XoLoX
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Review Although its name suggests space aliens or trendy antidepressants, Xolox is actually an exceptionally straightforward file-sharing service based on the popular peer-to-peer Gnutella network. Like KaZaa or Morpheus, Xolox lets you search for and download data--anything from health and fitness advice to audio and video files--from other Gnutella users. Stripped down and utilitarian, Xolox skips amenities such as an integrated media player, but it also spares you piggyback marketing campaigns and pop-up ads. For search speed, we still prefer BearShare, but the no-charge Xolox offers no-frills, spyware-free file sharing, a rookie-friendly design, and an impressive download success rate. Trim download; smooth design Xolox weighs in at a slim 600K and requires no registration before you install. Even better, Xolox skips unwanted piggyback software and leaves nary an icon on your desktop, unlike KaZaa or Audiogalaxy, the latter of which bundles at least two ad-serving apps. Xolox is also exceptionally easy to operate. Its interface consists of five Explorer-style screens that take you to the Xolox Web site, a search field (where you enter search terms and choose from among Document, Audio, Video, Program, Image, Search Web, or Web Address), a transfer-progress screen, and a list of completed downloads. The fifth screen, tacked on a little oddly, links to the Internet movie site iFilm and its entertaining collection of cinematic shorts. Host with the most Though it displays banner ads throughout and relies upon third-party media players to preview and play files, Xolox is still a joy to use. It permits peer-to- peer chatting and automatically resumes its tasks when you log back on after a dropped connection. Plus, Xolox lets you download concurrently from multiple sources and even intelligently moves on to other hosts if it finds a problem or a delay with earlier sources. This theoretically increases download efficiency, and we did notice consistently faster download speeds than with LimeWire or BearShare. In our tests, Xolox successfully downloaded about 50 percent of our test files, although we experienced significantly higher or lower success rates depending on the number of hosts sharing a given file. Smart searching Xolox features a satisfactory but unspectacular search tool. Although it returned substantially more hits than LimeWire in our tests, it ran noticeably slower with fewer results than BearShare, although BearShare generally delivered more inactive downloads. Even the program's optional adult content filter behaves smartly, returning hits for bands such as The New Pornographers when we searched for porn but ignoring most undesirable material. Still, even with the filter on, Xolox returned more adult content than LimeWire. Just the basics Like most freebie file-sharing apps, Xolox does not offer telephone support. The site's discussion groups proved a good source of information, however, and its e-mail tech support answered our test queries within 24 hours. Though Xolox may prove too fundamental for some, it succeeds at its primary function with much less hassle than with competing applications. If you're new to file sharing or just want a no-nonsense sharing experience, put Xolox at the top of your list. - by Gord Goble note: In our original review, we stated that Xolox did not feature integrated chat or display song bit rates. Xolox offers both features. |
Available at: XoLoX.com
