ApexDC++ 1.6.3 maintenance update available

[Crise 26]

It has been quite a while again.

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of 1.6.3 a maintenance update continuing in the same vein as the two before it. This time the focus is on updating third party dependencies and build tools with the latest security updates and patches. Notably the binaries distributed for the Windows XP operating system had a configuration issue for the previous version and this has now been addressed for our friends still in the past.

A full list of changes are available on here. As usual we strongly recommend upgrading to 1.6.3 as soon as possible, regardless of which version of Windows you happen to be running. For the people who need the XP compatible binaries, we would like to give this remainder about changes introduced in release packaging with the previous version.

Download: ApexDC++ 1.6.3

Update: 1.6.3 has an issue with compressed transfers, that affects connectivity, turning off the setting "Enable safe and compressed transfers" should avoid this issue on 1.6.3. Alternatively you can hold off upgrading until a fix is available.

[Tomica 0]

Crise, is there any news about ApexDC++ port for Ubuntu/Linux?

[nefus 0]

Every download is popping up notifications from the windows 10 action center.  

To turn that off:  Control Panel > System > Notifications & Actions.  Then turn off ApexDC++ in the application list.

Hopefully this'll help someone.

Edited January 9, 2017 by nefus

[Crise 26]

3 hours ago, Tomica said:

Crise, is there any news about ApexDC++ port for Ubuntu/Linux?

As much as I would wish to say otherwise, that project has been stalled for quite some time now, and minor releases like this one are basically everything I have time for at the moment. On windows, I can put out a small release efficiently, whereas for other platforms my ability to even test changes and make builds available is limited.

1 hour ago, nefus said:

Every download is popping up notifications from the windows 10 action center.  

To turn that off:  Control Panel > System > Notifications & Actions.  Then turn off ApexDC++ in the application list.

Hopefully this'll help someone.

This works, however, the way people should actually address this issue is by changing the "Balloon Popups" options in ApexDC settings to their preferences instead. Yes, the title of the page is technically not correct anymore but once up on a time it was.

[Tomica 0]

Crise thanks for the reply. And thank you very much for all your hard work! I can only imagine how hard it must be to put up with such a huge project for so long.

Have you ever considered open-sourcing the code? I'm pretty sure that would significantly speed things up, bring all kinds of ports, and most definitely give you a bit more free time.

[Crise 26]

52 minutes ago, Tomica said:

Have you ever considered open-sourcing the code? I'm pretty sure that would significantly speed things up, bring all kinds of ports, and most definitely give you a bit more free time.

The code is technically open source even now, as any DC++ derivative should be, just that it is not being actively distributed just as the builds aren't (anyone who has had access to the builds in the past has been, and still is, able to request the source code for any build they have access to, as per GPL's requirement of equivalent access).

It will probably eventually end up out there in the open, however, it is literally years behind at this point. Not that it means all that much, considering the cadence of updates on the windows side has also dropped.

I know that opening it up might have some benefits at the same time I'd rather not put something out there, generally available, that is in a state not representative of what ApexDC is on windows (generally when it comes to wxWidgets version of ApexDC, it is like taking one step forward on other platforms but taking two steps back when your point of comparison is the windows version). It was never in a state where I could take it up as my daily driver on windows, which is probably one big contributor as to why I wasn't very motivated to work on its problems.

I am not sure if I have previously said this here, but in retrospect if I had to make a cross-platform DC client I would probably take the ApexDC core gut the UI out of it and expand the current very barebones web server that it has to actually be modern and fully usable set of API's to which I could then build web based UI for in relatively short time. I believe at least one other client has done this (AirDC) and, even though hindsight is 20/20, it is really the way we should have approached this aspect as well. If only because building web based user interfaces has come a long way in the past few years and it is comparatively extremely fast to building something more native (and the technologies involved are generally very well supported).

To give the above a bit of context, my use of DC today is entirely for discussion, it has basically taken the same role as IRC would for most people, the P2P aspect of it is honestly completely secondary to me at this point (also, the performance the protocols can support just can't compete with other ways of distributing files these days).

 

[theinvoker 0]

do you still develope this software?? i thought this p2p was dead. i have nothing against Apex itself but dc++ is dead. People doesn't use it anymore

[Crise 26]

1 hour ago, theinvoker said:

do you still develope this software?? i thought this p2p was dead. i have nothing against Apex itself but dc++ is dead. People doesn't use it anymore

I do use it, although only for chatting, and that is enough for me.

If I am going to patch in security updates for my personal use I might as well put the builds out there available for everyone. I don't exactly disagree with you entirely on the state of DC, however, there are still plenty of people who do use it. Like I said in an earlier post, it can not compete as a p2p application, but it does offer something that most other p2p applications do not (and it does so, in my opinion, better than f.ex. IRC, personal servers are easier to set up and if you do need to send files it is way more user friendly).

Mainstream p2p, if there is or ever was such a thing, I definitely concur with you DC is far past its time in the spotlight. But at the end of the day, that is understandable, the software was developed when terabyte was a large amount of data and most normal people didn't even know what a petabyte was. DC is not dead though, it just so happens it no longer has large scale public appeal (at least in most of Europe and USA, not sure what the situation is out there in Asia etc.).

PS: DC++ is a piece of software, DC is the network (technically even that isn't correct DC being originally a shorthand for NMDC, but it now also covers ADC).

[mappy 1]

Hi,

I have a report from two users that they are unable to share files on 1.6.3.The other client might get an error message "error during decompression".

The user's report:

    <__1> so it seems to be that people start to connect to you but instantly get cut off
    <__1> you can get opther people's filelists but when they go to get yours it fails
    <__1> i rolled back to 1.6.2 with no other changes and everything works again so i'm failry confident that its 1.6.3 causing the issue
    <__2> this is what it does [[embedded image]]
    <__1> so its a problem with the encryption on the filelist?
    <__2> then it just cuts itself off

 

Embedded image:

[Crise 26]

Can you tell me which clients the users people are seeing this from are uaing? (exact versions).

Seems to be a backwards compatibility issue with zlib most likely.

[justaguest 0]

Same issue on 2 users with latest client, I'm using RSX and Zion for years now and never seen this problem anywere, so don't yell it's my client giving trouble, it's yours.

Perhaps this helps you finding the error.. User Godslink - Too large filelist - 24,56 Mb for the specified share of 5,39 Tb, connection ending with SSL error 5..

After using the browse userslist funcion I get a near empty list and trying to open it using winrar I get this: !   C:\rsxpp_1.21_64bit\Settings\FileLists\Godslink.YOJ66JON4XL2RYDORQ7DMITR34OQ4YIPJKQXXZI.xml.bz2: Unexpected end of archive.

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to post users list inhere :S
 

Edited January 13, 2017 by justaguest

[Crise 26]

I am not yelling at all.

Zion, last updated in 2007, and RSX++, last updated in 2011, to be frank I am surprised this is the first issue you have encountered with newer clients.

I will do what I can, however, if I can reproduce this issue with the latest version of DC++ then as far as I am concerned it is something that has to be taken care of upstream.

No need to be so hostile all I did was as a simple diagnostic question, because for one your post was unclear on which clients were encountering an issue.

[justaguest 0]

Perhaps my client didn't need to be updated.. they recognized the NMDC exploit even before Apex developers ever heard about it..but thats off-topic.

My post is in the proper section, I mentioned the "latest client".. why should it be unclear?

[Crise 26]

3 hours ago, justaguest said:

Perhaps my client didn't need to be updated.. they recognized the NMDC exploit even before Apex developers ever heard about it.

Not being affected by an exploit because a client is old isn't the same thing as not needing updates. It is just dumb luck most of the time. But you are right, that is off-topic.Also, being aware and doing something about an issue are two different things..

Why was it unclear... if another client can't decompress a filelist from the latest version of ApexDC yet that version can decompress its own filelists and another randomly picked client can decompress filelists from it then obviously I have to know which clients the issue manifests with.

Also, there is always the possibility it is an issue specific to a single user, or multiple users with something in common when it comes to their shared files, (it could be as simple as the filelist that was generated being corrupted while being written to disk by chance), I am looking for information to reproduce the problem which your original post did not give me.

Update: I just finished doing connectivity tests, and ApexDC 1.6.3 generated filelists download and open just fine using RSX++ and Zion++. So, it is definitely not a general issue with 1.6.3 (all involved clients in active mode using default settings).

[Timbre4 0]

Hello,

Apologies - I use an XP box for audio hub chores. I'd been happily downloading for many weeks on 1.6.0 (restarting to skirt the update reminders because when I'd download 1.6.3 it would state "this version is not compatible with this PC" despite statement of XP SP3 compatibility) This is before I understood the Slim install.

Several days ago I suddenly started getting 'Connection Closed' messages after a few seconds of downloaded. Over and over again. The user with the files I was seeking told me he just updated to 1.6.3. So I began to study the situation in earnest. I did manage to shoehorn 1.6.1 onto the XP box. The Slim install wasn't making sense to me yet. Once it did, I got 7-Zip and ran the ApexDC++_1.6.3_slim_XP.7z file.

I could start the 1.6.3. version but it didn't inherit anything and I figured out that was because this "install" put everything in temp area under User instead of program files. On a whim, I copied the 1.61. EXE to a safe place and then replaced the 1.6.1 EXE in Program Files with the 1.6.3 EXE and bang! Everything worked again. I went to a user and successfully got a list -YAY- and then downloaded a single FLAC file successfully -YAY- again. I was thrilled.... temporarily.

Sure enough, after a few seconds of download I get the 'Connecton Closed' status over and over again. So I find myself where I was before I updated. Please advise if I am missing something or there is a cure for this! BTW - I can still access the user I got the list and single FLAC from (don't know what version he has)

Thanks, Timbre4

[Timbre4 0]

Update:

I am successfully getting file lists and downloading from 3 hub users. Still have Connection Closed messages with the ones who have the bulk of files I put in queue in recent weeks. In summary, it appears I am functional yet experiencing an incompatibility factor introduced in the past week?

EDIT: Going through member list and connecting with 8 so far; problems with same 3 and this might be WIN 10 machines? Verifying OS

EDIT 2: Can download from user with WIN 10 so that's ruled out. Comparing user settings with others now (grasping at straws)...

EDIT 3: At least 2 other users report anomalies as to who they can't download from; we can't figure out the common factor as yet.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Timbre4
new info

[Surrhead 0]

I have similar problems as Timbre4 with Connection Closed when I try to download a file from an other user.  It disconnects from the other user after a second.

I have used ApexDc+ for many years and this started to happen after the last update to 1.6.3. I run Win10.

Very strange.

 

[justaguest 0]

another one, is it the updating or the client itself making problems.. users will be kicked and or banned for it, my advise: Don't update!

[Surrhead 0]

It's the new client, 1.6.3, that has started to make this problem.  The install was for me no problem as I run Win10. 

I have tried to find the 1.6.2, but can't find it.  I agree with you. At the moment one shouldn't update

[Crise 26]

1.6.2 is on sourceforge, the page is linked from the download page.

This is an issue with zlib upgrade. It affects all dcpp based clients with the new zlib as far as I know.

 

[Surrhead 0]

Ok thanks.

Downloaded 1.6.2 and now it works great again with uploads and downloads.

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Surrhead

[Timbre4 0]

Hello,

I was having the Connection Closed issue with 1.6.1 but now I see that was probably because the other parties had moved up to 1.6.3. I'll try it.

EDIT: 1.6.2 has restored connectivity with those who have also rolled back.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Timbre4

[Timbre4 0]

1.6.2 has restored connectivity with some of those who have also rolled back. However some 'Connection Closed now says 'connection timeout'? I am XP 32 bit and the one I really want to connect to is WIN 10 64 bit, should that even matter? Thanks

Edited January 14, 2017 by Timbre4

[Crise 26]

I have updated the first post with instructions for a workaround for the time being. New version will be made available as soon as there is a verified fix for the problem.

Relevant link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/dcplusplus/+bug/1656050

[justaguest 0]

Plz remove this piece of crap from your site, users are still upgrading to this ****.