New program versions, and development/forum updates. http://forums.apexdc.net Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:01:43 +0000 5 http://www.apexdc.net/favicon.ico http://forums.apexdc.net http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4315-a-small-151-update-and-flexhub/ FlexHub to bring you a new encrypted ADCS hub hosted by TAN. Flexhub is an upcoming hubsoft that aims to please both NMDC and ADC users by allowing them to connect to the same hub. Benefits of FlexHub include easy migration from NMDC to ADC, encrypted communication and transfers, friendly hub controls and active developers. Any hub owners who are tired of using the same old and outdated hub software should give this a try.

We will be working closely with the FlexHub Dev team in order to bring new features requiring hubsoft support in 2.0. If you haven't already tried FlexHub, you can download it here (compatible with Windows and Linux).

All existing 1.5.0 users will be prompted to auto update soon. For those who are impatient, you can head over to our download page.]]> Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:01:43 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4315-a-small-151-update-and-flexhub/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4296-150-released-now-updated-to-dc-0782/ The ApexDC++ Management team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of 1.5.0. The primary focus in this release was to update our core library to include the latest changes from the mainline DC++ 0.782 client. We have also improved upon the original auto updating procedure so you will no longer need to visit our website to download future versions (Crise has kindly created a blog post regarding this change).

With our merge to DC++ you will now find it easier to automatically setup your connection in connection settings. ApexDC++ should automatically forward relevant ports so you don't need to spend that time doing so. There are lots more fixes in this version and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

Remember, when future versions are released the client will prompt you to auto update from now on.

Download: ApexDC++ 1.5.0]]> Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:45:31 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4296-150-released-now-updated-to-dc-0782/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4295-150-securing-your-updates/ Welcome to what is hopefully the first of many blog style articles here at ApexDC.net. This time I hope to give a bit more depth to the new version that is literally just around the corner, especially since it has been a while.

Taking one of the new changes under the magnifying glass. This involves a bit of history and hopefully gives an entirely new meaning to one of the pretty meaningless looking lines that from time to time appear in our list of changes despite Lee's best efforts at writing it out so they would not appear.

Those who have followed the ApexDC project for a longer time period, might remember that with 1.1.0 we introduced automatic update system in ApexDC. However, if you remember that you must also remember how relatively quickly afterwards we stopped deploying updates in this manner. At that time making the choice to move away from the (then) newly implemented system seemed like clear regression to me, but looking back on it now I know the correct choices were made back then.

The reasons for not automatically update our users anymore and revert back to the infinitely more annoying (for you) method of handling updates can be covered by three key points (not in any particular order):

• Automated updates gave the users one less reason to visit the web page, reducing overall activity on site and in the community.
  
• Automatically replacing users binaries has several security considerations that were not really properly handled back then. For example consider the domain being taken over and a malicious individual could feed unknown code to users that then get executed on the users system as a part of the update process.
  
• The implementation back then wasn't very flexible and was also somewhat prone to unnecessary failures.

All of this is history, from a few years back, but it seems good ideas die hard - this one in particular has come up on multiple occasions since then and, like those of you who have been paying attention to our recent public testing know, we recently decided to revisit the idea of automated updates.

Needless to say I wouldn't be writing this if the above concerns were still valid, but why am I do it then exactly. It all comes down to one thing really. Every time we release a new version, we have to lay out the changes in that version and more often than not the list of changes has some entries that bear little to no significance to an actual user, so we decided to elaborate a bit on one such change in the 1.5.0 release. The change involving the update check got chosen especially because it involves not an entirely new feature but most likely a forgotten one.

So yes, automated updates will be a prominent sight in the future of ApexDC as we keep thriving for better user experience. Sometimes it may take a while and be long time coming, like in this case, but it will be coming now and in the future. ApexDC is an important project for everyone involved and when we make decisions concerning it a great deal of discussion and thought always goes into them. However, when the decisions get made initially we don't always go into great detail about the reasons behind them, but usually those reasons are in fact good.

As we come to a close here, I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who participated in our public beta test and stuck through it with us. Based on the feedback from this time, I think we can safely say that it is more than likely that we will do something like this in the future as well. In the mean time, while we do not know how often we will be making posts like this in the future if you have topics that you'd like us to cover feel free to leave them in the comments below, even if you just want us to voice our opinions about something, I am sure as long as the topic inspires us to write about it we will find the time to put something down. I intentionally avoided many technical details this time around but if that is what you want to read about it can be arranged.

Comment, discuss, criticise the word is free, see you next time.]]> Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:21:01 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4295-150-securing-your-updates/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4271-we-invite-you-to-test-apexdc-150-beta/ release topic.

The Beta version is currently available to forum members only. If you don't have an account please register (it's free!) and we'll see you in the members only area.

Download]]> Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:17:21 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4271-we-invite-you-to-test-apexdc-150-beta/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4263-we-have-upgraded-to-ipb-320/ brand new skin and further improvements to the Tracker system. We may introduce a custom skin in the near future, but our concentration is on the next 1.5 version right now.

We are currently working on merging to the recent DC++ revisions since we have fallen behind a little. Once we're at that stage, you should see some public testing before we release (to avoid any last minute hiccups).]]> Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:48:46 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4263-we-have-upgraded-to-ipb-320/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4230-server-move-is-complete/ Nginx alongside a few other tools to increase page loading performance and provide better stability under our peak times.

Please let us know if you have any feedback or issues while browsing the site or forums.]]> Sat, 14 May 2011 19:19:26 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4230-server-move-is-complete/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4219-released-8-million-downloads-143-is-here/ critical security fixes in this version when using hide share or Browse Filelist features. As such, we feel this is important enough to prompt all existing users to upgrade. If you've been experiencing issues getting filelists or downloading folders, we recommend you upgrade to 1.4.3.

Thanks for all the reports.

Download: ApexDC++ 1.4.3]]> Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:02:11 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4219-released-8-million-downloads-143-is-here/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4215-server-dns-has-changed/
We are building a new server that has more horsepower and is closer to the majority of our userbase. Instead of using standardised server technology (apache for one), we are investing time in the latest technology to power our server. This should provide you with faster loading times when browsing our front page and forums. We will provide more details closer to the server move.

Let us know if you can see us in our forums. ]]> Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:10:29 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4215-server-dns-has-changed/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4183-released-142-country-flags-are-back/ Mek has worked hard on updating them for us in his spare time.



We have updated the LuaPlugin to use LuaJIT (provides considerable performance increase) and our setup now downloads the latest GeoIP database before installing. The randomised chunk distribution is now optional and can be activated in the Settings - Downloads/Queue area below. We suggest you enable this if you want to spread a new file across multiple users faster (like uTorrent).



Find out what else has changed in this version.

Download: ApexDC++ 1.4.2]]> Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:56:15 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4183-released-142-country-flags-are-back/ http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4172-released-welcome-to-a-stable-141/ 1.4.0 release that was announced earlier last week, we have pushed out a new update to fix these remaining issues. Thanks to all who reported these issues so we could resolve them quickly (especially FlopP, Mek and Old Indain).

Please check out what new features 1.4 brings by reading our previous announcement.

Download: ApexDC++ 1.4.1]]> Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:57:01 +0000 http://forums.apexdc.net/topic/4172-released-welcome-to-a-stable-141/