Installing KCeasy is pretty straight forward but for the sake of thoroughness it will be included.
KCeasy can be downloaded off the main site under the download section.
KCeasy is part of Source Forge and so it can be viewed at the Source Forge location.
Once you are on the download page just click the location nearest to you and save the file to you hard disk.
After downloading run the file that you downloaded off the Source Forge mirror and it will start installing.
First you will be presented with this screen:
Just click next to continue.
Then you will see this screen:
Here you should select what you would like to install. It is recommended that you install:
"giFT and plugins" you need this to connect to the networks.
"Integrated Media Player (VLC)" You need this to preview files before they finnish downloading and to play files without and external player.
The rest is up to you but make sure about the last option "Run KCeasy on startup" this will start KCeasy when you computer boots (Windows 95/98Me) or when you login (Windows XP/2000/NT). This my not be a good idea if you are on dial up or if you computer takes a long time to boot up.
The next screen:
The will tell the installer were to put all the files. Just leave this at the default unless you have some compelling reason not to.
Click Install to start installing the program. When the program is installed it will have a checkbox asking if you wish to run KCeasy.
Go ahead and click Finish.
KCeasy will now run through a simple wizard to help configure your settings. Don't worry if your unsure you can always come back and change your settings.
Just click next and you will see this:
This screen will ask you what type of connection you have This is used to determine what the maximum amount of bandwidth KCeasy can use.
If this setting is too low your downloads will be too slow, if its too high KCeasy could possibly use all you Internet bandwidth making web browsing slow.
If you know just click it and continue. If you want to set you own settings go ahead.
If you find that browsing the web with KCeasy running is slow you should lower the setting (I will explain how to here).
This screen asks you were all you stuff is (MP3's, movies, etc).
If your coming from kazaa add your My Shared Folder (usually under C:\Program Files\Kazaa\My Shared Folder).
It is important to add all your media (not your whole hard drive!), so that some really cool features of KCeasy will work right.
So go ahead and add your stuff even if you don't plan on sharing your files.
This screen lets you select what networks to connect to. This is what makes giFT (the underlying engine for KCeasy) really powerful.
Each network is a different protocols used by different P2P programs. giFT can connect to as many as you want but as of this writing there are only these three.
There is really no reason to change anything here but in the future there might so its here just in case.
Click next to continue.
There you go the wizard is complete! Just click finnish to start KCeasy!
Depending on how big you share folder is you computer may run slow the first time you run KCeasy. In order for KCeasy to work properly it needs to make a
catalog of all the files in your library (this is called hashing). It is best to just wait and let it finnish the hashing. If you close KCeasy before it finishes hashing it will have to start all over again!
Thankfully the developers have made it possible to change all the important settings in the setup. When KCeasy Launches you will see this screen:
Don't worry about the stuff on the screen right now I'll explain later right now just click the KCeasy menu in the top left corner. It's circled in red.
In this menu you will see:
OK so I'll explain the stuff in order:
"Connect" -- Connects you to giFT, which is the engine, basically it connects you from the networks.
"Disconnect" -- Disconnects you to giFT, which is the engine, basically it disconnects you from the networks.
"Config..." -- Lets you configure some stuff we will look at it later.
"Configuration Wizard..." -- The wizard that was explained above.
"Exit" -- Quits the program.
Expert Control looks like this:
This is used to update the ban list (people that could come after you for sharing files).
And deleting you Shares list, this is here incase the library messes up and you need KCeasy to re-hash you stuff.
So Click the "Config.." in the menu and we will get to configuring!
Here's was it looks like:
t
Transfer
"Automatically clear downloads" -- When you finish downloading stuff it will say "Complete", checking the box will automatically clear them from the transfer list.
"Automatically clear uploads" -- The same as the one above except this is for people downloading off of you.
Searching
"Filter results with only one source by default" -- This will hide all the files that only one user has, its helpful because the more people who have file the faster it downloads. This is also bad if you are trying to download hard to get files because there may be only one user with it and you wont be able to see it! But don't worry you can always change this on a per search basis using the green plus button (explained in 2.3 Search).
"Don't use system icons for search results" -- When you search for things there will be a little icon show what type it is. The icon is assigned by the program that plays it. For example winamp and is icons. If you look at the files in windows and see they icon that they use then that's the icon that will show in KCeasy.
"Allow multiselect for search results" -- In windows if you click one file hold shift then click on another file it will select all the files in between or if you hold control and click a bunch of files it will select all the ones you click on. Checking this will let you go the same thing it the search as you can in windows.
"Allow filtering of search results" -- This will let you filter you search results, based on file name or bitrate etc. Basically its cool and you should turn it on.
Miscellaneous
"Run KCeasy on startup" -- This will start KCeasy when you computer boots (windows 95/98Me) or when you login (Windows XP/2000/NT). This my not be a good idea if you are on dial up or if you computer takes a long time to boot up. But could be helpful if you use the program a lot
"Minimize to tray" -- This will make KCeasy go to the system tray (next to the clock) when you hit the minimize button. Normally it goes to the taskbar (next to the start button).
"Automatically check for updates" -- This will make KCeasy check for a new version but I'm not sure if it works yet.
"Show network status page" -- This will add a new tab that will show network information and log messages, this is usually not needed.
"Show player controls above stats bar" -- This will add player controls (like play,pause,stop,etc) near the bottom of the screen, you can see it from any section in KCeasy and it is usually something you want.
"Always use external default media player" -- This will make KCeasy always use the windows default player (like Windows media player or Winamp). You can do this by right clicking on a file and telling it to play externally but checking this box will make it do that all the time.
The next section is the giFT tab:
This stuff i pretty advanced and if you don't already know what it means that don't touch it.
(I will explain this section some time latter)
OK and on to the Traffic tab:
OK I'll break this one down to.
I should note that like 90% of the time you internet provider will give you more download the upload bandwidth. Like a lot more like 3 to1 ratio.
Uploads
"Enable sharing" -- this will disable file sharing so that people cannot download files of you. You should check the laws for you country to see what's legal. In the USA it is illegal to download and upload, but in Canada (were I am :) ) its legal to download but illegal to share out (I still share anyway because it helps the community). So if your worried about getting sued check the laws in your area.
"Maximum number of uploads" -- This sets the maximum number of people that can download at one time (if you have file sharing turned on). This number is initially by what type of connection that you entered when you install.
"Maximum upload bandwidth in Kbytes/sec" -- This is how much of your upload bandwidth may be used by people getting files off you. Notice that Upload and Download are different (most of the time). If you find your web browsing slow this could be the reason, if your connection starts to run really slow try turning this down. Other wise leave this on default.
Downloads
"Maximum number of sources per download" -- When you try to download a file when more than one person has it, KCeasy will try to download from all people (called sources) at the same time, this boots your download speed big time! But if you have to many sources your bandwidth is used up talking to them instead of downloading. You should probably leave this on default.
"Maximum download bandwidth in Kbyte/sec" --This is the same as the Maximum number of uploads but for downloads.
"Completed Folder" -- This is were all you completed.
"Incoming Folder" -- This is were all the file that haven't finished download like the .dat files in kazaa). Basically there's no reason to change this.