dcgui-qt Manual
Andrew Greig
Copyright © 2003, 2004 Andrew Greig
You can redistribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
For the purpose of applying the GPL to this document, I consider "source code" to refer to the XML source.
- Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Getting dcgui-qt
- 3. Compiling the source code
- 4. Running dcgui-qt
- 5. Options
- 6. Hub List
- 7. Transfer List
- 8. Hub Search
- 9. Hub Windows
- 10. Spy
- 11. Users
- 12. Menu Options
- 13. Plugins
- 14. dcgui-qt and Networking
- 15. FAQs
- A. Keyboard Shortcuts
- B. Chat commands
- C. Configuration files
- D. Connection speeds and transfer rates
- E. Glossary
- List of Tables
- D-1. Examples of common connection types and speeds
Chapter 1. Introduction
About this manual
This is not (yet) official documentation for dcgui-qt. It is merely my attempt to write down what I've learned about this program, so others may benefit from it. This document is nowhere near complete, and is very much a work-in-progress. Comments, suggestions and corrections are welcomed, please address email to <agreig at flashmail dot com>.
It is intended that this manual will be kept up-to-date with the latest releases of dcgui-qt. It is currently based on version 0.2.20.
About dcgui-qt
dcgui-qt is a program the uses the Direct Connect protocol. It is compatible with other DC clients, such as the original DC from Neomodus, and DC++.
dcgui-qt is written by Mathias Küster <mathen at ketelhot dot de> and is licensed under the GNU GPL. It is written in C++ and uses the cross-platform QT library for its GUI. dcgui-qt compiles and runs on Linux, FreeBSD, MacOSX and Windows.
Finding out more
Homepage: http://dcgui.berlios.de/
Board/Forum: http://dcgui.berlios.de/forum/index.php
Mailing list: https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/dcgui-common
Contributors
The following people have helped make this manual possible, by providing information, text or corrections:
Mathias Küster wrote the program, and is the source of most facts about it.
Firechild wrote the Bookmarks and Profiles sections.
Jason Starr provided several corrections and explanations of program options.
Stefan Huszics corrected my mis-capitalisation of kB, and provided bandwidth figures for some types of internet links.
Chapter 2. Getting dcgui-qt
Precompiled Binaries
The dcgui-qt download page is at http://dcgui.berlios.de/download.php. This is the best place to look for pre-packaged versions of dcgui-qt for various operating systems.
Contributed binary packages are announced on the distribution forum http://dcgui.berlios.de/forum/viewforum.php?f=5
Source Code
Released versions are available at http://developer.berlios.de/project/filelist.php?group_id=370 or http://download.berlios.de/dcgui/.
There are two parts you need, dclib and dcgui. The 'dc' tarballs contain both.
Important: You must compile and install dclib first, otherwise dcgui will fail to compile.
If you really want to be on the bleeding edge you can get the latest CVS version with the following steps:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.dcgui.berlios.de:/cvsroot/dcgui login (just press enter when prompted for a password.)
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.dcgui.berlios.de:/cvsroot/dcgui co dcgui
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.dcgui.berlios.de:/cvsroot/dcgui co dclib
Chapter 3. Compiling the source code
Feel free to skip this chapter if you have a precompiled version of dcgui-qt. However, if you are interested in helping with development or tracking down bugs, read on.
Compiling on Linux
Development libraries needed
libqt3
pthread
libxml
libbz2 - not strictly required, but without it you won't be able to create or view BZip2-compressed sharelists.
libssl - OpenSSL libraries if you wish to use SSL for transfers.
Debian users may want to do apt-get install libqt3-mt-dev libxml2-dev libbz2-dev libssl-dev.
Mandrake users would want to install libxml2-devel, libqt3 and libqt3-devel.
Compiling dclib
make -f Makefile.dist
./configure
make
make install (you will probably want to run this command as root)
Compiling dcgui
make -f Makefile.dist
./configure --with-qt-dir=/usr/lib/qt3 --with-libdc=/usr/local (modify the qt-dir value if your qt libraries are in a different place)
make
make install (you will probably want to run this command as root)
If you get the following error:
checking for Qt... configure: error: Qt (>= Qt 3.0) (headers and libraries) not found. Please check your installation!you need to check you have the necessary QT libraries installed. If you are certain you do, this command may work instead:
./configure --with-qt-includes=/usr/include/qt3 --with-libdc=/usr/local. If you don't have directories such as these you probably haven't installed the development libraries and headers.
Once dcgui-qt has been successfully compiled and installed you can then run the program by typing /usr/local/bin/dcgui-qt
Compiling on Mac OS X
This section is from a post by Mathias.
Prerequisites
You need to install Fink http://fink.sourceforge.net/ to get some required Unix tools. Packages needed:
g++
qt3.x.x + devel package
libxml2 + devel package
libbz2 + devel package (optional)
openssl + devel package (optional)
Compile dclib
make -f Makefile.dist
./configure --prefix=/tmp/dcguibuild --disable-shared
make
make install
Compile dcgui
make -f Makefile.dist
./configure --with-libdc=/tmp/dcguibuild --enable-static-link
-- or --
./configure --with-libdc=/tmp/dcguibuild --enable-static-link --with-extra-libs=/sw/lib/ --with-extra-includes=/sw/include/ --with-qt-includes=/sw/include/qt --disable-shared
make
make install
Compiling on Windows
QT is needed in order to run dcgui-qt on any platform, including Windows. The current Win32 snapshots include a trial version of QT, so they are all you need to run dcgui-qt on windows.
If you are compiling your own version you will need to install QT separately. The following instructions below may be of help.
How to install Qt on Windows (by Ender)
Register for evaluation on trolltech and download the Qt3 MSVC installer.
Since the Qt installer needs nmake.exe, create it (e.g. copy one of the command-line utilities that ships with Windows [ping.exe] to nmake.exe).
Qt installer also checks for some includes, I installed LCC to get them. Set the INCLUDE environment variable to LCC\includes folder (the easiest way is to open a command [MS-DOS] prompt and type set include=c:\lcc\include [replace c:\lcc\include with the actual folder] and then run qt-win-eval-msvc-3.1.1a.exe from that prompt).
During installation, unselect the boxes Build extensions, Build examples and Build tutorials.
Near the end of install, the installer will try to build Qt examples and stall there. Press Cancel and it will close.
The file qt-mteval311.dll is found in the bin subfolder of your Qt install folder (typically c:\Qt\3.1.1Evaluation\bin\). Copy it to the same folder as dcgui-qt.
Making a Debug build
If dcgui-qt crashes unexpectedly, then you can help the developers work out why by running a debug build. The differences from a normal build are:
Add --enable-debug=full to the ./configure line for dclib.
Add --enable-debug=full --enable-link-static to the ./configure line for dcgui.
Don't run "make install" in the dcgui directory, instead run the program from the compilation directory, e.g. cd dcgui; ./dcgui-qt
Submitting a bug report
You need to supply the following information:
Distribution
QT version
dcgui-qt/dclib version
If it is a self compiled source or rpm (rpm distribution)
Bug description
Chapter 4. Running dcgui-qt
Command-line options
Usually you can start dcgui-qt without any command-line options and it will work fine. These options are mainly for testing and debugging use.
- --disable-splash
Startup splash screen is not shown.
- --disable-theme
Theme support is turned off. Could be useful if buggy themes are making dcgui-qt crash.
- --check-theme
Displays how many themes/styles are available and exits.
- -c <directory>
Lets you specify the path where dcgui-qt should find its configuration files. Useful if you want to have multiple configurations, e.g. for testing.
- --disable-backtrace
This option is only useful with debug versions of dcgui-qt. It will cause dcgui-qt to write a core file if it crashes, which can be used as part of a bug report.
- -v
Enables verbose output, which shows all paths added on sharelist creation.
- -vv
Enables extra verbose output, which shows all files and paths added on sharelist creation.
- --trayicon
Environment Variables
- http_proxy
If set, the HTTP proxy server to use for downloading public hub lists. Needs to be in the form http://<server>[:port]
If you are using Linux, a quick way to run dcgui-qt with a proxy is to type the following into a terminal:
export http_proxy=http://192.168.0.1:8080 dcgui-qt
Help! It won't run!
Mismatched QT version
A common problem asked about on the dcgui-qt board is an error on startup that looks like this:
Checking qt version ...
Compiled for '3.0.5' using '3.1.2'
Checking qt privates ...
dcgui: relocation error: dcgui: undefined symbol: _ZN19QSharedDoubleBufferC1EbbP7QPixmap
The second line gives a hint as to what is wrong - the version of QT that you have doesn't match the version that you have on your system. There are a few ways of correcting this:
If you have installed a precompiled dcgui-qt .rpm or .deb, you need a different package. Try to find one that was compiled for the version of QT you have.
Alternatively you could install a different version of the QT runtime libraries to match what dcgui-qt is expecting.
If you can't find a precompiled version that works on your system, try getting a source package (.src.rpm or deb-src) and compiling that.
If you have compiled dcgui-qt from source, make sure your development QT libraries are the same version as your runtime libraries. It is possible to have multiple versions installed at once, so make sure the right one in being used.
Segmentation fault
If you get something like this:
Checking qt version ...
Compiled for '3.0.5' using '3.0.5'
Checking qt privates ...
private test ok !
PARITY : 64 64
Signal (11) received, stackdump follows; eax='00000000', ebx='00000000', ecx='00000000', edx='00000000', eip='00000000'
--- retaddr=0x0, ebp=0x0
it could be a bug, or it could be your configuration files are corrupt. Try renaming your ~/.dc folder temporarily, then run dcgui-qt again. If it works fine then it was a problem with the configuration files. However if it continues to crash, check the dcgui-qt board for others are having similar problems with that version. You may want to compile a debug build. This will provide more information on the crash, which can help the developers find the cause.Chapter 5. Options
Identify
- Nick
The name you will be identified by in DC.
- Search Nick
This is the name dcgui-qt will use when it is searching multiple hubs, such as all Public hubs or Bookmarked hubs. The names of users in a hub must be unique, and since dcgui-qt may search a hub you are already connected to, using a different nick here will avoid a name conflict.
Your email address, if you want others to know what it is. Can be blank.
- Anti-spam
If you have provided your email address in the option above, this setting modifies the way it is displayed. Instead of your address taking the form yourname@yourisp.com, it will appear as yourname at yourisp dot com. This is intended to make it difficult for spammers to 'harvest' your address with automated tools. Usually doesn't hurt to leave this enabled.
- Photo
Allows you to specify an image file as a photo of yourself.
- Description
Space for you to put a free-form comment. This is often used to tell others information about your share (e.g. lots of Anime) or your connection (e.g. 256kbit/s upstream). Make sure you replace the default description with something useful to your fellow users.
- Add Description Tag
When enabled a 'tag' containing system information will be added to your description. It is a good idea to turn this on, as it lets others see some basic info on your configuration, saving them from have to ask you for it. Many hubs require that tags be displayed.
The tag will be in the format <DCGUI V:version,M:mode,H:hubs,S:slots,L:limit> where:
version is the version of dcgui-qt you are running.
mode is A if you are in active mode, or P if you are in passive mode.
hubs is the number of hubs you are currently connected to.
slots is the number of public slots you have set.
limit is the per-transfer upload rate limit, in kB/s. This will only appear if an upload rate limit has been set.
- Away Prefix
This string will be put in front of your description and tag when you are in away mode.
- Speed
Lets you tell others what sort of internet connection you have, so they can estimate what sort of transfer speed they can get from you. Be honest, its easy to tell if someone is overstating their bandwidth, and is a kickable offense in many hubs.
- Away Message
If you are in away mode and someone tries to send you a Private Message, dcgui-qt will automatically reply with this text. You could put a friendly message telling people that you are away and will be back shortly.
Transfer
Folder
- Download Folder
Files that are in the process of being download are placed in this folder. Its a good idea to have a specific directory for this purpose, so you don't clutter up other locations. It is also recommended that you NOT share this directory, as people don't want your incomplete files.
- Move Finished Files to this Folder
If you set this to a directory instead of leaving it blank, dcgui-qt will move completely downloaded files from the Download folder to here. This is useful feature, as it saves you the task of identifying finished files yourself. You could share this directory if you wanted to quickly propogate you downloads to others.
- Share Folders
This is the list of folders that you are sharing to the world. You can share as many folders as you like with the Add button, or unshare a folder by selecting it and pressing Remove. By default shared folders are listed using their actual name. If you want to make things neater you can change the alias of a folder, by selecting the folder and clicking the edit button.
Once you have set up your shares, make sure you press the Rebuild button. This generates a list of all your shared files for others to browse. Clicking on the Browse button will show you what this file list looks like. The Info button tells you the size of your share, and how big the file list is. The file list is stored in two compressed formats, HE3 and Bzip2. All clients support HE3, but many modern clients are able to use Bzip2 to produce a smaller file.
To be a good DC citizen, keep your share tidy and organised as much as you can. Arrange files into subfolders so they are easier for others to find. Give files meaningful names so they are easy to identify. For example, if you have an English-subtitled first episode of the Anime "Now and Then, Here and There", a good filename would be: Anime/Now and Then, Here and There (eng subbed)/Now and Then, Here and There - 01.avi. A bad filename would be: Stuff/nowandthen1.avi
The more you share the better DC is for everyone, so share as much as you can. However, make sure what you are sharing are things people will actually want. Don't share system files or incomplete downloads. Don't share your home directory or any directory containing personal information. Certain hubs have their own specific rules about what are 'useless' files, so make sure you read the rules and follow them. Many hubs have automated scripts that will kick you if they find files that are against their rules.
- Check and recreate sharelist on startup
It is good practice to rebuild your sharelist every time you change what files you are sharing. This option will help you out if you keep forgetting to refresh your share. It will do an automatic rebuild on startup if it detects there has been a change. Note that if you have been renaming files the rebuild might not be triggered, so you should do a manual rebuild, either by clicking the button above this option, or typing /refresh in the main chat window. Also note that if you have a big share you may find this causes slow startup times.
- Recreate every hour
dcgui-qt can automatically recreate your sharelist at a set interval. Select the number of hours to elapse between each refresh, or 0 to disable this feature.
Settings
- Save queue in minutes
The transfer queue is dcgui-qt's record of what files you are trying to download, and from where. This is constantly being updated while the program runs, but usually it is only written to disk when you exit the program. If you often run dcgui-qt for long periods and are concerned about losing the state of your downloads, set this to a number greater than 0. This will indicate how often dcgui-qt should save its transfer list to disk. Note you can also manually save the queue by choosing "Save Queue" after right-clicking in the Wait list.
- Max Upload Slots
Upload slots, often referred to as just 'slots', are how you control the number of people connected to you at one time. The more slots you have, the more people can download files from you (you are 'uploading' the files to them). However, each connected person gets a corresponding fraction of your bandwidth, so the more slots you have open, the slower each individual's download will proceed. It is therefore important to balance the number of slots with the speed of your internet link.
This option sets the number of 'public' slots, that are available for anyone to use to download from you. In addition, you can grant individual users that are in addition to the public slots. So, for example, you could have four public slots, and grant three of your friends a slot, meaning up to seven people could download from you at once.
There are also several other 'special' slots that are controlled by dcgui-qt. There are:
Slots for admins to download your share list. Hub admins are the people who run the hubs your connect to. Most admins want to be able to check your share list to make sure you are following the rules of their hub. They can't download your other files this way, they can only get your share list. There are always three (3) of these slots.
Slots for others to get your share list. This lets others find what you are sharing even if all your normal slots are full. This is a helpful feature for other users, unfortunately not all DC clients currently provide this. There are three (3) of these slots.
Slots for files less that 16kb in size. Very small files don't take long to download, so slots are made available to make them easy to get. There are three (3) of these slots.
- Dynamic Upload Rate
The max upload rate setting (below) puts a cap on how fast each upload can go. However, not all users may be able to upload from you at that rate, meaning some of your bandwidth is not being used. This feature lets those who are fast downloaders use the 'spare' left over from slow downloaders, while still keeping the overall upload rate within the limits set.
An example: if you had 5 slots, limited to 10 kB/s each, and dynamic upload enabled. If no-one else was downloading from you, a single user could transfer at 50 kB/s. Without dynamic upload, they would be limited to 10 kB/s, leaving the other 40 kB/s unused.
- Max upload rate
This sets a limit (in kilobytes per second) on how fast each slot will be allowed to upload from you. You may want to do this to stop fast uploaders from taking more than a fair share of bandwidth, or to restrict your upstream rate generally. What you set this to will be shown in your description tag, and enabling it is frowned upon in many hubs.
- Max download rate
Although it is right next to the upload rate, this setting works quite differently. A value entered here will prevent dcgui-qt from starting more downloads if your overall download rate is already at or above this speed.
- Max uploads to user
If this value is increased from its default of 1, users are permitted to download more than one file from you at a time. This also means they will be taking up extra slots. The default is recommended.
- Resend Timeout
After dcgui-qt fails to connect to someone (e.g. if all their slots were full) it will wait this many seconds before it tries to connect again. Best not set this too low, or dcgui-qt will be constantly trying to reconnect, 'hammering' the remote users. This is unfriendly and wastes computer and network resources.
- Response Timeout
If dcgui-qt is trying to connect to a remote user, but doesn't get a response for this many seconds, it will give up and close the connection. This value needs to be high enough to allow slow or busy clients time to respond to you.
- User quitting hub
It is good manners, and often a hub rule, that you stay in a hub while you are downloading from others in the hub. These settings help you obey the rules by automatically terminating transfers when a hub is left.
- Auto-search for new sources
If you often leave dcgui-qt running unattended, this setting will help you get your downloads finished. Under certain conditions, dcgui-qt will automatically search for new download locations for files in your queue. If it finds any, they will be added to the transfer list. However, to prevent this putting excessive load on hubs, the following criteria must be met before an auto-search will happen:
20 minutes have passed since the last auto-search
no downloads are currently running
you have a file with priority 0
a hash exists for that file
it is a multi download
any files found must be of equal size
only new sources, i.e. with a different nick, will be added
Connection
Mode
Active or Passive Mode
Active mode should be used when other DC clients can connect directly to you from the internet. If you are not directly contactable, e.g. because of firewalls or NATs, you will need to use Passive mode instead. If you're not sure, start off in active mode, and if you can't seem to get any search results or file lists, switch to passive.
Active mode is preferable because it lets you search and download from every user in a hub. Passive mode limits you to only Active users, and multi-hub search isn't possible. If you have control over your firewall, see the firewall section for information on how you can set up active mode.
Active Mode Settings
- Wrong IP
If you are behind a NAT and have forwarded the appropriate ports, enable this setting and enter the public IP address of your router in the space provided. The test button will confirm the program receives packets sent to that IP.
If you have a dynamically assigned public IP, you may want to register a hostname with a dynamic DNS provider, then put this hostname here instead. This way you won't have to update this setting each time your ISP gives you a different public IP.
- Interface IP
If the computer running dcgui-qt has a publicly accessible IP address, you'll want this option. Select the network interface that has the public IP by clicking on the GET button and choosing from the list. As an example, if you connect to the internet via a modem, and you also have a local ethernet network, then the interface you want would likely be ppp0.
- TCP Listen Port
This specifies the port number dcgui-qt will listen on for TCP connections (e.g. for file transfers etc.). It defaults to 9176, and you can usually leave it at that. You need to make sure that incoming connections to this port can get through your firewall.
- UDP Listen Port
Search results will be sent directly to you on this UDP port. It defaults to 9176. Make sure your firewall allows through UDP packets destined to this port.
Passive Mode Settings
- Send warn message to remote user on active mode request.
If you are in passive mode, and a remote user who is also in passive mode tries to download a file from you, the transfer won't work. Usually the attempt will fail silently, and many users don't realise why they can't get files from you. This option, if enabled, will send an automated private message to the remote user, telling them that you are in passive mode.
Settings
- Reconnect counter
If a hub disconnects you, dcgui-qt will try to automatically reconnect. This can be useful if a hub briefly goes down (e.g. its owner reboots their computer) as dcgui-qt will reconnect and continue. This counter sets how many times it will try before it gives up. You can set it to 0 to turn it off, so that dcgui-qt will only reconnect when told to manually. Don't set it too high, else if you are banned from a hub (it happens) dcgui-qt will waste lots of time trying to reconnect over and over.
- Reconnect timeout
How long dcgui-qt will wait between attempts to reconnect to a hub. Don't set it too low or you will use up all your connection attempts before giving transient problems a chance to get sorted out.
- Allow Force Move
Many hubs will redirect you to another hub in some situations (e.g. if they are full). This is known as a force move. If you disable this option, a redirect will be treated as a failure to connect, so dcgui-qt will try to connect to the hub again.
- Ignore Private Address Space connections
Certain IP address are only intended for use on private networks, but not on the internet. Enabling this option will prevent people with private addresses (e.g. the people on your LAN) from connecting to you.
GUI
General
- Language File
If English isn't your preferred language, you can have the text in dcgui-qt translated. Use this option to choose the appropriate language file to use. You will need to restart dcgui-qt for this to take effect.
- Theme
You can change the appearance of the buttons, dialogs and windows in dcgui-qt all at once by choosing a different theme. Click the test button to see what a theme looks like.
- Units
Numeric values are used heavily in dcgui-qt, from file sizes to transfer rates. When this setting is on Auto, they will be shown in whatever unit is most appropriate. If you prefer to have all values in the same unit, choose that instead.
- Application Font
Lets you choose the font style and size that will be used.
- Data Folder
Where dcgui-qt should find other files it needs, such as emoticon images and language translation files.
- Show Status Messages
Status messages are short lines of information dcgui-qt prints in chat windows, such as <dcgui-qt> Connected when you connect to a hub, and in response to chat commands. Disabling this option will stop these messages from appearing.
- Query on Exit
When activated, dcgui-qt will ask you to confirm you really want to quit when you try to close the program. Helps to stop you exiting unintentionally and stuffing up all your transfers.
- Query on File Delete
When enbaled, this option will make dcgui-qt prompt you for confirmation whenever you delete a file from your queue.
Transfer
The transfer view can show up to eight pieces of information for each file being transferred. You will probably want display only some of this data, so you can see the state of your transfers without getting information overload.
- Chunk Percent
dcgui-qt doesn't try and download a whole file in one piece, instead it downloads 'chunks' of about 1MB at a time. Enabling this option will display a percentage that indicates how much of the current chunk is complete. On fast connections this value tends to change rapidly, as chunks are completed and new ones started.
- File Percent
What percentage of the file has been downloaded.
- Chunk Size
Displays the position, in bytes, of the start of the chunk, the current position in the chunk, and the end of the chunk.
- File Size
Shows the number of bytes downloaded against the size of the whole file.
- Download Rate Single
How fast this individual transfer is progressing.
- Remaining Time Single
How long before this individual transfer will be completed at the current rate.
- Download Rate Multi
If you are using multi-downloads, the above 'single' options won't show realistic figures for the whole file. This option displays the overall download rate of all running sources for a file.
- Remaining Time Multi
Similarly, this shows the amount of time remaining to download the whole file at the combined multi-download rate.
Chat
- Open Private Chat Window
- Use tab for every chat window
- Enable emoticons in chat
When this option is enabled, certain combinations of characters will be replaced by emoticon images. For example :( will be replaced with a small picture of a sad face.
- Show send button
After typing in a message you can send it by pressing enter, or if this option is enabled there will be a button you can click to send the message.
- Forward private to public chat
When enabled, private chat text will also appear in main chat. No-one else can see it, it just saves you having to switch chat windows. It may make conversations hard to follow. Make sure you switch back to the private window before replying.
- Show joins and parts
When this option is on, notification messages will appear in main chat when users enter or leave the hub. Useful on quiet hubs, however can result in a constant flood of messages on large/busy hubs.
- Ignore messages to offline users
If you try and send a message to someone who has gone offline, and this option is enabled, dcgui-qt will refuse to send the message and print a warning.
- Ignore messages from offline users
Sometimes you receive messages from users who aren't in the user list, e.g. hub security scripts or bots. Turning on this option will stop these messages being displayed.
- Max paragraphs
- Hide popups of more than x lines
- Send message with
The default key to send a chat message is the Enter key. You can start a new line in your chat without sending the message by pressing Ctrl+Enter. If you prefer different behaviour, this option will let you specify what key combination should be used to send a message.
- Browser
When you click on a URL that is displayed in a chat window, dcgui-qt will attempt to open it in a web browser. You can specify the browser to use here. If the program is in your path you can just give its name e.g. mozilla or you can browse for the full path e.g. /usr/bin/mozilla
- Color
The text in the chat windows can be given different colours, based on the source of the message. You could make your messages stand out from other chat text, or use light coloured text so it is legible against a dark background. You can set the colour of a type of text by double-clicking on its name and choosing from the palette.
Client
- Show client windows minimized
- Show version tag in user description
[FIXME - Seems to totally remove <DCGUI...> tags from user list]
- User-List right alignment
When selected, the user list will appear on the right hand side of the hub window, with the chat on the left. Otherwise the chat will be on the right, and the userlist on the left. Note that this only takes effect when you connect to a hub, the windows for hubs you are already connected to don't change.
- Auto Away Mode
Will automatically put you into away mode if you are idle for more than the set number of seconds.
- Columns
Lets you select which information is shown in the user list. Does not affect already connected hub windows.
Sound
You can choose to have sounds played when various events happen in dcgui-qt. Sounds are disabled by default.
Log
- Logfile
dcgui-qt can write a log of its activity, such as files successfully downloaded. To enable logging, select this option and specify a file that dcgui-qt should log information to. Useful for debugging.
- Timestamp Private Chat
If enabled, each message in private chat will have the time it was sent displayed beside it.
- Timestamp Hub Chat
If enabled, each message in the main hub chat will have a timestamp displayed beside it.
Other
- Store local
Whether dcgui-qt should keep a local copy of the hub list.
- Reload every hour
If this is set to a value greater that zero, then dcgui-qt will automatically reload the hub list after that many hours have passed. This way your hublist will always be up-to-date. Only use this option when you really need to, as it will produce extra traffic on the servers providing the hub lists.
- Source URLs
These URLs are where dcgui-qt gets its list of public hubs from. You can add and remove sources of hub lists, or untick a list to prevent it being used.
Security
Flood Protection
These options are to protect you from antisocial people who like to fill the chat screen with the same message over and over, otherwise known as flooding.
- Don't Display messages after X retry
If the same message appears this many times, dcgui-qt will automatically hide any more copies of it. This greatly reduces the impact of flooders.
- Kick the user for flooding.
If you are an operator, you have the ability to kick people off the hub. This option will automatically kick users who are flooding the chat.
- Kick Message
This is the reason that will be given if a person is kicked by dcgui-qt for flooding the chat.
Chapter 6. Hub List
You can open the hub list window by clicking the toolbar icon, or by choosing -> (Ctrl+U) from the menu.
.Getting a list of public hubs
Before you can do anything with DC you need to connect to at least one hub. This window will give you a list of public hubs for you to browse through. You can connect to a hub simply by double-clicking its name in the list.
However, when you first run dcgui-qt there are no hubs listed here. You need to click on the Reload Public Hublist button 
to get the list. The list is obtained from special locations that provide this service, see the Section called Other in Chapter 5 for information about the source urls. A progress bar will appear at the right of the second toolbar while the reload is happening.
Public hubs are usually run by generous users on their personal computers, which tends to mean they come and go fairly frequently. If you find that hubs in your list no longer exist when you try to connect to them, its probably time to update your list. Clicking the Update Public Hublist button 
will do that.
Using Filters
At the of writing there are over 3000 public DC hubs available. To make it easier for you to find hubs that are of interest to you, you can filter the list to only show certain hubs.
Creating a filter
If you were a fan of Anime (Japanese animation) you might want to only see hubs that are anime-related. You would do this as follows:
Click the Add Filter button
Enter a name for the filter in the Filter field.
Enter the word 'anime' in the Contains field.
Tick the box next to Description. You should now have a window that looks something like this:
Click the Save button.
From the Filter drop-down list. choose your new filter 'anime'
Editing a filter
Often, the best hubs are those that have the most people connected to them. We can refine our filter to only display hubs that have at least a minimum number of users. Click the edit filter button 
to display the settings of the filter. Set the value in the Min. User field to a decent number e.g. 200, then click . The hublist now displays only hubs with 200 or more users that have the word 'anime' in the description.
You can also modify a filter so it looks for matching words in the hub name or the hub address. If you tick more than one option, then the words can appear in any of the selected fields.
Deleting a filter
If you no longer need a particular filter you can delete it. Choose the filter you want to delete from the list of filters so it is the active filter. Then click the Delete Filter button 
Viewing all public hubs
If you would like to revert back to viewing all the available public hubs, choose the 'Default' filter from the list. Note that you can't edit or delete the Default filter.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks let you easily keep track of your favourite hubs. The public server list is not always reliable, so bookmarking hubs you find interesting is a good thing to do. To access your Bookmarks, open the Hub List window and click on the Bookmarks tab.
Creating a Bookmark
There are three ways to create a Bookmark:
From the public hub list: Right-click the hub you want, and select "Add Bookmark".
From a Hub Search: Right-click a search result, and select "Add Bookmark".
By Hand: Right-click anywhere on the Bookmarks list, and select "Add". With this method, you'll have to manually enter the hub name, host (server), and description.
Editing a Bookmark
You can change any Bookmark name, server, or description by right-clicking the Bookmark and selecting "Edit".
Deleting a Bookmark
You can delete a Bookmark by selecting it, right-clicking and selecting "Remove".
You can also delete multiple bookmarks by selecting more than one and removing in the same manner.
Connecting to a Bookmarked hub
You can connect to a Bookmark hub in the same manner as connecting to a server in the Public list. Simply double-click it, or right-click and select "Connect".
Updating Servers
If you find you cannot connect to a Bookmarked hub for an extended period (hubs are run on people's home computers usually and may have some down times by default), right-click the Bookmark and select "Update Server".
This is useful should the hub have changed their server name/location, as it will update your Bookmark to the new location.
You can also update all Bookmarked servers at once with right-click "Update All Servers".
Profiles
You can specify certain hubs to open automatically when you start dcgui-qt, as well as save passwords for hubs where you need a password through the use of Profiles. If you don't save the password, you'll have to re-enter it each time the hub reboots, or you enter the hub. Saving your password can save you a lot of time as well as irritation!
All Profile creation is done in the Bookmarks tab in the Hub List window.
Creating a Profile
Right-click in the Bookmarks window and select "Edit Hub Profiles".
Click "Create". Enter a name for this Profile. Something descriptive of the profile purpose, for example. This is *not* the name that you will show up as in the hub! Click "OK".
If this Profile is going to be used for a hub where a password is required, enter the password. Otherwise leave it blank.
If you want the hubs associated with this Profile to open automatically when you start dcgui-qt, mark the "Auto Connect" box.
Once that is done, click "Save". IMPORTANT! Be sure to do this before clicking "OK" or you'll lose the profile!
Continue this to make any more profiles you may need. Click "OK" when finished.
Associating a Profile with a Hub
Once your Profiles are created, you can associate each hub in your bookmarks with one of the profiles. By default, the Bookmarks are not associated with a Profile.
Right-click a hub in your Bookmarks. Select "Set Hub Profile".
Choose which Profile you wish to use for that hub. Click "OK".
Important: Profiles are dependant on the Hub Name! In order for them to work, the Hub Name in your Bookmarks must *exactly* match the name of the hub!
You can select multiple bookmarks and associate all of them with a Profile at the same time using this same method.
All Hubs linked to a Profile with "Auto Connect" marked will open automatically the next time you start dcgui-qt. Also any linked to a Profile with a Password should never ask for the password again.
Chapter 8. Hub Search
This is one of the most powerful parts of dcgui-qt and you will spend a lot of time using it. To get the most out of the DC network you need to know how to search effectively.
Mechanics of searching
When you open the Hub Search window, type in a query and click 'Search', the following happens:
Your search query is sent to the hubs you are connected to.
Each hub passes the query onto each client connected to it.
If a client has files that match the query, they send a response:
If you are in active mode, the client sends the response directly to you.
If you are in passive mode, the client sends the response to the hub, which then passes it onto you.
dcgui-qt sorts out the responses and displays them.
If you are in passive mode you won't see search results from others in passive mode, as you won't be able to get their files anyway. You will find a lot more files if you are active!
By default dcgui-qt stops waiting for responses after two minutes. This is usually heaps of time for all the results to trickle in. You can stop it sooner by clicking on the 'Stop' button.
Most clients have a maximum number of responses they will give to one query, commonly about 10. If you search for common words this prevents hundreds or thousands of matches coming back from each client.
Each search puts a load on the hubs and every client connected to it. Searches happen regardless of slots. The 'Spy' function shows the amount of searches you are seeing - its a lot! Searching can be abused, often called search-spam. Some hubs kick clients doing lots of rapid searches.
Searching wisely
The words you search for have a huge impact on what results you will get. Similar files often have very different names, so your search string have to be generic enough to catch relevant files, while not including too many irrelevant ones.
Choosing search strings
Try not to use too many common words. Searching for 'anime mp3' on an anime hub will give you ridiculous numbers of files of all sorts. You usually want to be more specific.
Be careful about file extension that have differnt forms, e.g. mpg vs mpeg. If you put 'mpg' in your search string you may miss files with the alternate extension.
Don't put leading zeroes e.g. searching for episode 01 wont find files called episode 1.
Limiting file sizes
Often there are multiple versions of popular media files, for example an episode of show that has been encoded into an avi of different quality. If you prefer only high-quality avis, you could set the search filter of files at least 200MB, for example.
Managing search results
sorting and grouping
filtering
browsing files of those that matched search
searching for clones
Chapter 10. Spy
When you enable the spy function, any search requests you receive will be displayed in this window. This can give you an idea of what other people are searching for. If you are on several large hubs you may be surprised by the sheer volume of search requests dcgui-qt has to handle.
Chapter 11. Users
Also called Friends, if you mark a user as a friend they will appear here, along with an icon indicating if they are online.
Chapter 12. Menu Options
File menu
Quick Options
Choice of download mode: Ask, Single or Multi
View menu
Toolbar
Toggles display of the toolbar on and off.
Status Bar
This option toggles the display of the status bar on and off. The status bar appears at the very bottom the main dcgui-qt window. It lists summary information about your slots and transfers. From left to right the information listed is:
- SL:
Slots: <number used>/<number total> <used admin slots>/<used user slots>/<used special slots>. See Max Upload Slots for more info.
- UL:
Upload rate
- DL:
Download rate
- RX:
Bytes you have received with dcgui-qt since its first run.
- TX:
Bytes you have sent with dcgui-qt since its first run.
Chapter 13. Plugins
What's this I hear about plugins?
A dcgui-qt plugin is a small piece of code that adds some extra function to the program. Mathen has designed this to allow other developers to write programs that can access dcgui-qt's internal state. Currently the only plugin is one which allows you to control dcgui-qt over http.
Getting and compiling plugins
Plugins aren't included in the core dcgui/dclib distribution, you have to get them seperately. You can find the source for released plugins on the developers page at http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=370 or check out the module from cvs:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.dcgui.berlios.de:/cvsroot/dcgui login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.dcgui.berlios.de:/cvsroot/dcgui co plugin
Compilation is similar to the rest of dcgui-qt:
make -f Makefile.dist
./configure
make
make install (as root)
HTTP plugin
The http plugin allows you to control dcgui-qt via a web browser. This could be really useful if you don't always have physical access to the machine running the client, and a graphical remote control method like VNC is not suitable.
Currently the http plugin allows you to see the current state of dcgui-qt, display and cancel transfers and connect to hubs. There is no way at the moment to search or browse filelists, or add new downloads.
By default, the http plugin listens on port 1480 and only accepts connections from localhost. Connecting to http://localhost:1480/ will present you with a login prompt. The default username is "dcgui" and the password is "admin". Once you are logged in you can change the password and security settings. The configuration of the plugin is stored in ~/.dc/plugin/http.xml
Chapter 14. dcgui-qt and Networking
Why do my downloads slow down when I am uploading?
This is not unique to dcgui-qt, and in a common complaint in the DC community. It is due to the behaviour of the TCP protocol on heavily loaded links. When you are downloading a file, your computer continuously sends 'acknowledgements' or ACKs to the source computer, telling it 'I got those last few bits, send some more'. When you are also uploading flat-out, the acknowledgements take longer to send because they have to queue up behind the data you are uploading. The slower the ACKs are sent, the slower your peers will send you data, thus the slower your download rate.
Luckily for Linux users, there is a way to improve this situation. The Linux kernel comes with packet filtering and quality-of-service features. You can make it prioritise acknowledgement packets, letting them "jump the queue" so your downloads and uploads both run as fast as they can. See http://www.lartc.org/ for full details, including the 'Wondershaper' script.
OpenBSD users are also lucky, as they have the excellent pf utility. See http://www.benzedrine.cx/ackpri.html for a guide to ACK prioritisation.
MacOS X users might find this article about throttled lets them do almost the same thing. http://wincent.org/article/articleview/161/1/25/
What port(s) does dcgui-qt use?
Unless you have an unusual situation, there is no need to change the port dcgui-qt runs on away from the default 9172. Sure, DC++ and other clients use other ports, so what? It make no functional difference if you are on a different port, the programs tell each other what port they are on and it all works fine. In addition, you really shouldn't try to run dcgui-qt on ports less than 1024, as this requires that you run the program as root, which is *never* a good idea.
How do I configure my firewall so I can be in Active mode?
There is no one answer to this, as there as so many different types of firewall in use. The basic aim is to get TCP and UDP traffic for port 9172 (by default) to reach the computer running dcgui-qt. If the firewall is on the machine running dcgui-qt then you just need to permit that traffic. If the firewall is a separate device, and is doing NAT, the traffic needs to be forwarded to the dcgui-qt machine.
Here are some suggested firewall rules for those with a Linux iptables based firewall. There is NO GUARANTEE that these rules will work, or that they won't leave your systems wide open. Make sure you know what you are doing before playing with firewall rules, and test afterwards. Use these suggestions AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The following assumptions are made:
your default INPUT and FORWARD policy is DENY, your default OUTPUT policy is ACCEPT
$IPTABLES is the iptables command
$PUBLICIP is your public IP address
$PRIVATEIP is the internal IP of your firewall
$EXTIF is your external network device, e.g. ppp0, eth1
$INTIF is your the internal network device, e.g. eth0
$MYPC is the private IP address of the computer running dcgui-qt behind a NAT
Machine running dcgui-qt has a public IP address, e.g. a dialup modem connection.
$IPTABLES -A INPUT -i $EXTIF -d $PUBLICIP -p tcp --dport 9176 -j ACCEPT
$IPTABLES -A INPUT -i $EXTIF -d $PUBLICIP -p udp --dport 9176 -j ACCEPT
Machine running dcgui-qt is behind a NATing Linux firewall.
$IPTABLES -t nat -A PREROUTING -d $PUBLICIP -p tcp --dport 9176 -j DNAT --to $MYPC
$IPTABLES -t nat -A PREROUTING -d $PUBLICIP -p udp --dport 9176 -j DNAT --to $MYPC
$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -o $INTIF -d $MYPC -p tcp --dport 9176 -j ACCEPT
$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -o $INTIF -d $MYPC -p udp --dport 9176 -j ACCEPT
If you have other machines on your LAN wanting to connect to the NATed machine running dcgui-qt, you need some trickery so the replies come back via the firewall. Add this line after the four above:
$IPTABLES -t nat -A POSTROUTING -d $MYPC -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --dport 9176 -j SNAT --to $PRIVATEIP
Chapter 15. FAQs
Isn't there another program called dcgui?
Yes there is another dcgui, actually it is called dc_gui. It is a completely separate program, which uses a GTK+ interface over the DCTC command line DC client. dc_gui is packaged for the Debian distribution as dcgui to meet Debian's naming policy. This program, the QT based dcgui-qt, used to be called just dcgui, but has been renamed to avoid confusion.
Why doesn't dcgui-qt do <favourite feature>, like DC++ does?
dcgui-qt isn't a clone, imitation or port of DC++ or other DC clients. It is an independent program that has been written from scratch. Certainly there are similarities between these programs, because they are all trying to do the same job, and good features tend to be implemented in all clients eventually. However that doesn't mean a feature will be added just because some other program does it. Feature requests and suggestions are welcomed, but keep in mind that the developers are trying to make the best DC client they can, not just an imitation of another program.
dcgui-qt prints a whole lot of stuff to the console while its running. What does it all mean?
[FIXME - I don't feel qualified to answer this]
Where can I find out more about Direct Connect?
Direct Connect is a program originally written by NeoModus http://www.neo-modus.com/. Many other programs have been written that use the same protocol. See http://sourceforge.net/docman/?group_id=36589 for some details of the DC protocol.
Appendix A. Keyboard Shortcuts
(Ctrl+O)
(Ctrl+Q)
(Ctrl+U)
(Ctrl+T)
(Ctrl+S)
(Ctrl+P)
(Ctrl+F)
-> (Ctrl+N)
-> (Ctrl+A)
Appendix B. Chat commands
These commands can be typed into any chat window. dcgui-qt intercepts the command and acts on it, the command itself is not sent to the hub.
- /dchelp
prints a list of the chat commands that are recognised by dcgui-qt.
- /clear
clears all text from the chat window.
- /mode
shows the mode you are currently in (active or passive)
- /refresh
rebuilds your share list. Good to do this often.
- /ts
Toggles on or off the display of timestamps next to chat messages.
- /dcgui
Sends an advertisement for dcgui-qt to the hub. Don't use too heavily. [FIXME - what does this look like?]
- /join <address>
Disconnects from this hub and connect you to the hub address specified instead.
- /msg <nick> <message>
Sends the private message to the person specified
- /away <message>
Set the auto-response message for when you are away. If message is blank, disables the auto-response.
Appendix C. Configuration files
The first time it runs dcgui-qt creates a directory called .dc in your home directory. You won't be able to see it with a normal ls but it is there. In that directory will appear the files listed below, for those of you who are curious. Most of the files are in XML format, so are quite informative to read. Like all good *nix programs, if you remove the .dc directory dcgui-qt starts afresh like it had never been run.
Not all of these files will always exist, as some are only created when you use certain features. For example, if you haven't created any profiles, you won't have a dcprof.cfg. You may see startup messages such as warning: failed to load external entity "/home/username/.dc/dcprof.cfg". These are just notices, it doesn't indicate a problem.
- MyList.DcLst
This is your share list, compressed using HE3.
- MyList.bz2
This is your share list, compressed using Bzip2. It is usually smaller than the HE3 version. You can look at it by using utilities such as bzless or bzcat.
- dcbookhub.cfg
The hubs you have bookmarked are stored here.
- dcgui.cfg
Configuration settings to do with the graphical interface and how it is displayed. Set from the GUI and Sound tabs under Options.
- dchub.cfg
The list of all the public hubs dcgui-qt knows of.
- dchubfilter.cfg
The hub-list filters you have set up.
- dclib.cfg
All the basic, non-gui related options. Set from the Options menu of the program.
- dcprof.cfg
Your hub profiles, e.g. passwords for registration-required hubs. Yes the passwords are stored in plain text. If you are security conscious you should us unimportant passwords or don't save them in your profile.
- dctra.cfg
Your transfer queue, including file information (e.g. sizes, hashes, chunks), download sources and hubs.
- database.bin, filebase.bin, pathbase.bin
These three files make up a binary database of your fileshare. This is used internally by dcgui-qt as it is faster and more memory efficient than text files.
- searchbase.bin, searchfileindex.bin, searchindex.bin
These files are a binary database of keywords from your shared files. dcgui-qt uses this to quickly respond to file searches with minimum overhead.
Appendix D. Connection speeds and transfer rates
DC is all about sharing files, and the most important thing to many is how fast they can do this. The main factor influencing this is what sort of internet connection you have. In this document (and in the DC community) upload and download rates are often mentioned. However if you are new to this you might not know what rate you have.
The speed of a data link is usually given in kilobits per second, abbreviated as kb/s or kbps. A '56k' modem is called that because its maximum downstream rate is 56 kilobits per second. A 'half meg' DSL connection would have a downstream speed of half a megabit per second, or 500 kilobits per second. It is helpful to others if you know, or can find out, what type and speed of connection you have.
Many internet links are asymmetric, that is they have two different speeds, one for transfers from the internet to you (downstream) and one for transfers from you to the internet (upstream). The upstream rate is usually less than the downstream, because that is the most efficient arrangement for tasks like web surfing or checking email. Unfortunately its the wrong way round for file sharing applications, like DC.
When it comes to transferring files, people are more interested in the speed they will see on their screen while they are downloading. This is usually given in kilobytes per second, or kB/s. Note the capitalisation of the letter B, this is important as it means Bytes insted of bits. To work this out for your link, divide your link speed by eight. Thus a 768kb/s link will let you download at 96kB/s, and a 33.6kb/s analogue modem will have a rate slightly over 4kB/s. Note that when someone asks for your rate, they generally are interested in your upstream rate, which is the one that affects their downloads.
kilo (k) = 1000 (one thousand) times, Mega (M) = 1000000 (one million) times, Giga (G) = 1000000000 (one billion) times. [FIXME - correct me if I'm wrong, but in this context 'kilo'=10^3, not 2^10]
Table D-1. Examples of common connection types and speeds
| Connection type | Downstream speed | Upstream speed |
|---|---|---|
| 56k modem | 56kbps (7kB/s) | 33kbps (4kB/s) |
| 64k ISDN | 64kbps (8kB/s) | 64kbps (8kB/s) |
| 128k ISDN | 128kbps (16kB/s) | 128kbps (16kB/s) |
| 256/64 ADSL (entry-level in Australia) | 256kbps (32kB/s) | 64kbps (8kB/s) |
| 512/128 ADSL | 512kbps (64kB/s) | 128kbps (16kB/s) |
| 512/256 ADSL (entry-level in UK) | 512kbps (64kB/s) | 256kbps (32kB/s) |
| 768/256 ADSL | 768kbps (96kB/s) | 256kbps (32kB/s) |
| 1024/256 ADSL | 1024kbps (128kB/s) | 256kbps (32kB/s) |
| Cable | ||
| Satellite | [FIXME - include comment regarding latency] | |
| Chello | ||
| 2Mbit Leased Line | 2Mbps (250kB/s) | 2Mbps (250kB/s) |
| T1 | 1.536 Mbps (192kB/s) | |
| T3 | 28 times T1 speed i.e. 43.008 Mbps (5.376MB/s) | |
| 10Mbit Ethernet | 10Mbps (1.25MB/s) | 10Mbps (1.25MB/s) |
| 100Mbit Ethernet | 100Mbps (12.5MB/s) | 100Mbps (12.5MB/s) |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1000Mbps (125MB/s) | 1000Mbps (125MB/s) |
| OC-1 | 51.840 Mbps (6.48MB/s) | |
| OC-3/12/48/192 | 3/12/48/192 times OC-1 |