Ok, I had to give everyone an update. Loaded this program last night. Save yourself some trouble...DO NOT INSTALL THIS PIECE OF JUNK!!!
I can't stress this enough. It uses ONLY the UDP ports. This is a HUGE security issue as this is a hackers primary choice to drop Viruses.
The software install directions also require you to open certain UDP and TCP ports, which in my opinion retracts from the original "security" claims.
The GUI is REALLY crappy.
The download speeds of course are really good. I was getting over 150K downloads on my cable connections.
There is no spy-ware or ad-ware that gets installed, but it does try to install Net Meeting, I am not sure how I feel about that....
The searches take FOREVER and require ALOT of human interaction with the system, this is not a P2P you can leave unattended.
The searches search over "galaxies" or clusters of users, so if you search for something and don't find it on one cluster you have to search again across a new cluster, too much work in my opinion.
In order to make it work you have to join their Bulletin Board and obtain proxy IPs, I am not sure where they are getting these proxie address, so I am a little leary of this as well, sounds kinda fishy if you ask me.
The search results are really crappy as well. I did a search for "spears" as an audio search, and came back with a grand total of 5 results and this was after searching across 6 different galaxies...pretty crappy results if you ask me, apparently the user base is just not there yet.
Now here are the REALLY crappy issues...
This program installs itself deep within your system. It has modified countless registry entries and added countless entries as well. It has loaded ALL kinds of new DLLs as well.
The thing that REALLY bugs me, is that I was monitoring my CPU and bandwidth and it just ate up all my resources. You literally can not run anything else while this thing is running. I started out with my CPU running at about 1-7% capacity and in about 15 minutes of running the program, it was utilizing almost 98%.
It also BURIED my bandwidth SOO much that my ATA Analog router (Voice Over IP Router) stopped working. I was only downloading about 4 simultaneous MP3s.
In a nutshell, not good resource management, actually doesn't seem to be ANY resource management. So, unless you are planning on dedicated a PC to run just this one application, this is NOT the program for you.
Now the REAL SHITTY part. I decided to uninstall this pice of crap. I uninstalled using the uninstall progam that came with the program. It ran throught the uninstall just fine, at least according to the uninstall program...but upon further inspection, it has left all kinds of registry changes and DLL files on my system. The DLL files that were left CANNOT be deleted. I have no resolution for this. When you try to delete them, it comes back with an error saying that the DLLs are currently in use. I ran task manager and scrolled through all my open processes, and programs to no resolution. I also checked my running "services" and nothing out of the ordinary there either.
I then ran a registry cleaner, which found over 50 registry entries that needed cleaning. I cleaned those off and rebooted then tried to delete the DLLs, still no luck.
For those of you who ran this program and have a solution to the uninstall problem please post it!!
I would also suggest scanning your registry for instances of "excalibur" and "intertrust", these 2 were present and were loaded by the program.
Also, read these guys' accounts....
Quote:
"DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM!
This program is a nightmare. Requires reboots/program restarts when installing and changing simple settings. Sets itself to automatically load when Windows starts, and automatically loads Netmeeting without really telling you what it's doing. User interface is awful and seems like a bunch of different programs pieced together, with a goofy space theme that makes it akward to understand what's happening and how to change it. When you try to install it tells you the program is already running and to exit, even though you are installing for the first time! The uninstall is also a pain and many times tells you that you cannot uninstall because an instance of the program is running (when it isn't). The uninstall also leaves loads of registry entries on your computer - BTW these registry entries, that give detailed information of the program, your settings, and the proxies you use - are not encrypted, and can be read by anyone. Kind of fishy for a program that is supposed to have such great security and identity protecting measures, eh? Once again, do not download this program! - Alonzo"
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Quote:
"This program is a troyan
BEWARE OF THIS!! PEOPLE AT EARTHSTATION CAN READ YOUR REGISTRY SETTINGS AND PERSONAL DOCUMENTS THROUGHT THIS PROGRAM. WHEN YOU INSTALL IT, SEVERAL HIDDEN DLL ARE COPIED TO YOUR WINDOW SYSTEM DIRECTORY AND YOU CAN'T REMOVE THEM EVEN IF YOU UNINSTALL THE WHOLE THINGY. I HATE TO HAVE PEOPLE MESSING WITH MY COMPUTER AND PERSONAL LIFE!! DON'T TRUST WHO TELL THIS PROGRAM IS SECURE, THOSE POSTS COME FOR EARTH STATION DEVELOPERS, NOT REGULAR USERS!! - Arabs_are_number1"
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These quote was taken from
Download.com's user opinions
Also take a look at this guy's account...
Quote:
Sat, 02 Aug 2003
Anatole says:
So I just tried installing ES5 on my Windows machine. The first thing
it did is attempt to connect to an IP in the Gaza Strip. The
administrator for that IP block is someone with an earthstationv.com
email address. Then my keylogger warning program popped up and
complained that the program had attempted to hook to my keyboard. I
killed it, and ran an uninstall. The uninstall failed because some of
its DLL's were still 'in use' despite no matching processes. I rebooted
and was able to do a successful uninstall manually. Afterwards, I
checked my registry and removed a fresh entry from "Intertrust," a
company that makes DRM software.
Overall, an entertaining experience.
The earthstation5 folks strike me as sleazy.
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This qoute was taken from
this site...
Load this program at your own risk....