to Hot List," and then set "Auto User" to 1.
優先ユーザに追加しましたよ。どうぞよろしくお願いします。
Yuusen yuuza ni tsuika shimashita yo. Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
I've added you to my Auto-users list. Please be kind to me.
The etiquette is that you both stay online until both downloads are finished, but they may ask you just to be sure. If you have to go offline for any reason you may want to reassure them.
一回切りますけど、後で続けましょう。
Ikkai kirimasu kedo, ato de tsuzukemashou.
I'm going offline for a moment, but let's continue after.
If you already have one or two uploads in progress, it is a good idea not to go searching for more until those finish because users on T3 especially will complain.
You can also set Utatane to autostart uploads for people you are sitting in the download queue of: Settings - Transfers - Start Counter Queue. On the Queuing dialog, you can set maximum number of uploads for regular and Auto Users, but make sure these numbers are high enough to cover Auto Starts; otherwise you'll just keep timing them out.
If you have technical questions about Utatane's features or OpenNap in general, you could try asking in WinMX World Forum.
Most Japanese OpenNap users are traders, at least initially. After you message them, they scan your collection, and then pop up in your upload queue. This means that you have to put a fair bit of effort into labeling your collection and making text dummies of files you have burned to DVD. You will also need to use a little Japanese to communicate, and you should aim for times of the day when other users are online.
On the plus side though, queues are short or non-existent, most users are on very fast connections, and they will stay with you until your download is complete. Once you have completed a trade or two, they will normally add you to their buddies list, and let you download more freely.
The main public servers in Japan seem to be ENDLESS, ONT2ch, and Kujira くじら. They each have different rules, but all servers accept the use of the Utatane client to connect. (The word "utatane" is the Japanese word for "nap" i.e. sleep, and thus a pun taken from OpenNap). Many Japanese servers ban WinMX 3.x, but some will accept WinMX 2.6. Utatane is Windows based.
Utatane 0.253 English can be downloaded from WinMX World Archive and the Japanese versions are also on Face-products.
Unzip, and install the file. Open the Utatane folder under Program Files, and then click on Utatane Manual.chm. This opens an illustrated English help file which shows you how to get set up.
It seems that Utatane is a non-Unicode program, so you may have to change your Regional and Language Options in order to view Japanese. If you are using Windows, there are several settings that need to be changed:
To install the fonts, and add the code pages:
Regional and Language Options - Languages tab - tick the box next to "Install files for East Asian languages." You will need to have a Windows CD with the "lang" folder on it in order to install.
Regional and Language Options - Languages tab - Click Details under "Text services and input languages" - Advanced tab - tick the box next to "Extend support for advanced text services to all programs"
Regional and Language Options - Advanced tab - set the "Language for non-Unicode programs" to the CJK language you want.
After this in Windows Explorer and dialog boxes, back slashes will appear as yen marks. You will need to switch back to English when installing multilingual programs.
The next step is to open up Utatane, right click in the main Servers window, and choose Add. Input server names, addresses, ports and the redirect settings for the top servers from the websites above or the
Kosaba List BBS
If a server has more than one address, add each using the "Add" button in the bottom left-hand corner of the "Add a New Server" dialog. Utatane will automatically switch between the different addresses.
Before you go online, you'll need to open up a port for Utatane on your firewall. In Utatane, click on Setting, then Servers, input a Login Name and Password, set your connection type, and note down the port you are listening on for incoming TCP connections. This should be a number between 10000 and 65000. Some port numbers such as 8844 are blocked by some servers. Open your firewall, and then open that same port. For example, if you are using the Windows firewall, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Windows Firewall, Exceptions, and then Add Port, i.e. the same number as listed in Utatane. If you are using a router, check its manual for how to open ports.
Another thing you need to do is get your collection into presentable shape. Everyone you try to download from is going to be browsing your files, and if they can't find something they want, they will just leave you sitting in queue forever. You can share files named in English, but you need to append a short word in brackets at the beginning describing the genre, e.g. (Album), (Asia), (AV), (CD), (IV), (movie), (mp3), (Nude), (pic), (PV) or (TV). IV stands for image video i.e. bikini idols, and PV stands for promotional video, i.e. music videos. DVD product codes are not as common as in the west, but they would help people find things. It is better not to share incomplete files, single jpgs or files with unmeaningful file names. Some traders make text file dummies of videos they have saved to DVD-R, adding the tag 【DVD退避】 to the beginning of the file name.
Try to share as much content as possible because some servers and big traders have 200 file and/or 50-100GB minimums. Once you are all organized, add the files to the Share window in Utatane.
Also under Setting, Transfers, set your incoming folder, making sure this is different from your Shared folders. Under Setting, Queuing, set the Number of Downloads per User to 1. When set this way, if you try to queue a second file for the same user, it will just queue the file locally waiting for the first download to finish. Under Setting, Message, stick in a wav file to alert you when someone has sent you a message (There are wav files you can use in the folders for Windows Live Messenger or ICQ).
Once you are all set up, go back to the Server screen, and click on "Link All." Some of the servers take a while to scan all the files in your Share folders, so they may initially send you error messages saying you don't have enough files. Hang in there though, and eventually five or six of them should let you connect.
Next we are off to the NewSearch screen. Type in a title, actress name or genre, and hit Search. You'll get a long list of files with the user and the server they're on. Once you find a file you want, browse what files he has, and then send him a PM.
こんばんは。
Konban wa.
Good evening.
After you have PMed them, wait a second to see if they send you an auto-response. If you can't read Japanese, copy, and paste it into an online translator such as the one on Google to try to figure out what it says. Often it will tell you if he is offline, or what files he is looking for. Then send him another PM recommending some of your own videos that he might be interested in.
あのー、コメディの動画を持っていますよ。交換しませんか。
Anoo, komedi no douga wo motte imasu yo. Koukan shimasen ka.
Um, I have comedy videos. Do you want to trade?
Even if you get no response, you can still enter their queue by right clicking on the file, and choosing Download.
Then you go looking for other files. The servers prohibit you from requesting 2 files from the same user, or the same file from 2 different users who are both on the same server. You can however request the same file from a different user on a different server, so pay attention to what servers people are on. Some users use two different login names for two different servers, but you can usually recognize this by the number of files they are sharing and the time they came online. It also seems to me that you can only queue up about five files on each server before they start sending you error messages, so try to spread your downloads out among the different servers.
You should try to aim to be online at the same time as users in Japan. That means 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays, 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays. During these times, the number of users on Zerosen ゼロ戦 will swing up above 2000, and you are more likely to get a response. Some generous users allow random users to download files automatically, but quite a few people will browse your shares first, and add a file to your upload queue at the bottom of the Xfer window as a sign that they want to trade. Click on his file to start him, and then right click on both the upload and download, and choose Auto Complete, so it'll reconnect if broken off. It is quite common to add each other to your Hot list, and allot each other a free upload of one file at a time. Do this by clicking on Hot List, right click on the name of user you are trading with, choosing "Add to Hot List," and then set "Auto User" to 1.
優先ユーザに追加しましたよ。どうぞよろしくお願いします。
Yuusen yuuza ni tsuika shimashita yo. Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
I've added you to my Auto-users list. Please be kind to me.
The etiquette is that you both stay online until both downloads are finished, but they may ask you just to be sure. If you have to go offline for any reason you may want to reassure them.
一回切りますけど、後で続けましょう。
Ikkai kirimasu kedo, ato de tsuzukemashou.
I'm going offline for a moment, but let's continue after.
If you already have one or two uploads in progress, it is a good idea not to go searching for more until those finish because users on T3 especially will complain.
You can also set Utatane to autostart uploads for people you are sitting in the download queue of: Settings - Transfers - Start Counter Queue. On the Queuing dialog, you can set maximum number of uploads for regular and Auto Users, but make sure these numbers are high enough to cover Auto Starts; otherwise you'll just keep timing them out.
If you have technical questions about Utatane's features or OpenNap in general, you could try asking in WinMX World Forum.
Share EX2 Guide - Uploading
To some extent, uploads in Share are automatic. You place files in your uploads folders, Share establishes a connection with one neighbouring node, and slowly uploads the files to it. On the Nodes screen, this is the node labeled Diffuse Up at the bottom of the active nodes list.
If you want to upload a particular file to the network for others to download, you can help the process along in a number of ways. One approach is to go to the Uploads tab, and click the Turbo button. This pauses all your downloads and uploads, and causes Share to focus on uploads to one or two neighbouring nodes. On the nodes screen, you will notice that Share Up stops, and you may get a second Diffuse Up node. Next, go to Queries, and run a Search for the file in your uploads folder that you want to upload. You may notice at this point that not all of the files in your uploads folder have been added to the Upload screen. You right-click on the file you want, and choose "Add to upload." In the Upload window, if it doesn't say transferring next to the file, you may have to move the file to a special express uploads folder, and delete all your other upload folders from the Folders window. In the status bar, it will tell you your upload speed, and in the Upload window, it will tell you how many blocks it has completed. After the file has been uploaded to another node, the filename should turn orange in Queries, and you can shut off Turbo.
Another slower method to upload a file is to right-click on it in Queries, and choose Convert. The file will pop up in the Tasks window, and rapidly be converted into an encrypted file in your Cache. You have to be careful with this feature though because if you are near the quota you set for Cache in your folder window, Share may inadvertently delete sections of the files you have already downloaded in order to stay within that quota. Once a file has been converted to Cache, Share will automatically upload it to neighbouring nodes through Diffuse Up. As it uploads, you may find the size of files in your cache folder shrinking. Share just seems to be freeing up space that is no longer needed.
If you want to shut down Share, but haven't finished the upload, you might want to move the original file out of your uploads folder, so that when Share restarts, it will pick up where it left off, uploading the file, rather than creating a new entry for the file in LinkCache.
Usually once you have uploaded a file once, Share will refuse to upload the same file again. You can get around this though by using a plugin like DiffusionProClone.
File name: [Share Plugin] [PDK10] DiffusionProClone_r006改3.zip
ID: ZacbaranTwkXBMCKeN
File Size: 235,021 bytes
a349d919fb08751f062d909fc4d733b54b6b17d3
Unzip it into the Plugins folder in your Share folder under Program Files. In Share, click on Settings, Plugins, Add and then navigate to the DiffusionProClone.dll file. In your Tools menu, you will now see an item marked DiffusionProClone. You click on 有効 to turn it on. DiffusionProClone is designed to be used in conjunction with Turbo to speed things up. Other upload plugins include UpOnly and AutoUploadPlugin. (Incidentally, all of them are designed to block Retina Sharebot from tracing your upload).
If you want to upload a particular file to the network for others to download, you can help the process along in a number of ways. One approach is to go to the Uploads tab, and click the Turbo button. This pauses all your downloads and uploads, and causes Share to focus on uploads to one or two neighbouring nodes. On the nodes screen, you will notice that Share Up stops, and you may get a second Diffuse Up node. Next, go to Queries, and run a Search for the file in your uploads folder that you want to upload. You may notice at this point that not all of the files in your uploads folder have been added to the Upload screen. You right-click on the file you want, and choose "Add to upload." In the Upload window, if it doesn't say transferring next to the file, you may have to move the file to a special express uploads folder, and delete all your other upload folders from the Folders window. In the status bar, it will tell you your upload speed, and in the Upload window, it will tell you how many blocks it has completed. After the file has been uploaded to another node, the filename should turn orange in Queries, and you can shut off Turbo.
Another slower method to upload a file is to right-click on it in Queries, and choose Convert. The file will pop up in the Tasks window, and rapidly be converted into an encrypted file in your Cache. You have to be careful with this feature though because if you are near the quota you set for Cache in your folder window, Share may inadvertently delete sections of the files you have already downloaded in order to stay within that quota. Once a file has been converted to Cache, Share will automatically upload it to neighbouring nodes through Diffuse Up. As it uploads, you may find the size of files in your cache folder shrinking. Share just seems to be freeing up space that is no longer needed.
If you want to shut down Share, but haven't finished the upload, you might want to move the original file out of your uploads folder, so that when Share restarts, it will pick up where it left off, uploading the file, rather than creating a new entry for the file in LinkCache.
Usually once you have uploaded a file once, Share will refuse to upload the same file again. You can get around this though by using a plugin like DiffusionProClone.
File name: [Share Plugin] [PDK10] DiffusionProClone_r006改3.zip
ID: ZacbaranTwkXBMCKeN
File Size: 235,021 bytes
a349d919fb08751f062d909fc4d733b54b6b17d3
Unzip it into the Plugins folder in your Share folder under Program Files. In Share, click on Settings, Plugins, Add and then navigate to the DiffusionProClone.dll file. In your Tools menu, you will now see an item marked DiffusionProClone. You click on 有効 to turn it on. DiffusionProClone is designed to be used in conjunction with Turbo to speed things up. Other upload plugins include UpOnly and AutoUploadPlugin. (Incidentally, all of them are designed to block Retina Sharebot from tracing your upload).
Share EX2 Guide - Set up and downloading
Share is a Japanese peer-to-peer file sharing client and network for Windows, based on a similar model to the English program Freenet and Japanese Winny. Share is perhaps best known as a network where fans of new anime, Jdramas, manga, movies and adult videos gather. For new files with multiple sources, Share is one of the fastest clients out there. Share allows you to copy filenames to the clipboard for checking in search engines, and if you have the hash for a file, you do not need to know how to read Japanese.
You can download the latest version of Share, EX2, from Share P2P or P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所. You can download English locale and hint files to replace the Japanese ones from Serika's Share web site on uguu.org.
Create a Share folder in Program Files, unzip Share EX2 to there, and then replace the locale and hint files. If you get a runtime error when starting the program, run msconfig, untick your antivirus and firewall applications, restart Windows, start Share EX2, and then turn your antivirus and firewall back on.
Next, you should set up your cluster words. Every Share user chooses up to five cluster words, and these help decide which nodes Share connects to. Click on Settings, Clusters, type in a cluster word, and click Add. The most popular cluster words are AV, DVDISO, アニメ (anime), アプリ (application), 映画 (movie), 無修正 (uncensored), iso, ドラマ (drama) and コミック (comics). If you choose five of these, that should get you connected to a wide range of computers. You can always change your cluster words later when looking for videos with a different theme. Click in the boxes next to the five you want, and then click OK.
Next, Settings, Profile, Settings, type in a Nickname and Password, and click "change key." This will set your ID. On the Network tab, input your upstream and downstream limits. You have to set both for a minimum of 50KB/s, but actually the main thing this seems to affect is the reported speed in the nodes window. Share has no internal bandwidth throttle.
On the same dialog box, choose a port number in the 10000 to 65000 range, and set your software or router firewall to allow TCP connections in and out for that same port. If you are using the Windows XP SP2 firewall, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Windows Firewall, Exceptions and then Add Port, ie. the same number as you typed into Share - Settings - Network. EX2 is TCP only, so you don't have to worry about UDP. You can leave Performance, Action and Quota the way they are. Hit OK.
Next, you need a node list. A node is just the encrypted IP address of a computer running Share. You actually need only one active node, and then Share will automatically download the rest, and store them in the nodes.db file. There are node lists at: Benri-tool, P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所 and P2P Node Terminal. Be sure to use EX2 nodes if you are running the TCP version. The UDP version NT2 has its own nodes. Copy, and paste the nodes into Notepad, and save the file as nodes.txt into the Share folder. On the Nodes tab, click "Add node," then "Load from file," browse to your nodes.txt file, and select it. Click "Add" and then "Close." Don't connect yet.
In Windows Explorer, in the Share folder, create two more folders, one called "Cache" and the other called "Download." Back in Share, switch to the Folders tab, click "Add folder," and add your new Cache and Download folders, setting a minimum quota of 4GBs for cache. For "Upload," browse to, and select the folder where the files you want to upload are stored. You can choose to share anything from a single file on up, but the more files you share, the longer it will take for Share to check them all.
Once you are all ready, restart Share, and then on the Nodes screen, click connect. It will start trying each of the nodes in your list till it finds an active one, and then start downloading others, and checking them too. It may take a while for it to find nodes with clusters related to your interests, but once the Log tab tells you that you are connected, and your Global IP has been resolved, you can start setting up triggers to find the files you are interested in.
Next, you need to set up some triggers for files you want to download. You can search for Share hashes in the online database Share ファイル照会DB(試). If you have the hash for the file you want, click on the Triggers tab, "Add Trigger" and then paste the hash value into the Hash field, leaving "Add to DB only" unticked. You might want to set a minimum file size of 100 MBs to screen out text dummies or a maximum of 2000 MBs if you want to exclude ISOs. Click "Add." As soon as Share finds the file, it will automatically add it to your Download window, and start downloading. Share can only search for a limited number of triggers at a time, so don't create too many.
If you don't have a hash for the file you want, you can set up a trigger to get Share to add relevant search results to your DB. First, on the Triggers tab, click "Add Trigger," type words from the title into the Keyword blank, untick the "Delete matching query triggers" box, and add a tick to the "Add to DB only" box. Now Share will search the DB of all the nodes it connects to for that keyword, adding any matching filenames and hashes to your own DB. If you want to run an auto-download trigger, make sure you delete any "DB only" trigger with the same keywords. Otherwise, Share will just add the filename to the DB rather than starting the download.
Once you have added results to your DB, click on the Queries tab, and search your DB. If you can't read the file name, right click on the file, choose "Copy file name," and paste it into the text box on the Google Translate, select Japanese to English. Orange files are the easiest to download, white is neutral, light blue are the ones you are already downloading, and dark blue the ones in your upload folder. Red files are thought to be fakes. If you find a file you want, right-click on it, and choose "Add to Download." Occasionally, Share will refuse to add a download from either a trigger or the Queries window. If it's a trigger, run another Search in queries. If it's in Queries, set up a trigger for the hash. It usually works the second time.
In the Download window, you can follow the progress of your downloads. Order indicates the number of people in the queue ahead of you, and Status tells you the number of pieces that Share has managed to locate. Highest priority is given to the file numbered 0, but you can increase or decrease the priority by right-clicking on the file. The Tasks window shows you what files are being downloaded at the moment. When the download is complete, Share will convert it from Cache into a playable video, post a note in Tasks, and it will show up in your Download folder.
You can download the latest version of Share, EX2, from Share P2P or P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所. You can download English locale and hint files to replace the Japanese ones from Serika's Share web site on uguu.org.
Create a Share folder in Program Files, unzip Share EX2 to there, and then replace the locale and hint files. If you get a runtime error when starting the program, run msconfig, untick your antivirus and firewall applications, restart Windows, start Share EX2, and then turn your antivirus and firewall back on.
Next, you should set up your cluster words. Every Share user chooses up to five cluster words, and these help decide which nodes Share connects to. Click on Settings, Clusters, type in a cluster word, and click Add. The most popular cluster words are AV, DVDISO, アニメ (anime), アプリ (application), 映画 (movie), 無修正 (uncensored), iso, ドラマ (drama) and コミック (comics). If you choose five of these, that should get you connected to a wide range of computers. You can always change your cluster words later when looking for videos with a different theme. Click in the boxes next to the five you want, and then click OK.
Next, Settings, Profile, Settings, type in a Nickname and Password, and click "change key." This will set your ID. On the Network tab, input your upstream and downstream limits. You have to set both for a minimum of 50KB/s, but actually the main thing this seems to affect is the reported speed in the nodes window. Share has no internal bandwidth throttle.
On the same dialog box, choose a port number in the 10000 to 65000 range, and set your software or router firewall to allow TCP connections in and out for that same port. If you are using the Windows XP SP2 firewall, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Windows Firewall, Exceptions and then Add Port, ie. the same number as you typed into Share - Settings - Network. EX2 is TCP only, so you don't have to worry about UDP. You can leave Performance, Action and Quota the way they are. Hit OK.
Next, you need a node list. A node is just the encrypted IP address of a computer running Share. You actually need only one active node, and then Share will automatically download the rest, and store them in the nodes.db file. There are node lists at: Benri-tool, P2P ファイル共有ソフトノード登録所 and P2P Node Terminal. Be sure to use EX2 nodes if you are running the TCP version. The UDP version NT2 has its own nodes. Copy, and paste the nodes into Notepad, and save the file as nodes.txt into the Share folder. On the Nodes tab, click "Add node," then "Load from file," browse to your nodes.txt file, and select it. Click "Add" and then "Close." Don't connect yet.
In Windows Explorer, in the Share folder, create two more folders, one called "Cache" and the other called "Download." Back in Share, switch to the Folders tab, click "Add folder," and add your new Cache and Download folders, setting a minimum quota of 4GBs for cache. For "Upload," browse to, and select the folder where the files you want to upload are stored. You can choose to share anything from a single file on up, but the more files you share, the longer it will take for Share to check them all.
Once you are all ready, restart Share, and then on the Nodes screen, click connect. It will start trying each of the nodes in your list till it finds an active one, and then start downloading others, and checking them too. It may take a while for it to find nodes with clusters related to your interests, but once the Log tab tells you that you are connected, and your Global IP has been resolved, you can start setting up triggers to find the files you are interested in.
Next, you need to set up some triggers for files you want to download. You can search for Share hashes in the online database Share ファイル照会DB(試). If you have the hash for the file you want, click on the Triggers tab, "Add Trigger" and then paste the hash value into the Hash field, leaving "Add to DB only" unticked. You might want to set a minimum file size of 100 MBs to screen out text dummies or a maximum of 2000 MBs if you want to exclude ISOs. Click "Add." As soon as Share finds the file, it will automatically add it to your Download window, and start downloading. Share can only search for a limited number of triggers at a time, so don't create too many.
If you don't have a hash for the file you want, you can set up a trigger to get Share to add relevant search results to your DB. First, on the Triggers tab, click "Add Trigger," type words from the title into the Keyword blank, untick the "Delete matching query triggers" box, and add a tick to the "Add to DB only" box. Now Share will search the DB of all the nodes it connects to for that keyword, adding any matching filenames and hashes to your own DB. If you want to run an auto-download trigger, make sure you delete any "DB only" trigger with the same keywords. Otherwise, Share will just add the filename to the DB rather than starting the download.
Once you have added results to your DB, click on the Queries tab, and search your DB. If you can't read the file name, right click on the file, choose "Copy file name," and paste it into the text box on the Google Translate, select Japanese to English. Orange files are the easiest to download, white is neutral, light blue are the ones you are already downloading, and dark blue the ones in your upload folder. Red files are thought to be fakes. If you find a file you want, right-click on it, and choose "Add to Download." Occasionally, Share will refuse to add a download from either a trigger or the Queries window. If it's a trigger, run another Search in queries. If it's in Queries, set up a trigger for the hash. It usually works the second time.
In the Download window, you can follow the progress of your downloads. Order indicates the number of people in the queue ahead of you, and Status tells you the number of pieces that Share has managed to locate. Highest priority is given to the file numbered 0, but you can increase or decrease the priority by right-clicking on the file. The Tasks window shows you what files are being downloaded at the moment. When the download is complete, Share will convert it from Cache into a playable video, post a note in Tasks, and it will show up in your Download folder.
WinMX Guide
WinMX is one of the most popular file-sharing networks in Japan. It is estimated that over 3 million Japanese have used WinMX, and the number is growing rapidly from year to year. A recent report found that it is the most popular P2P client in Japan among heavy users and adult video fans. It also has a wide selection of J-dramas new and old. It is probably one of the easier P2P programs to set up, and use, and there are many active forums and chat channels in English which can provide support. Another feature is that you can view incomplete video files from start to end, just by clicking on them.
WinMX runs on most versions of Microsoft Windows, and there are versions available for Linux. The company that first developed WinMX, Frontcode Technologies, no longer runs any servers, but the WinMX Group put together new servers and a patch in September 2005, mere days after Frontcode shut down. Users of Windows XP and 2000 can download the latest version (3.54 Patched) at:
If you are using a firewall, you will need to add WinMX to the list of programs with access to the internet and/or open up a couple of ports, so that traffic can get through. In WinMX, you can find (and change) the port numbers by clicking on Settings, and then Incoming TCP Connections and In/Out UDP Packets under Internet Connections. If you are using the Windows XP SP2 firewall, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Windows Firewall, Exceptions and then Add Port, ie. the same numbers as listed in WinMX.
Once you are online, click on the Search tab. Under 'Artist and / or Title,' there are two empty text boxes, one above the other. In the top box, you can type in your favourite Japanese search terms, eg. a video title, an actor or actress's name in kanji or some genre of video. Make sure that the button left of "Search in a New Window" is set to "Any File / Bitrate" or "Video" and not "MP3 Audio."
If you are only getting few results from your searches, add the most popular file to your download queue, switch to the Transfers window, right click on the file, and choose Search for Alternates. This will open a new search window, searching by hash so it will find files that have been renamed for example from Japanese to English or other languages.
The box underneath that is for hash values, a long series of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies each video or mp3. The ability to search by hash means that you can find files that have been renamed e.g. from Japanese to English. To locate these files, just copy a hash value you find posted (including the 'HASH>' part) into the lower search box, click on 'Search,' and the relevant video should turn up. Right click on it, and choose 'Download,' and then follow your progress in the Transfers window.
There are various ways to try to speed up your downloads. One of the best ways is to find another user who wants to trade files with you, tell each other what number you are in the queue, and then start each other. Browse the files of users who you are uploading to to see if they have anything you want.
It is a good idea to share a large number of files similar to what you are looking for because users who are uploading to you may be browsing your library as well, or may have MX Monitor set only to upload to users with some minimum number of files.
If you are in the transfers window sitting in someone's queue and not downloading, you can right click on the file, and choose "Search for Alternates" to find other sources which may have shorter queues.
For files not even in queue, you can set "Auto Find Sources" to 10 minutes, and "Auto Enter Queue" to 100, and then WinMX will automatically go looking for other sources. If a queue is longer than 100 you may want to right click the file, and "Enter Remote Queue" anyway. If you try to download two files from the same user the second one gets Queued Locally, but you can right click on the file, and choose Start Transfer.
You can ask questions in the WinMX World Forum. WinMX World also has a friendly help chat room once you get connected.
To view Japanese in WinMX in Windows, under Settings, Control Panel, Regional and Language Settings, you may have to extend support for advanced text services to all programs, and set Japanese as your language for non-Unicode programs. After this in Windows Explorer dialogs, back slashes will appear as yen marks, and you may have to switch back to English when installing new programs.
Friday, March 14, 2008
A short history of file sharing in Japan
Updated to 2018
Although FTP, IRC and Usenet had come into use by the 1980's, it wasn't until the appearance of Shawn Fanning's Napster in 1999 that file sharing began to reach a mass audience. Napster was an application that users could download for free, which allowed them to browse, and download each other's mp3's. By February 2001, 26 million people were using Napster. Other applications soon followed.
In March 2000, Nullsoft, the subsidiary of AOL which makes Winamp, released the first version of a client called Gnutella, and the Dutch company Consumer Empowerment released Kazaa Media Desktop connecting to the same FastTrack network as Morpheus. After a day of intensive downloads, AOL removed Gnutella from their site, but developers soon began working on creating compatible clients that could connect to the decentralized network.
In Japan, in December 2000, the Download Soft board was created on 2 channel. This would be the place where WinMX and later Share hashes were posted along with the first Winny executable.
In early 2001, another American company, Frontcode Technologies led by Kevin Hearn released an application called WinMX. Originally, WinMX was based on the Napster protocol, so that its client could connect to independent OpenNap servers, which had started to grow up. In May, however, Frontcode added the ability to connect to a network of its own, the WinMX Peer Network. Unlike Napster, WinMX was designed to handle languages that are encoded using double bytes such as Japanese, and this led to WinMX becoming the first real mass file sharing client in Japan. One of WinMX's innovations was the ability to search by hash, a long string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies each file on the network. This allows users to rename files as they please, while still preserving the ability to find identical files. WinMX users in Japan flocked to Japanese message boards such as 2channel to post hashes for their favorite files. From 2002 until 2006, WinMX was the most popular client for p2p in Japan.
In the meantime, several record companies had launched a lawsuit against Napster alleging that the software contributed to copyright infringement. Napster lost the case, and in July 2001, finding itself unable to create filters to block copyrighted material, Napster shut down its servers.
Later that year, Limewire LLC released its own client based on the Gnutella protocol. Like WinMX, from fairly early on, Limewire was capable of handling Japanese characters.
In Japan as well, a WinMX-using Japanese student was arrested, and had his computer confiscated, so Japanese developers began to work on the problem of developing an anonymous client. The west already had one client known for its anonymity, Freenet, and this captured the attention of one Isamu Kaneko, a grad student at Tokyo University. While Napster needed central servers to keep track of who is sharing what file, Freenet is made up of a network of co-equal "nodes" (clients which are connected to the network). When you search for a "key" (a hash value), Freenet spiders out to neighboring nodes looking for "clusters" which contain related keys. Kaneko adapted these basic ideas, and in spring of 2002, released Winny onto the download board on 2channel. Winny allows users to input three cluster keywords based on the type of file they are looking for, so they can more easily connect to people with those same interests. Winny also introduced the concept of "triggers." If you set up a trigger for a particular filename or hash, Winny will automatically try to download any file that matches. Triggers are necessary because Winny has no central search engine, but if they are too broad, you can end up downloading a lot of unwanted files just because they happen to have the same keyword in the title.
Despite the supposed anonymity of Winny, in November 2003, two Winny users were arrested by the Kyoto police. It appears that they had posted on Winny's bulletin board the names of files they were uploading, and police managed to trace their IP addresses through their posts, and they were arrested. The Winny community continued to post file hashes to 2channel, but it seems that it was this arrest which led WinMX users to stop posting hashes.
In the search for greater anonymity, in January 2004, the developer Sonchou released the first version of Share, a peer-to-peer application which tried to improve on Winny. One key feature was the ability to use DB-only triggers to capture search results from all nodes with which Share comes into contact. This helps users find the specific hash for the file they are looking for, without having to download unwanted files as in Winny.
In May 2004, Isamu Kaneko was arrested on charges of actively encouraging copyright infringement. He was released on bail a few months later, sentenced to a year in prison, and asked to pay a fine of 1.5 million yen in 2006. He is currently appealing his sentence.
In November 2004, a group of Japanese developers released Cabos, a client for the Gnutella network based on Limewire.
By 2005, WinMX had clearly established itself as the most popular file sharing client in the world with an audience of over 2 million regular users. In September, the Recording Industry Association of America issued a cease and desist letter to Frontcode ordering them to implement filters, or shut down. Frontcode responded by shutting down on September 21st. By the 25th, two separate groups of developers had released patches that changed WinMX's DNS lookup so it could find current peer caches. It seems that Japanese WinMX users flocked back to the network, while many p2p users in the west moved on in search of a new network, ultimately Bittorrent.
2007 saw Winny overtake WinMX as the most popular client in Japan. Gnutella clients had also gained a following.
In March 2007, the software company Retina released Sharebot, a program designed to trace which users have uploaded particular files on the Share network. Rumors began spreading that Share's anonymity had been compromised, but actually, Share users soon learned how to set up a plugin called DiffusionProClone to block Sharebot from scanning one's uploads. Other plugins such as sharebotblocker and connexoblocker have recently been released with the same purpose.
From 2007 to 2010, there was a Japanese language forum for torrents: torrent-jp.com/forum.
2008 seems to have been the year when p2p reached its peak in Japan. The Recording Industry Association of Japan reported seeing 209 000 people connect to Share, and 181 000 connect to Winny in that year's report.
In 2009, the Japanese language website Alabout came online, providing torrents or Share hashes for Japanese adult videos.
In 2010, the Japanese Diet outlawed downloading for the first time, and in 2012, penalties were strengthened. P2P usage on Perfect Dark and Share seems to have declined after this, with the Winny user base shrinking less so.
Before 2013, the various watchdog agencies don't seem to have paid much attention to Bittorrent, but that year the amount of bandwidth being used by Bittorrent seems to have overtaken Perfect Dark and Share.
Although FTP, IRC and Usenet had come into use by the 1980's, it wasn't until the appearance of Shawn Fanning's Napster in 1999 that file sharing began to reach a mass audience. Napster was an application that users could download for free, which allowed them to browse, and download each other's mp3's. By February 2001, 26 million people were using Napster. Other applications soon followed.
In March 2000, Nullsoft, the subsidiary of AOL which makes Winamp, released the first version of a client called Gnutella, and the Dutch company Consumer Empowerment released Kazaa Media Desktop connecting to the same FastTrack network as Morpheus. After a day of intensive downloads, AOL removed Gnutella from their site, but developers soon began working on creating compatible clients that could connect to the decentralized network.
In Japan, in December 2000, the Download Soft board was created on 2 channel. This would be the place where WinMX and later Share hashes were posted along with the first Winny executable.
In early 2001, another American company, Frontcode Technologies led by Kevin Hearn released an application called WinMX. Originally, WinMX was based on the Napster protocol, so that its client could connect to independent OpenNap servers, which had started to grow up. In May, however, Frontcode added the ability to connect to a network of its own, the WinMX Peer Network. Unlike Napster, WinMX was designed to handle languages that are encoded using double bytes such as Japanese, and this led to WinMX becoming the first real mass file sharing client in Japan. One of WinMX's innovations was the ability to search by hash, a long string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies each file on the network. This allows users to rename files as they please, while still preserving the ability to find identical files. WinMX users in Japan flocked to Japanese message boards such as 2channel to post hashes for their favorite files. From 2002 until 2006, WinMX was the most popular client for p2p in Japan.
In the meantime, several record companies had launched a lawsuit against Napster alleging that the software contributed to copyright infringement. Napster lost the case, and in July 2001, finding itself unable to create filters to block copyrighted material, Napster shut down its servers.
Later that year, Limewire LLC released its own client based on the Gnutella protocol. Like WinMX, from fairly early on, Limewire was capable of handling Japanese characters.
In Japan as well, a WinMX-using Japanese student was arrested, and had his computer confiscated, so Japanese developers began to work on the problem of developing an anonymous client. The west already had one client known for its anonymity, Freenet, and this captured the attention of one Isamu Kaneko, a grad student at Tokyo University. While Napster needed central servers to keep track of who is sharing what file, Freenet is made up of a network of co-equal "nodes" (clients which are connected to the network). When you search for a "key" (a hash value), Freenet spiders out to neighboring nodes looking for "clusters" which contain related keys. Kaneko adapted these basic ideas, and in spring of 2002, released Winny onto the download board on 2channel. Winny allows users to input three cluster keywords based on the type of file they are looking for, so they can more easily connect to people with those same interests. Winny also introduced the concept of "triggers." If you set up a trigger for a particular filename or hash, Winny will automatically try to download any file that matches. Triggers are necessary because Winny has no central search engine, but if they are too broad, you can end up downloading a lot of unwanted files just because they happen to have the same keyword in the title.
Despite the supposed anonymity of Winny, in November 2003, two Winny users were arrested by the Kyoto police. It appears that they had posted on Winny's bulletin board the names of files they were uploading, and police managed to trace their IP addresses through their posts, and they were arrested. The Winny community continued to post file hashes to 2channel, but it seems that it was this arrest which led WinMX users to stop posting hashes.
In the search for greater anonymity, in January 2004, the developer Sonchou released the first version of Share, a peer-to-peer application which tried to improve on Winny. One key feature was the ability to use DB-only triggers to capture search results from all nodes with which Share comes into contact. This helps users find the specific hash for the file they are looking for, without having to download unwanted files as in Winny.
In May 2004, Isamu Kaneko was arrested on charges of actively encouraging copyright infringement. He was released on bail a few months later, sentenced to a year in prison, and asked to pay a fine of 1.5 million yen in 2006. He is currently appealing his sentence.
In November 2004, a group of Japanese developers released Cabos, a client for the Gnutella network based on Limewire.
By 2005, WinMX had clearly established itself as the most popular file sharing client in the world with an audience of over 2 million regular users. In September, the Recording Industry Association of America issued a cease and desist letter to Frontcode ordering them to implement filters, or shut down. Frontcode responded by shutting down on September 21st. By the 25th, two separate groups of developers had released patches that changed WinMX's DNS lookup so it could find current peer caches. It seems that Japanese WinMX users flocked back to the network, while many p2p users in the west moved on in search of a new network, ultimately Bittorrent.
2007 saw Winny overtake WinMX as the most popular client in Japan. Gnutella clients had also gained a following.
In March 2007, the software company Retina released Sharebot, a program designed to trace which users have uploaded particular files on the Share network. Rumors began spreading that Share's anonymity had been compromised, but actually, Share users soon learned how to set up a plugin called DiffusionProClone to block Sharebot from scanning one's uploads. Other plugins such as sharebotblocker and connexoblocker have recently been released with the same purpose.
From 2007 to 2010, there was a Japanese language forum for torrents: torrent-jp.com/forum.
2008 seems to have been the year when p2p reached its peak in Japan. The Recording Industry Association of Japan reported seeing 209 000 people connect to Share, and 181 000 connect to Winny in that year's report.
In 2009, the Japanese language website Alabout came online, providing torrents or Share hashes for Japanese adult videos.
In 2010, the Japanese Diet outlawed downloading for the first time, and in 2012, penalties were strengthened. P2P usage on Perfect Dark and Share seems to have declined after this, with the Winny user base shrinking less so.
Before 2013, the various watchdog agencies don't seem to have paid much attention to Bittorrent, but that year the amount of bandwidth being used by Bittorrent seems to have overtaken Perfect Dark and Share.
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