All,
I want to thank you all with your help and patience through the beta
testing. Your comments and questions have helped me to give the software
great functionality and to track down many bugs. When we started the beta
test three weeks ago, the system had been rigorously tested, and didn't
have many bugs. We assumed that the beta test would be a week long process
just to nail down the few problems.
It obviously turned out that there were many enhancements that we all
realized were necessary before Furthur could become the ultimate tool for
the jam-music community that we had envisioned. A great deal of
functionality has been added over the past weeks. This functionality has
not been stress tested and validated over time, because it's new. With
your continued help and patience, it will become the tool that we all
realize it could be.
Furthur WILL work as promised. As I'm sure many of you realize, bugs are
inevitable, and your bringing them to my attention as you've been doing
will ensure that they will be resolved quickly. The plan is to get all the
functionality that is necessary into the program, then stress test it and
fine tune it until all the bugs are gone. I just wanted to put these
comments in writing so the folks who aren't familiar with beta testing
won't get discouraged.
Because of the changes that are being added, we'll need everyone to
upgrade to the most recent version every couple of days. I know its a
pain, but it's necessary to keep the software moving forward. Otherwise,
it's very difficult to tell if problems are being caused by old versions or
actual current bugs. Remember that you only need the partial install to
upgrade (less than 1 meg).
PLEASE UPGRADE TO 1.2.3 - This version is not compatible with previous
versions, but it has some great enhancements that we really needed. Old
partial downloads will not be able to carry over to the new version.
New Features:
* Fully revamped resume functionality -
The new version should never fail to resume a partially downloaded file set.
Downloads no longer take up twice the disk space they should - you
shouldn't have the "out of disk space" problem anymore.
* Network connection issue fixed -
Some people had the program start up, and never connect to the Furthur
network. This shouldn't happen again.
Questions & Answers
I have read every message on the mailing list. I've been receiving
too
many messages lately to reply to them all, but I have added everyone's
suggestions and bug reports to the list. If I ever mistakenly skip over a
message that you send me that requires a response, let me know.
1) Why does Furthur tell me that I'm out of disk space when I have 420 gigs
free?
Because the partial data saving and resume functionality had a number of
bugs in the past versions. As I mentioned above, you shouldn't have this
problem anymore.
2) How come sometimes I try to resume a partial download, and Furthur
starts back at the beginning?
Same answer as the previous question. This should not happen again.
3) Will a partial download automatically resume, or do I have to manually
retry?
If you change the combo box on the partials tab to "every 15 minutes" then
Furthur will retry your downloads automatically at 15 minute intervals (as
long as you're not over the max that you set on the same tab). You won't
see it retrying unless it actually connects. You can also manually retry
with the retry button.
4) My internal IP shows up on the Advanced tab, is this OK?
Yes. Although Furthur will show your local IP, remote computers will be
sent your external IP.
5) When are the temp files removed?
You can set the frequency in the Upload/Download Settings window. If you
set it to 3 days, temp files will be deleted when they are older than 3
days. You can also manually delete them from the partials window. (this
should work now.)
6) Does Furthur corrupt files?
Furthur will NEVER corrupt or even change your original shared
files. While most completed downloads have matched up, we have noticed
some situations where a file was not received correctly. I have fixed a
number of bugs that leads me to believe that these problems are fixed. If
you ever complete a download, and the file does not exactly match up with
the MD5, let me know. Reliable downloading is the single most important
aspect of the Furthur software, and I would never think of stopping short
of a perfect duplicate every time.
Thanks everyone!!!! We really are getting there. Once the major changes
are completed (hopefully they are now) you'll notice Furthur solidify. Let
me know if you have any questions or comments.
- Jamie
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