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Main Window
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Overview
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BearShare uses a Windows style Property Sheet to allow you to easily navigate
between the logical sections of the program. Like all other Windows property sheets,
you can move forward between tabs by pressing CTRL+TAB, or by holding down the
SHIFT key while pressing CTRL+TAB to move backwards. This works in the main
view as well as the zoom view.
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Appearance
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Main View |
The main view is a resizable property sheet window. You can switch between
the different parts of the program by clicking on the tabs, or by pressing
CTRL+TAB or SHIFT+CTRL+TAB. The window may be resized from any edge. In
this mode, you may minimize, maximize, or restore the window.
Tip To bring up the about box, click on the system menu
(the small icon in the top left of the window) and choose About. The
version of BearShare is displayed in the dialog.
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Header Control |
The header control operates in each of the lists, and allows you to
resize the columns as well as set the type of sorting or remove sorting.
You can change the sort direction by clicking on the column. To remove
the sort, click again until the sort indicator disappears. Note that
if there are a large number of items in a changing list (like 20,000
search results with more coming in), sorting on a column may slow your
computer down.
You can resize columns by clicking with the left or right mouse
button while the cursor is in a divider. The cursor will change to
indicate you are in the resizing portion of the column header.
Clicking and dragging with the right mouse button has a different
behavior than clicking and dragging with the left mouse button.
Both methods can be used at the appropriate time to achieve perfect
one-drag column management.
While you are resizing a column, you can cancel the resize operation
by clicking the opposite button while you are resizing. Than can
be useful if you want to temporarily make a column larger to view
some information, and then put the columns back the way they were
During a column resize operation, you may move the divider all the
way to the left of the list view, or all the way to the right. The
other columns will grow, shrink, or move aside as necessary to
accomodate your desired positioning.
You can change the order of the columns by left clicking
and dragging the column to the desired location. Columns can
also be added and removed through the column menu. To access
the column menu, right click in the header control. Each of
the possible fields is displayed. Fields which are visible
are checked. Choosing an item causes the field to appear or
disappear. When you are making a hidden field visible, you
can control the location where it appears by right
clicking in the new spot.
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Zoom Mode |
You can get to Zoom View by double clicking in the gray area of the main
window, outside of the tab section. Zoom View shows you the main
list for the current page. You can switch between pages in Zoom
View by pressing CTRL+TAB or SHIFT+CONTROL+TAB.
To move the window in Zoom Mode, click and drag in the border area.
To restore the window, double click in the border area. In Zoom View,
the window can be made smaller than the minimum of the main view.
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Server View |
Server View shows only the indicators. The Server View window is always
on top, and does not appear in the taskbar or the program switching menu.
You can move the window in Server View by clicking and dragging anywhere
in the window. You can get to the Server View by double clicking the
status indicators. To leave Server View, double click the window.
Right clicking in Server View brings up the Taskbar Menu.
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Taskbar Mode |
BearShare automatically goes into system tray when you exit and there
are transfers in progress. While in the system tray, the taskbar tab
is removed, and does does not appear in the program switching menu.
When the transfers are completed, BearShare will exit from the
system tray.
You can restore the program window by double clicking the taskbar
icon, or by choosing Restore from the Taskbar Menu. To access
the Taskbar Menu, right click the taskbar icon. Choosing Exit
from the Taskbar Menu will forcibly shut down the program after
a confirmation dialog. This interrupts any uploads or downloads
in progress.
When BearShare goes to the system tray, active searches are
canceled and host connections are shut down. Incoming connections
are refused, and new upload requests receive a service unavailable
message. If BearShare is restored, connections will be re-established
if automatic connections are enabled in the Hosts Page.
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Status Indicators |
These indicators provide information about the status of different components
of the FreePeers Agent. The indicators can be used to determine the state of
your servent without switching between the pages in the window.
The indicators may also be used to diagnose problems with your connections,
transfers, or shared files.
This is what each indicator means, from left to right:
Connection |
The Connection indicator shows you the status of
your connection to the Gnutella network.
These are the possible states for the connection indicator:
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
You are not connected to the network.
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Green, Flashing |
You are connected to the network, but there
are no incoming messages. Your connection is
idle. This is normal if you are connected to
a Deflector proxy.
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Green, On |
You are connected to the network and messages
are coming in. If you have automatic connections
enabled, then the minimum number of connections
you specified has been reached.
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Yellow, Flashing |
You are connected to the network, but the minimum
number of connections you specified has not been
reached.
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Yellow, On |
One or more hosts have reached a bandwidth barrier.
These hosts will be dropped if the situation does
not improve within a certain time period.
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Red, On |
A host was dropped due to a network error or
bandwidth barrier timeout.
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Blue, Flashing |
You have one or more incoming, outgoing, or automatic
connections opened to a Gnutella service provider.
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Special Gnutella service providers, like the
Clip2 DSS Host List
service, have continuously running computers systematically
connecting to hosts in the Gnutella network in an effort to
determine the topography of connections, measure the effective
size of the network, and provide the IP addresses of well
positioned hosts.
When BearShare is instructed to keep connections automatically,
Service connections will be opened to these Gnutella service
providers to initialize or update your supply of host addresses.
If you allow incoming connections, and you have been connected
to the Gnutella network for a sufficient length of time, you
may briefly observe an incoming connection from a Gnutella
service provider. All service connections are drawn in blue.
BearShare will allow incoming service connections even if
you are at the limit of hosts you specify in the Hosts page,
as long as you are accepting incoming connections. Search
messages, search results, and ping messages are not routed
to incoming service connections, to reduce traffic.
If any type of service connection is indicated in the host list,
the connection indicator will flash a bright blue as long as
the service connection is active.
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Search |
This is the Search indicator, and it shows the status of your
searches. The possible states are:
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
You have no searches active.
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Green, Flashing |
You have one or more active searches,
and at least one search result has been
returned.
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Green, On |
New search results for one or more of your
active search results are coming in.
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Yellow, Flashing |
You have one or more active searches,
and no search results have come in yet.
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Download |
The Download indicator displays the current state of your
downloads, if any. These are the displays:
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
You have no downloads active.
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Green, Flashing |
One or more downloads have been started,
but the incoming bandwidth for downloads is
zero.
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Green, On |
One or more downloads are receiving
incoming data.
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Yellow, Flashing |
One or more downloads are queued, waiting,
or connected, but no transfer has been initiated.
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Red, On |
A failure has occurred on one or more downloads
that are connecting, requesting, or in progress.
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Upload |
The Upload indicator shows you what is happening with
your shared files. One of the following will be displayed:
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
There are no uploads active.
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Green, Flashing |
One or more uploads have been started,
but the FreePeers Agent is waiting for the
remote hosts to receive the current blocks
of file data before sending new blocks.
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Green, On |
The FreePeers agent is sending new blocks
of file data to one or more remote hosts.
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Yellow, Flashing |
One or more upload connections are active,
but no uploads have been started.
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Red, On |
A failure has occurred on one or more uploads
that are being accepted, connecting, responding,
or in progress.
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Monitor |
This indicator shows you what is happening with search
results on your shared files, or the shared files of clients
you are proxying. The Monitor indicator state can be one
of the following:
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
You have no files to share, or you are not
connected to the network.
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Green, Flashing |
You are connected to the network and you
are sharing files, or you are proxying shared
files for other clients, but none of the
incoming searches match the files.
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Green, On |
Search results are being returned on one or more
of your shared files, or the shared files of the
clients you are proxying.
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Yellow, On |
You shared directories are being scanned, or
new files are being collected from clients you
are proxying, or one of your proxied clients has
disconnected and the FreePeers Agent is removing
the cached file descriptors.
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Red, On |
You are connected to the network, and one
or more eligible files are in your shared
directory, or you are proxying one or more
shared files for a client, but your upload
settings or network settings are preventing
you from sharing the files.
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Listener |
The Listener indicator shows you the status of your listening
socket. The listening socket (TCP/IP parlance) is used to
accept incoming connections, and is assigned the port number
you configured in the Network Setup.
Gray |
The server is stopped.
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Green, Off |
There is no listener active.
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Green, On |
Your computer is listening for incoming connections.
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Yellow, Flashing |
A security intrusion attempt against your computer
was detected.
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Red, Flashing |
There was a problem with the listener. The
error is displayed in the hosts error list.
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Listening to incoming connections is required for direct uploads,
receiving a download by push, and accepting incoming host connections
as peers or proxied clients.
A flashing yellow light indicates that the FreePeers agent has
detected an incoming port scan, port probe, port strobe, or
protocol vulnerability probe on your computer. This is quite
common when you advertise your IP address using a peer to
peer program like BearShare. Make sure you secure open ports
and upgrade to the latest service packs of your operating system
to prevent any vulnerabilities from being exploited.
Note: Currently, this intrusion detection feature
is available only while running under Windows NT or Windows 2000
Advanced Server, and while BearShare is being run on a domain account
with Administrator privileges.
If you are using an Internet connection, FreePeers recommends that
you use a personal firewall product like
ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs
to protect your computer from attacks.
If you would like to learn more about reducing your exposure
to network attacks while running Windows, visit the
Gibson Research Corporation.
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