14 DAY TRIAL // Downloading and sharing files is useful. File sharing software applications are very popular. You can find many things on the net. The Internet brings people together and makes the world smaller.
?What's Valknut?? - you wonder
Valknut is an open source file sharing program based on the Direct Connect protocol. It is written in C++ and uses the cross-platform Qt library for its GUI. It is licensed under the GNU GPL, so you can modify it if you want to.
You can lunch it just by typing ?Valknut? in the command-line or you can make a shortcut to it on the desktop. The very first time you run it you will be presented with an options screen before the program starts. You need to set the usual settings before continuing: your nickname, your search nick (the name Valknut will use when it is searching multiple hubs, such as all Public hubs or Bookmarked hubs), your Internet connection speed, the download folder and the shared folders.
You must be careful when choosing the connection mode. There are two options: Active and Passive. If you are directly reachable via the Internet, meaning that other computers running DC clients can connect directly to you, you should use Active mode. This mode is preferable because it lets you search and download from every user in a hub. If you are behind a firewall or your LAN is based on NAT (Network Address Translation), you should use Passive mode. This mode lets you connect only to Active users, and multi-hub search isn't possible. If you are not sure of your situation, start in active mode and if you can't get any search results or file lists, switch to passive.
Once you finished the initial configuration, it's time to connect to one or more hubs. Press Ctrl+U or go to the Action menu and click Hub List. You can type in the address of some hub you know or you can get a public hublist by clicking the swirly arrow icon. Because a hublist can be quite large, you can filter it. You can add or modify a filter so it displays only hubs with a minimum number of users or hubs that have a certain word in their description. The bigger the number of users the better because chances are that you will find what you want.
We assume now you're connected to at least one hub and you?re thinking about what you want to download. Once you figured that out you can search files by typing Ctrl+S or by clicking the "Action" menu, and choosing ?Hub Search?. In the space below the word "Search", type in whatever you want then click "Start". To download a file from the Results list, just double click it. If you get a message about multi-download, say yes. Now you've done your part and must wait for your downloads to finish.
If you leave Valknut running unattended and go to bed or go out with you friends, the Auto-search for new sources setting will help you get your downloads finished. Under certain conditions, Valknut will automatically search for new download locations for files in your queue. If it finds any, they will be added to the transfer list. However, to prevent this putting excessive load on hubs, the following criteria must be met before an auto-search will happen: no downloads are currently running, 20 minutes have passed since the last auto-search, it is a multi download, the files found must be of equal size and a hash exists for that file.
Valknut has a user friendly and intuitive interface. If English is not your native or preferred language, you can configure the program to display the text in some other language. There are a lot of languages you can choose from. It has translations in Bosnian, Swedish, Greek, Dutch, Italian and Romanian, among others. You will need to restart Valknut for these changes to take effect.
Valknut supports themes. If you get bored of its looks you can change the appearance of the buttons, dialogs and windows all at once by choosing a different theme. To see how a theme looks like, click the Test button. You can also change the fonts in which the text is shown.
Numeric values are used in Valknut for things like file sizes and transfer rates. When the Units option is set on Auto, these numbers will be shown in whatever unit is most appropriate. If you prefer to have all values in the same unit (Byte, KiB, MiB, GiB), choose that instead.
You can use Profiles to specify options on a per-hub basis. You can make Valknut connect automatically to certain hubs when it starts running. Profiles are managed in the Bookmarks tab in the Hub List window.
The Good
Valknut is easy to use and install. The time from installing the program to actively using it is short. You will certainly like the multi-chunk download feature which will reduce the amount of time necessary for getting your files.
The Bad
Valknut is a good program, I didn't find something wrong with it. You can use it with success for sharing your files and getting new ones.
The truth
If you want to share and download files fast and easy, use Valknut. I'm sure you will like it.
