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 FreeWire
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Visual Feature Guide
(note- all images have been shrunk to fit this
page- in full size the screens are much clearer)
1. Installation
2. Searching
3. Monitor
4. Connections
5. Library
6. Options and Statistics
1. Installation
Download FreeWire from our site. You
will be downloading an "active installer", meaning that
your initial download is a small file (120Kb) that dynamically
downloads and installs the files you specify to be installed.
Please make sure you remain connected to the Internet while you
run FreeWire's installer. Once you've downloaded the "active
install" simply follow the instructions onscreen and FreeWire
and the Java Runtime Environment needed to run it will be downloaded
and installed on the fly. Please note that the files are several
megabytes, and may take some time to download and install.
2. Searching
1. Search
Box
Type your
search terms in this box. You can run multiple searches at the
same time (represented by the multiple search tabs). You can stop
searches at any time by clicking "Stop".
2.
Search Filtering
Use the pulldown menu to refine your search. For example, if you
are searching for documents, and don't need any other files displayed
in your search results, choose "Documents" from the
pulldown and click Search. If you are searching for Audio or Video,
you can refine your search even further by clicking on "Audio..."
or "Video..." and entering search terms such as artist,
album, song title, etc. Click on the column headers (Quality,
Type, Speed, etc...) to sort results based on those parameters.
3. Search results
FreeWire rates search results based on your probability of successfully
downloading the files. A four star rating gives you the best chance
of completing your download. Notice that some search results have
blue arrows next to them. FreeWire groups similar search results
together, and can initiate "smart downloads" of these
files from the multiple hosts that have them. Click on a grouped
file and select "Download Any" to let FreeWire download
the file the fastest possible way, potentially from multiple hosts
at once to maximize speed (which is called a swarm download).
Alternately, you can click on "Download All" to download
all the files in the selected group.
4.
Downloads
FreeWire will display all current downloads below the search box.
Displayed will be the file's name, size, download status, whether
the host is available for chat (smiley face present), the download
progress and the download speed. If you highlight a file in the
download window you can do several things with the buttons along
the bottom:
a. Kill Download simply cancels the selected download
b. Force Resume attempts to resume a download that failed midway
through
c. Launch will launch a completed (or partially completed audio
or video file) download in your default player or program for
that file type. MP3 files can be played within FreeWire.
d. Chat will attempt to connect you to hosts that are available
for chat and bring up the chat dialog.
e. Clear Inactive simply removes all completed, failed, and cancelled
downloads from the list, leaving any active downloads.
5.
Change View / Grouping
By default FreeWire groups matching search results together for
smart downloading (see #3). To make FreeWire display matching
results as separate listings, uncheck the Grouping box. If you
are searching for music, you may want to select "Change View"
and choose "Audio". The Audio view will list the MP3
files according to Title, Artist, Album, Genre and bitrate of
the MP3. Notice that in Audio view information like download ratings
are not displayed.
6. Search Location,
Chat
The location bar shows the IP address of the host that has a particular
file. When multiple hosts have the same file, and grouping is
turned on, the location will be displayed as "Multiple X",
where X is the number of hosts that have the said file. Notice
next to search results that some listings have a yellow smiley
face under 'Chat'. Hosts with smiley faces are available for chat
by using the Chat button on the bottom bar while downloading from
them. IP addresses in red are private IP addresses, and may not
allow you to connect to them.
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3.
Monitor
1.
Incoming Search Monitor
If "Enabled", you can view search keywords that other
Gnutella users are searching you and other Gnutella users with.
You'll likely see quite a lot of searches fly by very quickly,
as Gnutella queries all available hosts for content when any one
user initiates a search. Bear in mind that millions of people
may be connected to the Gnutella network at any one time!
2.
Show last _ searches
Quite simply, if the Incoming Searches
monitor is Enabled, this allows you to set how many search terms
you want to see at a time in the monitor. You can double-click
on any of the terms in the monitor to initiate a new Search with
them.
3.
Uploads
Similar to the Downloads view in the "Search" tab, this
shows any current uploads (any files that you may be sending to
other Gnutella network users). You can choose to highlight and
"Kill Upload" (terminating the upload). Also, you can
clear the list of completed, cancelled, and non-functioning uploads
by clicking "Clear Inactive".
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4.
Connections
1.
Connections Tab
The Connections tab is
not shown by default. To view the connections tab click on "View"
menu and select Connections. Alternately you can choose to hide
or show the other tabs from the View menu.
2.
Host
The leftmost column shows the IP Addresses or the Hosts (or other
Gnutella users) that you are connected to, the ratio of incoming
to outgoing connection, the host's bandwidth, etc... FreeWire
will attempt (unless configured not to in Options) to connect
to known Gnutella hosts on startup, providing a quick link into
the Gnutella network.
3.
Specify Hosts, Number of Connections
You can manually enter a host that you want FreeWire to connect
to, or you can highlight a host from the connected list and choose
Remove to disconnect from them. Also, you can specify how many
hosts you want to connect to at any one time. FreeWire will attempt
to keep up at least as many connections as you specify here, based
on your connection speed.
4.
Protocol/Hosts
The number under the Hosts column shows how many connections a
given host has access to. Optimally this is a high number, ensuring
that you are connected to the largest possible network of users
and files. Also shown is the Gnutella protocol version of the
host you are connected to. Ultrapeers are users with high bandwidth
that can theoretically offer better connections to the Gnutella
network than standard or Leaf users.
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5.
Library
1.
Library
All the
files you download in FreeWire will be saved to your "Shared"
directory. You can specify other directories on your computer
to share files from, also. In this case, the "My Shared Folder"
from another program has been included in the Library list (see
#3).
2.
Shared Files
All the files in a Shared folder will be displayed here if you
click on that folder next to #1. Displayed is the filename, filesize,
type of file and path (see#3). Any MP3 audio files in this list
can be highlighted and added "To PlayList" in the box
below for playback. We remind users to respect copyright laws
when using FreeWire.
3.
File Path
Above #3 in the list of shared files is the path to each file
(meaning where on your harddrive the files are located). By default,
FreeWire will save downloaded files to your "Shared"
directory in the FreeWire Program Files directory. You can, however,
choose to share files from other directories on your computer.
In this example files in the list are from a folder outside of
FreeWire's standard directory. When you first run FreeWire, it
will ask if you want to scan your harddrive for media files--
if you choose yes, any other potential shared folders will be
linked to your FreeWire library. Click Refresh to update the list
of files in your Library.
4.
MP3 Player
Integrated into FreeWire is an MP3 player. You can choose MP3
files from your Library and add them to custom playlists. Also,
you can choose to Open new files, Save your playlist, or Remove
individual files from your playlist. The MP3 playback controls
are on the bottom-right, and include the option to continuously
play your playlist, or shuffle (play random tracks from it).
5.
Annotate
Highlighting a file in your playlist or Library, click Annotate
to add information to it such as artist, album, bitrate, etcetera.
This only applies to MP3s (ID3 tag info) and video files.
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6.
Options and Statistics
Both
the Options and the Statistics windows are available from the
Tools menu in FreeWire.
Options will allow you to configure just about everything
to do with FreeWire, including specifying your Shared Folders,
extensions to share, connection speed, maximum downloads, upload
bandwidth and slots per user, auto-connect hosts, chat, MP3 player
options, search options, adult/offensive content filters, firewall
settings, interface options and WAY more!
Statistics will show your current connections, number of
connected hosts, files available, searches, errors, download and
upload count, and more.
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