LeecHammer

 

Most folk online use some type of P2P software.

They use them to download media in all types of format, whether it be mp3’s, movies or software.

One of the things that can irk users of this type of software is the people known as leeches. That's folk who download from you, but don't either have any files themselves or try to prevent anyone from uploading from them so as to maximise their connection.

I tried out one of the (many) programs that try to help eliminate these people…

            I looked for a program that worked with WinMX, which I have found to be reasonably stable and have lots of files.

The programs I found were the likes of MXMonitor and LeecHammer.

LeecHammer can be found at http://www.smartgamez.org/index.html

This program is still being developed and the latest version (at time of writing) was version 1.1 which was released on 2.3.2003.

Ok, some quick pix to show the installation process.

It is pretty standard fare……….

You can, of course, decide where to put it. It doesn't depend on where WinMX is installed……………..

Again, decide where the start point is…

Ta-Dahl!!

Ahh, you may think you're finished at this point, but LeecHammer is very nice to you; it even helps you set up its functions…as shown.

Now we come to the good part

Here comes “Hammer time”…hehehehehehe.

This is one of the most important parts; decide how many files it will take before they're branded a leech. As you can see, I'm fairly lenient on them.

LeecHammer also allows you to manipulate your queue, in various ways.

Leeches beware!…Hammer time again!

There you go, no pain at all.

However, the story doesn't stop there; LeecHammer has a lot more that you can tweak. Again, its easier if I just show you the grabs…………

This is the normal view of LeecHammer. You can click the “less info” button and it keeps only the two rows of buttons. Why would you? Well, if you have it set up properly (or to your liking), why not just minimise it? As you will see in the following grabs, minimising it will send it to the system tray.

Back into the settings tab, and we go over what we decided on the original set-up -- but with a few new wrinkles.

Not only can we “hammer” leeches, but also we can reward other users we like…

LeecHammer also sets up your MX connection. This is the only point that I don't like. I have a 56k modem (many thanks again, BT), and LeecHammer only lets me keep a minimum of two slots open. Without it running, I can keep this to one…much better for a modem user. However, you can leave this option unchecked to prevent this.

You can even add new sounds ………

Another way to hammer folk is those who decide that everyone has a T1 connection and lump 50 requests into your queue. You may have noticed that MX doesn’t care how many uploads of pictures it can take to make your modem crawl.

This, happily, brings the power back to you.

Leeches can be quite devious sometimes, and this option has a check for them as well.

Never lose sight of the folk you want to track -- well for two hours anyway.

People who can stop your whois can be rejected as well.

Nice program, isn't it?

And finally, for the settings anyway, here's where you can decide to start Mx from LeecHammer, which always saves you starting two programs. It also allows you that option of the system tray that I mentioned earlier.

I notice I haven't mentioned the second row of buttons at the top. You can stop LeecHammer by using the Stop button appropriately………

There's a Check now function, just in case you've got the check feature set to a large value instead of the default 30 seconds. The MX button starts MX, in case you haven't selected to do so in the settings, and the last one is the help function, which takes you to the help pages and the FAQ. Fix focus is to help with one of the author's little niggles. Now and again, WinMX and LeecHammer will come to the fore, clicking this button will try to maintain LeecHammer at the front. The author mentions another flaw, which is the memory fragmentation problem that the program has. He's working on it, but he says that rebooting once a day should prevent it happening. I suppose if I had an always-on connection, this might worry me…

Ok, that covers the settings; so how well does it work?

Very well, thank you. I love hearing the noise that the program makes when it gets rid of another leech

The program is stable enough and I haven't had any problems using it.

Besides the fact that it handles leeches and generally helps you mange your queue, it also has the “stats”.

Some more grabs are in order, I believe.

As you can see, this was grabbed at the beginning of a session. LeecHammer hadn't found many leeches…or maybe I was lucky.

It also lets you see how many files are on offer, an average of 603. Not bad!

All those gits with a fast connection…T3's as well, lucky bar stewards!!!

And finally………

Hmm, must be those ADSL users, with all those slots.

Right, hope this gives a flavour for LeecHammer. I'm sure this is going to stay on my drive. Makes my using WinMX much better -- and, so far, no drawbacks.

Can't say much fairer than that, and, of course, its free.

The author has a donation part on his website, and if you feel it warrants it, give him some dough to help keep the wolf from the door.

If you use WinMX, give this a try and see for yourself how many leeches are around!

Either that or track down MXMonitor (lots of folk have, by their sigs), but its still in beta, albeit in use by many. Documentation on it is quite small and in foreign languages, but it can be found, downloaded and run. I have tried it, but prefer LeecHammer.

 

 

By Ian Urie
PC Editor
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