Download WinMX (here)
WinMX is a freeware peer-to-peer file sharing program authored by Frontcode Technologies that runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems, created in 2001. Officially, the support of WinMX by Frontcode ended in 2005 when they received threats of legal action by the RIAA. While the official website and servers for WinMX have been removed, a community of developers have brought the service online independently with the use of third party patches or a simple edited host file.
When connecting to WinMX, you connect to the WinMX Peer Network (WPN) either as a primary or secondary user. A majority of the functions on the WPN are available to both users, but primary users tend to have better connections and have the ability to host chat rooms. Secondary users use little bandwidth, so their prolonged connection to the network is stable.
Sharing files in WinMX
WinMX, by default, will only share Audio and Video files, although, if properly configured, it can share almost every type of file. It is also considered a very safe network with a limited number of viruses. WinMX also has a file-size restriction. Files over 2GB will not be shared, and must be split into chunks smaller than 2GB in order to be shared. Although there is no limit to the number of files a user can share on the WPNP network, when a list of a specific user's files is requested (using the 'browse' function) only a limited amount will be shown. These limits are 5000 files for a Primary connection, and 3000 files for a Secondary connection. However, ALL the shared files will be visible to a general search via filename or hash. These limitations do not apply on OpenNap servers (see below).
Searching for files
You can search for almost any file in WinMX. When a user sends out a search, the search is spread throughout the network. If a file is found, the HASH number of the file along with the way to find it is sent through the network to the user who made the search. Searches can also be made with hash numbers instead of words and numbers.
Even before the WinMX network was originally shut down, there were increasing reports of fake files and corrupted data in the networks. The people hosting the files, called flooders, connect as secondary users. If certain trigger words are included by a user when searching for a file, that user gets many results which are not real. The resulting large bandwidth also often crashes the user and the "Primary" to which s/he is connected.
Connecting WinMX!
This is the procedure to configure your pc to connect with WinMx:
1) Download a new host file from this URL: http://www.p2pzone.net/download/goodies/hosts.zip
2) After downloading the "hosts" file (is a windows file included in the system) we can proceed.
3) Now paste the new file "hosts" in the Windows directory respective to its version:
For Windows 95/98/Me the directory is c:\windows\hosts
For Windows NT/2000/XP Pro the directory is c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
For Windows XP Home the directory is c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Now we can replace the "hosts" file.
4) For Win2k & XP users, sometimes may be necessary use the command "ipconfig /flushdns" from the command prompt.
5) Now, open WinMx and try to connect with primary connection!