Porting DC++ for GNU/Linux

Particularly in colleges where media sharing is very popular among students (like in ours) DC++ can be used to inter-connect different hostels and enable fast file-sharing. DC++ is a free and open-source, peer-to-peer file-sharing client that can be used to connect to the Direct Connect network. With the gaining popularity of this file sharing application more and more users are showing there activity in DC++ rather than the traditional Windows Network file sharing. It has private messaging features or one can globally chat in a Hub Room, it also indexes files, so you just search for a file with specified characteristics plus many other handy features more you try to explore more you know but alas its not native to Linux platform. So we have LinuxDC++ (package name linuxdcpp), whose interface is rewritten in GTK+ toolkit but the core code is that of DC++ and it works/behave exactly in the same manner.

Getting started :

Install it on Ubuntu :

# apt-get install linuxdcpp

Or similar for Fedora(yum) or Mandriva(urpmi)

Some very initial steps you should follow to trigger your DC++ engine :

1. Open LinuxDC++
2. Navigate to File > Preferences > Personal. There fill the form ( 'Nick' field is compulsory )
3. Navigate to File > Preferences > Sharing. There add the folders you want to share.
NOTE: In DC++ each hub has its minimum sharing limit below which a user cannot join it, so create your share accordingly
4. Navigate to File > Quick Connect and enter the hub's IP address.

One minus point we cannot preview a file, its like download and use. But it hardly matters when you are in a local hub and have ample disk space. Happy Sharing!!