PeerBlock 0.9.2 r93 – Protect Your Computers from Online Trolls

PeerBlock 0.9.2 r93 (Windows, Open Source, 1.85MB) [alt DL] is a new version of the popular Peer Guardian 2 software. It blocks "known bad" computers from accessing yours, for example governments, corporate entities, and those flagged for anti-p2p activities. It maintains the functionality of the original Peer Guardian 2 program, but includes fixes for various issues that remain unaddressed in the latest (~2 year old) version of PG2.

Changes:

• Checks for Updates - Public Releases from 0.9.2 on will always check for new Public Releases, and Interim Releases like this one will now check for new Interim Releases (redirecting here to the Dev Blog main page if one is found).
• Smaller History.db - When archiving/deleting history file, perform an SQL "vacuum" operation on history.db to cause it to shrink in size. This means that your history.db should generally be much smaller than it might have been previously
• Permanent Blocks list now actually Blocks - Prior to this fix, this list defaulted to Allow; you needed to manually reset it to Block after adding something to it.
• Auto-Close Update Window - For new installations (i.e. where no .conf file is found, and it runs you through the Startup Wizard) we default to auto-closing the Update Window after 10 seconds.
• Fixed FwpmCalloutAdd0 Error and Crash - Rare bug and accompanying OS crash; fixed in 0.9.2 as well.
• XP Pro x64 Detection - Previously, the program would detect XP Pro x64 as Windows Server 2003 x64, and log it as such to peerblock.log.
• iBlocklist Lists - Switched P2P, Ads, and Spy lists from PeerGuardian-hosted ones to the iBlocklist-hosted variants; removed Gov list as it was long ago merged into P2P.
• Exception Logging - We now should be logging information on all exceptions to peerblock.log.
• Log Timestamps - Peerblock.log now includes date/time-stamps. This should help us track down performance issues, and figure out what was going on closer to the time of failure when troubleshooting.
• FwpmEngineOpen0 Messagebox - If the "Base Filtering Engine" isn't set to Automatic (and running), we used to get a very obtuse error message before PeerBlock terminated. We're now trapping this error, and displaying a much more user-friendly message

It’s sad that some entities brand users who use the power of peer-to-peer sharing as pirates. P2P actually is a great way to share open source and freeware apps, without putting a huge strain on the servers.

PeerBlock looks to be a great fork to the infamous PeerGuardian2 app.

IceRocket Tags: peerblock, peerguardian, p2p, sharing, windows open source

uTorrent 1.8.4 Build 16150 – Small Footprint BitTorrent Client

uTorrent 1.8.4 Build 16150 (Windows, Freeware, 282KB) [alt DL] is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.

Changes:

• Feature: Enabled magnet bundles.
• Change: run the 64 bit version of explorer when running as a 32 bit app in a 64 bit windows os.
• Change: disable toolbar offers for Wine installs
• Change: uninstaller is added to all user profiles
• Fix: crash when assigning new label to torrents from RSS
• Change: Incomplete downloads sort after completed downloads if sorting by "Completed On"
• Fix: maintain category list selection on update for some edge cases
• Change: if selected, install start menu and desktop shortcuts to all users instead of only current user
• Fix: buffer overrun vulnerability in create torrent dialog
• Fix: Check at startup for incompatible versions of NVIDIA nForce firewall

IceRocket Tags: utorrent, bittorrent, windows freeware

uTorrent 1.8.2 Build 14458 – Small Footprint BitTorrent Client

uTorrent 1.8.2 Build 14458 (Windows, Freeware, 264KB) [alt DL] is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients.

Changes:

• Fix: installer crashes after installing on Vista
• Fix: total downloaded and total uploaded was being truncated to 32-bit integer (affected only 14153)
• Change: installer will appear based on revision number instead of executable modification time

IceRocket: utorrent bittorrent client, windows freeware

FrostWire 4.17.0 - Gnutella P2P Client with BitTorrent Support

FrostWire 4.17.0 (Windows, Open Source, 14MB) [download via FileHippo] , a Gnutella Peer-to-Peer client, is a collaborative effort from many Open Source and freelance developers located from all around the world.

Also available for Linux.

Changes:

• Upgrades on our update notification system, capability for featured content and recommendations
• Updated Playlist (drag & drop support, and Playlist rearrange options)
• New Media Player with volume and seek controls (Plays mp3, ogg and wav)
• Support for private torrents
• Greater control over your Shared files
• Add Magnets to Open Dialog
• Improvements in bootstrapping
• Warn When Too Many Files Shared
• Make Ultrapeers ignore partial results
• Mojito DHT capable (still not active for 4.17.0)
• More translations to be available for the community on launchpad.net. Many improvements for Spanish, and Italian and Chinese have been finally been added among others
• Reduce query traffic by knowing firewalled state; implement leafs informing ups of firewall status.
• Recognize flv as a video extension.
• Enable removal from playlist via the Delete or Backspace key.
• (Bittorrent) Extended BEncoding to support rational numbers.
• Add support for alternate location lookup for BitTorrents.
• Use less memory for large number of leaf connections.
• General Save folder improvements.
• Smoother Icon Tray Icons for Linux and Windows
• FrostWire now runs under Java SE 6 on Mac OS X (however SE6 is temperamental; it exhibits some strange connection issues). More integration with the MacOSX dock and other components
• Speedup Magnet/Torrents at startup.
• Add partial search results.
• Exclude magnet downloads from being purged after 7 days.
• Incremental search on the Settings window
• Default setting tweaks for users with high speed connections (T1,T3) to make the most out of their bandwidth

Technorati: frostwire, bittorrent, p2p, windows, linux, open source

Vuze 3.1.1.0 - Java Bittorrent Client

Vuze 3.1.1.0 (formerly Azureus) (Windows, Open Source, 8.6MB) [download via FileHippo] is a java bittorrent client offering multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.

Changes:

• FEATURE: Core | Added Auto Starting rule to seed large swarms first; useful when many overseeded torrents are in the queue or the upload capacity is far above average
• FEATURE: UIv3 | Friend Chat (double click on friend icon to chat)
• FEATURE: UIv3 | Friends Online Status
• FEATURE: UIv3 | Ability to share content from your computer by dragging it to a Friend
• CHANGE: Core | Built-in plugins can now be disabled - it didn't work properly in earlier versions
• CHANGE: UI | Create Vivaldi views for each DHT in use
• CHANGE: UI | Added support for rotation in Vivaldi view
• CHANGE: UI | Peers view hostname column now sorts host names by the most significant part first
• CHANGE: UIv3 | Finished fixes for the new styled dialog which are now default in Vuze/Vuze Advanced
• CHANGE: UIv3 | Added friend icon next to activity entry
• CHANGE: UIv3 | New plugin bar look (removed arrows, added selectable list all plugin bar views)
• And some bugfixes.

Technorati: vuze, azureus, bittorrent, client, file, sharing, download, windows, open source

BitSpirit 3.3.2.255 - BitTorrent Client with Personalized Features

BitSpirit 3.3.2.255 (Windows, Freeware, 2.4MB) [download via FileForum] is a powerful and easy-to-use BitTorrent client which provides not only full BitTorrent protocol implementation but also many personalized features. It supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, UPNP port-mapping, NAT traversal(UDP transport), select downloads from multiple files torrent package, disk cache, chatting with other peers, torrent market,ip-filter, etc.

Changes:

• Fixed: download files were the result of garbled there can download but can not browse through the normal procedures, move, delete the downloaded files;
• Fixed: network traffic in the larger case may be frequent Add / Remove UPnP port;
• Fixed: that in the Win2000 some special resolution under the initial interface shows that the issue of bias;
• Improved: increase in "suspicious refused to link" function, in most cases can effectively avoid the large selection of the wrong data;
• Improved: increase "mandatory written into the cache," the functions of task force will write data to the disk cache;
• Improved: increase, "the document read picture" function, when the mandate of the picture, but did not write the download is complete text of the disk, they can see through the process;
• Improved: improve the DHT network initialization process for new users to join the DHT more reliable network;
• Improvement: the adjustment of the other download speeds judgement algorithm to avoid certain client's special act of misjudgment;
• Improvement: IP plug-in integrated into the main program, no longer distributed IPDesc.dll users need to download and copy the QQWry.dat to plugin directory
• Improved: adjusted to avoid linking the efficiency of processing module for connecting a large number of low-efficiency and lead to download speeds can not upgrade, inefficient connection will automatically [10 minutes to prohibit linking];
• Improvement: "disconnect" - "prohibited link" from the original [task during the effective operation] to [the duration of effective procedures];
• Improved: when "Caps Lock" (capital) keys to open (lights), the list does not connect users to update blacklist, and other operations;
• Improvement: Connecting the list, was elected in one or more connected, according to Delete (deleted) bond can be connected directly added to the blacklist;
• Improvement: Refinement IPFilter.dat related functions, in "functional" - "reload IP filtering table," can be specified level of security, such as 127, L1, L2, and so on;
• Improvement: IPFilter.dat whole logs show that the relevant information, such as: Number of entries, the number of IP filter;
• Improved: task pop-up menu to increase the "mobile download the document" feature, a user-friendly through the process to move downloaded files;
• Improved: agreement to increase encryption [all] the options that can create and receive encrypted connection (do not have any non-encrypted connections);
• Improvement: no longer with the earlier version (such as version 2.0) seed market share, the next version of a mandatory 3. X series of codes to reduce the seed market garbled;
• Improved: simplify and improve the seed market-related features (some function into a pop-up menu), provide a "filter" function to facilitate the filtering or screening of goods;
• Improvement: seed market each other's cargo capacity to change (to withdraw from the process, edit config \ user.ini files MaxTotalTorrents, default 2048);
• Improved: "personal settings" - "agreement to expand" increasing "exit procedures at the preservation of the other cargo" option;

Technorati: bitspirit, bittorrent, windows, freeware

Skype 3.5.0.239 - Free Internet Voice Calls

Skype 3.5.0.239 (Windows, Freeware, 22.77MB) [d/l via Filehippo] is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world.

Changes:

• bugfix: Links with invalid % encodings were executed
• bugfix: Data execution protection may have crashed Skype
• bugfix: Pressing escape did not end call
• Security improvements to ensure it is no longer possible to shut down Skype from a web page

Technorati : call, freeware, internet, p2p, skype, voice, windows

BitComet 0.93 - P2P File Sharing Utility

BitComet 0.93 (Windows, Freeware, 4.73MB) [download via Filehippo] is a p2p file-sharing freeware fully compatible with Bittorrent, which is one of the most popular p2p protocol designed for high-speed distribution of 100MB or GB sized files. BitComet is a powerful, clean, fast, and easy-to-use bittorrent client. It supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, chatting, disk cache, speed limits, port mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc.

Change: Core Improved: improve the stability of persistent seeding.

Technorati : bitcomet, file, freeware, p2p, sharing, windows

Skype 3.5.0.234 - Internet Voice Calls

Skype 3.5.0.234 (Windows, Freeware, 22.77MB) [download via Filehippo] is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world.

Also available for Linux and Mac.

Changes:

• known issue: Video preview may not display on computers with Windows 2000. Video calls will work though.
• bugfix: Web URI Skype?chat did not work
• bugfix: Upgrade dialogue did not open on Skype restart
• bugfix: Skype freeze on rare cases on start-up
• bugfix: Skype may have crashed when making a call for small number of users

Technorati : call, freeware, internet, linux, mac, p2p, skype, voice, voip, web, windows

Skype 3.5.0.229 - Internet Voice Call Software

Skype 3.5.0.229 (Windows, Freeware, 22.93MB) [download via Filehippo] is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world.

Also available for Linux and Mac.

Changes:

• bugfix: Skype crashed when ending a call and Do More menu is open at the same time
• bugfix: Send Money did not work
• bugfix: Skype crashed when call was finished during call transfer attempt
• bugfix: Skype crashes on Windows 98 when receiving video
• bugfix: Video call freeze with some rare webcam's
• bugfix: Skype crashed sometimes when not supported video capture device was used
• change: Updated language files

Technorati : call, freeware, internet, linux, mac, p2p, skype, voice, windows

Skype 3.5.0.214 - Internet Voice Call Software

Skype 3.5.0.214 (Windows, Freeware, 22.93MB) [download via Filehippo] is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world.

Also available for Linux and Mac.

Changes:

• change: Extras Manager updated to version 1.5.0.3
• bugfix: Skype sometimes crashed on receiving chat message
• bugfix: Skype sometimes crashed when handling mood message
• bugfix: Can't resume call after putting it on hold in some cases
• bugfix: Video mood and chat messages sometimes displayed wrong thumbnails
• bugfix: On call transfer dialogue blocked and deleted contacts were shown
• bugfix: Phone number on Outlook contacts was not shown
• bugfix: On rare occasions Voice Mail download failed
• bugfix API: Switching to silent mode took too long

Technorati : call, freeware, internet, linux, mac, skype, voice, voip, web, windows