Internet Movies Special Report
Review: EarthStation5
Posted on: 08/22/2003 @ 1200
Subject:EarthStation5
With all the tension surrounding the RIAA's terrorist attacks of its own customer base with law suits of copyright infringement EarthStation5 is just in time . ES5 is a new P2P file sharing software that has been built with your privacy and security in mind. If you have been looking for a way to protect your privacy and keep the prying eyes of the RIAA and MPAA out of your business then you will want to check out ES5.
Some of the Privacy features of ES5 include:
ES5 #1 goal is to protect its users from intrusions
to their privacy by providing encrypted traffic, random
ports and IP anonymity:
- Users can send connection
requests through intermediary proxy servers located
throughout the world so that the download destination
of a file cannot be traced by any entity whatsoever.
There is nothing for the user to set-up, just right
click to enable the proxy server.
SSL - SECURE SOCKETS - Prevents monitoring of
a user’s uploading or downloading activity. Users
can automatically deploy SSL by right clicking.
UDP - USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL Using UDP makes it
impossible to reliably scan a user's computer to determine
if ES5 is running. Also, unlike TCP connections, UDP
traffic can not be easily blocked by ISPs.
ES5 SECURITY KEY- ES5 utilizes a standard HTTP server
to transmit files, but deploys a special "security key"
so than only ES5 users can access your shared files.
IP ADDRESSES - ES5 does not display user IP Address
information.
DYNAMIC PORTS- Each ES5 node uses a randomly
chosen port (unless the user chooses a specific port
themselves). Therefore, ISPs will be unable to identify
file-sharing traffic based upon port numbers and unable
to throttle back the users bandwidth.
USER DEFINED PORT SETTINGS- ES5 provides users
with “one-click” port setting options for
ES5 to use port 53 (the port used by DNS) or port 37
(the port used by time service) therefore rendering
all blocking attempts hopeless.
MULTIPLE POINTS OF ENTRY - ES5 uses multiple
methods for connecting to the ES5 network including
IP Multicast, Usenet Articles, Web Sites, Node List
Files and a several other undisclosed methods.
PENETRATING FIREWALLS - UDP allows seamless
penetration of firewalls without inconvenient setting
of firewall parameters. For users behind firewalls,
ES5 uses UDP to request a PUSH, where the behind-the-firewall
computer initiates the connection back to the requested
user’s computer.
PGPDisk
- As an additional security feature, to all P2P
programs, is that ES5 integrates seamlessly with PGPDisk
(which is a free program and will be provided by ES5
to its users) that lets you encrypt your disk drives
to store your P2P content. No one except you will ever
be able to see your files, not your kids, your spouse,
your mother, your boss, the FBI, the KGB or anyone else!
ES5 also address some of the other major problems that the RIAA and MPAA have caused on P2P networks like spoofing, interdiction, poor quality files, and broken file segments.
ES5 has deployed technology to thwart the efforts of spoofing,
interdiction, poor quality files, viruses and broken
file segments that plague the other P2P networks. ES5
will launch with 1.5 terabytes of files that
should grow quickly as more users join.
ES5 has VERIFIED files that are confirmed
to be authentic, high quality and VIRUS-FREE as signified
by a small green light that will be next to the file
in the search results list.
NO WAITING FOR MORE SOURCES - ES5 has been designed
not to have "missing" files by removing bad files during
the search stage. Only files that are readily available
for downloading are listed.
INTERGALACTIC SEARCHES - ES5’s version of ultrapeers
or supernodes, however searches are not just limited
to your nearest star cluster because ES5 constantly
shuffles the Planets and Stars, creating new Galaxies
so users are always accessing different parts of the
Universe on every search. Since ES5 displays results
of authenticated green-lighted and ready to download
files only, it is not necessary to retrieve hundreds
of file listings. If a user is unsatisfied with the
results of their search page, a SEARCH AGAIN button
automatically searches a new galaxy of users.
LESS BANDWIDTH USAGE- ES5 uses UDP (instead of TCP)
thereby significantly decreasing the bandwidth requirements
for its users and also provides automatic network load
balancing. Nodes with bad or slow Internet connections
will respond less to search requests so that those slower
and unreliable nodes won’t stymie users with better
connections. ES5 lets users limit the amount of bandwidth
it uses.
STANDARD PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS - ES5 has incorporated
all the advanced P2P file sharing technologies that
any reputable client must have today including concurrent
segmented downloads / swarm downloading, auto-resume
downloads, multiple searches simultaneously, metadata
support and previewing.
Well you are probably wondering if this ES5 is as user friendly as the the other P2P programs that you are used to using. Does it have the same features that your used to with programs like KaZaA? Well ES5 describes it features like this:
- DATING SERVICE - Don’t pay monthly subscription fees
to other online dating services when ES5 provides it
for free. Simply complete the dating questionaire so
that you can find other people that matches up with
your preferences. Once you find your potential soul
mate, you can safely connect via ES5's free text/audio/video
chat system. After that, its up to you!
- COOLEST CHAT SYSTEM ON THE WEB - ES5’s free
text/audio/video chat system is the coolest on the web
allowing up to 7 users to chat in the same room with
full audio and video capabilities so you can actually
see each other in real time. You'll need a webcam and
microphone for the audio and video portions, or you
can just drop in and chat via text. Its a blast!
- FREE IP BASED PHONE CALLS- Use an ATA Analog
telephone adaptor to connect a regular telephone to
your PC. ES5 provides the infrastructure so that you’ll
never have to pay for a long distance phone call again,
from around the world!
- SIX FREE STREAMING VIDEO CHANNELS - Password
protected to protect your children from viewing because
this feature is for ADULTS ONLY! No gimmicks, no registrations,
no credit card or other information required. Just click
on any of the six sex channels and enjoy to the fullest
and never worry about being charged a fee through your
credit card or phone bill÷and no more annoying sex emails!
- FREE SPECIAL EVENTS - ES5 delivers special live
pay-per-view event type streaming media programs with
a twist, no payments required. We cannot announce what
these events are in advance, so keep checking back and
we promise that you’ll be surprised what you’ll
get for free.
- NO SPYWARE - No intrusive software like Kazaa
or Grokster, no bundled 3rd party software, no Spyware,
no adware, no hassles.
At this point you are probably wondering who is behind this ES5 and isn't this all too good to be true and how long can these guys escape the wrath of the RIAA and the MPAA? Well according to the website they describe themselves this way:
Our group is made up of many people, Jordanians, Palestinians, Indians, Americans, Russians and Israelis. Some of us are Jewish, some Christians, some Hindus and other of us are Muslim.
Believe it or not, we all love and respect each other.
We all work and play together. Our families on many occasions eat at the same dinner table. We trust each other and are very close friends with each other. As a group, the most important thing in our life is our children, our families and love ones and of course our friends.
Recent news articles quote the owner and describe the service this way:
"Deep in the tense Jenin refugee camp in the Palestinian West Bank, a new file-swapping service is daring record labels and movie studios to turn their piracy-hunting into an international incident."
"According to Earthstation 5 founder Kabir, the company was formed after a conversation with his brother Nasser in Ramallah two years ago, as Napster was circling toward its nadir. Over time, they won the financial backing of investors in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Russia, who have asked to remain anonymous. Those funds were used in part to pay contract programmers, largely in Russia, to help build the basic software."
"He's not worried about legal attacks from the RIAA or the Motion Picture Association (MPA), groups that have successfully shut down many of the most blatant copyright violators online, he said. In the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli government has ceded civil law enforcement to the Palestinian Authority. That body has propagated copyright rules that protect Palestinian copyrights but don't have strong protections for foreign works, he said."
Well, enough talk does this software even work? We downloaded and installed the US version 1.1.24 by visiting http://www.earthstation5.com. We installed the program and ran it.
The first thing you will notice is that ES5 has a pretty straight forward user friendly interface:
One of the features you will not find on other P2P services is the section of ES5 that streams first run movies directly from their server to your desktop. To check this out all you need to do is simply click on the "Movie" icon on the top tool bar.
You will then see a series of movie folders which look just like a typical desktop with file folders. Double click the folder that you want to browse:
Once in the folder you can browse around until you find a movie you would like to watch. Once you find the movie you would like to view just click the movie poster and a Window will open up and Windows Media Player will begin playing the movie:
In order to download music, movies, books, and software ect... simply click on the "Explore" icon on the top tool bar and then select the type of files you want to search for:
Next, enter a search phrase in the box and click "explore":
Once you find the file you want select the file and right click to select download:
Once you click to download you can monitor the process of the download by clicking on the "Activity" icon on the top tool bar. Once the download is complete the file will appear under the "My Files" icon on the tool bar. And it is as easy as that.
Now, a little bit about the privacy features. ES5 suggests you download through what is called a Proxy Server. In order to set this up click on the "Help" Icon on the top tool bar and scroll down to the section titled "Proxies". In this section you will find links to sites and forums that post free and pay proxies. Visit one of the sites and copy a list of proxies. Next, click on the "Settings" icon on the tool bar and then select "Advanced Settings". In this section you will find an empty text box where you can paste the list of Proxies you copied from the site you visited. Once you have pasted the proxies check the box next to "Enable Stealth Mode" just below the text box:
Now click on save settings. You should now notice the yellow section along the bottom of the program window is green and reads "Stealth Yes" instead of being yellow and reading "Stealth No":
At this point one would assume that you are protected from the RIAA and the MPAA. Our take on this is we are just not sure if this security is all it is cracked up to be. Recent news articles have this to say about it:
"If the story of a refugee camp-based network that's flying in the face of international copyright norms is compelling, it is ultimately the strength of the technology itself that will determine the success of the service or of any of its new generation of rivals."
"First, it uses a different Web protocol, called UDP (for User Datagram Protocol), to transmit much of its information. This is harder to detect and track to a single computer than is TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which is used by most file-swapping services and Web functions."
"The company adds SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption--the same technology that prevents hackers from seeing password or credit card numbers being sent to e-commerce sites--to protect data in transit. And finally, it encourages users to search and even transfer files through proxy servers, the electronic equivalent of using a middleman to exchange goods. That way, anybody who tries to download files will see only the Net address of the proxy server doing the relaying, not the person originally sharing files, according to the company."
"None of these methods is a perfect guarantor of anonymity. Nor does the company provide enough real detail on its security to satisfy others in the privacy business."
"Companies dedicated to scouring file-swapping networks for infringements say proxy servers could help people be temporarily anonymous, but they have flaws as well. A server could, for example, be a "honey pot," a trap set up by a group like the RIAA or MPA that will in fact do nothing to preserve privacy."
"Right now, the proxy features in just about every P2P client don't work well. They end up slowing downloads and aren't highly utilized," said Travis Hill, director of engineering for BayTSP, a company that works for record companies and movie studios to find copyright infringements online. "But if and when they do start being used effectively--if proxy operators are allowing their machines to distribute copyrighted material--copyright owners will start notifying them and pursuing them also."
So, in conclusion, we believe that ES5 is certainly got the right idea on focusing on the privacy of its users but they have not completely convinced us that their privacy features really work. Although at this time they are leading the pack in this area so you are certainly better off using software that is at least making it real difficult for the RIAA and MPAA to monitor. After all any amount of privacy is certainly better than none at all. We look forward to watching how this company fairs in this war on P2P.
Related Links:
EarthStation5 - www.earthstation5.com
ZDNet - Refugee P2P outpost escapes authority
Yahoo - FREE Music, FREE Movies, FREE Software . . .
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