Lphant was a
peer-to-peer file sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program tha ...
client for the
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
and
Mac OS
Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc.
In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...
operating systems, which supports the
eDonkey Network and the
BitTorrent protocol. It was 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 and the
kad network
The Kad network is a peer-to-peer (P2P) network which implements the Kademlia P2P overlay protocol. The majority of users on the Kad Network are also connected to servers on the eDonkey network, and Kad Network clients typically query known nodes ...
. 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 9, 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. Users of the original Lphant application can prevent the display of such messages by blocking the ad.adliveserver.com domain using a
hosts file
The computer file hosts is an operating system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. It is a plain text file. Originally a file named HOSTS.TXT was manually maintained and made available via file sharing by Stanford Research Institute for the ...
or a
firewall
Firewall may refer to:
* Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts
* Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...
.
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.
[ Although Download.com claims to offer the original 3.51 version, the provided link redirects to Discordia's domain which offers the non-original LphantV6.exe client]
See also
*
Comparison of eDonkey software
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available applications supporting the eDonkey network.
General
Features
Features (continued)
Versions
See also
*Comparison of file sharing applications ...
References
External links
*
*
* The origina
Lphant 3.51client, downloadable at Softonic.
* Th
sourcesfor the last opensource version of lphant (1.0.1).
{{EDonkey
Windows-only freeware
BitTorrent clients
Proprietary freeware for Linux
File sharing software for Linux
C Sharp software