Lphant is a peer-to-peer file sharing

Peer-to-peer file sharing

P2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...

 client for the Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 and Mac OS

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

 operating systems, which supports the eDonkey Network

EDonkey network

The eDonkey network is a decentralized, mostly server-based, peer-to-peer file sharing network best suited to share big files among users, and to provide long term availability of files...

 and the BitTorrent protocol. It is available in 19 languages. The name and logo of the original Lphant application has been replicated in a program called "Lphant 6.0" (see Domain Name Acquisition).

Features

Lphant is a multi-network client, capable of searching for files by connecting to ed2k servers or through the emule source exchange

EMule

eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network...

 and the kad network

KAD

KAD or Kad may refer to:* Korean adoptee* Kad Network - a file sharing network* Kademlia - a peer to peer overlay system* KDE aided design – 2D CAD program for KDE, based on QCad...

. Files can be downloaded simultaneously using the ed2k and BitTorrent protocols. Lphant supports various experimental ed2k features such as Protocol obfuscation, endgame althorithm and webcache, some of which are only found in eMule mods. However, some emule modders consider Lphant a leeching application and have therefore created algorithms which emulate their mods to Lphant when connecting to an Lphant client.

Domain Name Acquisition

On March 9th, 2009 Discordia Ltd, a Cyprus-based company, acquired the home page and the advertisement server of the original application, respectively lphant.com and adliveserver.com domains.

Instead of advertisements, current versions of the original application may display a message suggesting to users they should upgrade Lphant by installing an executable package named LphantV6.exe. Installing this package will result in removal of the original application and loss of eDonkey and BitTorrent connectivity.

A similar vulnerability was discovered on the Shareaza

Shareaza

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the gnutella, Gnutella2 , eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links...

 P2P

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

 client but due to Shareaza's open source license and frequent updates, it was quickly fixed. Users of the original Lphant application can prevent the display of such messages by blocking the ad.adliveserver.com domain using a hosts file

Hosts file

The hosts file is a computer file used in an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain-text file and is conventionally named hosts.-Purpose:...

 or a firewall

Firewall (computing)

A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....

.

The LphantV6.exe package can also be downloaded at lphant.com, the former web site of the original application. The web site has been redesigned using the same elephant-like logo of the original application. The similarity of names and graphics may have caused some download services to falsely advertise the eDonkey and BitTorrent connectivity of the original client while providing the non-original program for download.

External links

• The Lphant project at Sourceforge.net
  SourceForge.net
  SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available...
  
  
• The original Lphant 3.51 client, downloadable at Softonic.