P2P Trackerless BitTorrent-like Application: eXeem, The New Kazaa?

Released as a public beta this past weekend, eXeem is a new Peer-To-Peer (P2P) file sharing program that uses a similar download and upload component as BitTorrent. In less than 3 days, nearly 200,000 people have downloaded eXeem. The company behind eXeem is Swarm Systems, the same company that operated the heavily attacked BitTorrent file source SuprNova that was closed down in December 2004.

However, eXeem's supposedly adware-free brand-new alternative, eXeem Lite, deservedly got considerable buzz as well.

Many people, including me, have a problem with Cydoor for the bad reputation it has built for itself. According to some, Cydoor is one of the most offensive and insidious ad-serving operations on the web.

This is why the eXeem Lite version is interesting.

eXeem Lite was created by an independent developer and supposedly does not include ads. But even this version may indeed contain some spyware/adware according to recent user comments. I strongly invite you to check out the discussion thread on Slashdot about this.

The development of eXeem Lite is very similar to what has happened to Kazaa, which has seen many a clone spring up (Kazaa Lite), thus leveraging the high demand of people who didn't want to have any spyware or adware software installed on their PCs.

Notwithstanding the issues of spyware and adware, eXeem and its lighter brethrens deserve credit for the following innovations:

• 
  eXeem removes the need for a tracker and it features its own Peer-To-Peer network. The goal behind this is to extend a file's lifetime beyond what was usually accomplished using the BitTorrent approach, where trackers 'died' because their feeders withdrew their files from the network.
• eXeem also does not share your whole files folder, but only the files that you wish to be published to the network.
• eXeem is capable of handling .torrent files.
• eXeem features easy publication of files to the network as well as a rating and comments system. It is currently still in its beta testing phase, which means that the network might not be completely stable yet.


Click to enlarge




Issues and possible problems

Downloads can be both very fast as well as quite slow. There are a few specific factors affecting donwload performance and they come down to these:

1. 
   many times the person you are downloading from may not have a very fast connection, so you will only be able to download as fast as he can upload. This will make it seem slow on your end. The best way to get around this issue is to download only files that have a large number of seeds and peers, because the more people connected to a file the faster you will download.
2. Another reason you could be getting slow downloads is because you have a router and your ports are not forwarded. Forwarding ports for different brand routers is done differently, so read your routers manual if you are having this problem.

When eXeem says "awaiting peers" in the transfer window it means that there are no other users who are downloading or uploading the file that you want to download. This sometimes happens if there is only one "seeder" uploading that file, and if she is unavailable you may have to wait for her to come back online.

eXeem has been tested with a good number of firewalls including:


• Norton Internet Security 2004 & 2005


• Zone Alarm Pro


• McAfee Firewall


• Tiny Firewall


• Kerio Personal Firewall


• Trend Micro Internet Security


• Outpost Firewall


• Windows XP Pro SP2 Firewall


• Panda Platinum 2004



Please note that eXeem might not connect to the network if you are behind NAT and your ports are not forwarded correctly. The problem might also be that you have a firewall installed and you did not put it on your allow list.

eXeem works on Windows XP SP2, 98, ME, 2000. If it does not want to run on 98/ME or 2000, try installing Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime files from Service Pack 5. There are currently no versions of eXeem for Linux or Mac, though, according to the eXeem site FAQ a Linux version will be developed once the Windows one is officially released.

eXeem is free, but ad-supported using Cydoor and the LookSmart toolbar for Internet Explorer (optional install). According to the eXeem privacy statement, the Cydoor ad-delivery system is closely integrated with eXeem and cannot be uninstalled.

More info: http://www.exeem.com/

Download eXeem: http://www.exeem.com/download.htm

FAQ: http://www.exeem.com/faq.htm

Reviews and Discussion:
FileForum BetaNews
SlashDot
thep2pweblog (weblogsinc)