Shareaza is a Windows–based peer-to-peer client which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey2000, and BitTorrent network protocols and which can handle Magnet links. It was originally developed as closed-source freeware by Michael Stokes, and is now open-source under the GPL.

In late 2002, Stokes introduced Gnutella2, a reworked version of Gnutella with many fundamental updates to the protocol, and added support for it to Shareaza. This drew a lot of criticism from other Gnutella developers, because Gnutella2 was developed without any outside help or conferral. However, the Gnutella2 network has been doing well so far despite the fact that it was developed privately, and is now supported by Shareaza, MLDonkey, Adagio, Gnucleus, and Morpheus. Opponents of the name "Gnutella2" refer to it as 'Mike's Protocol', or 'MP' for short.

On 1 June 2004, Shareaza 2.0 was released, along with the source code, under the GNU GPL, making it free software.

The current version — 2.1 — was released on 19 September 2004, and included many bug fixes including better support for Windows XP Service Pack 2, plus a link to the Mercora internet radio software.

Shareaza is translated in 18 languages.

See also

• Azureus — Popular client using the BitTorrent protocol.
• BearShare — Popular client on the Gnutella network.
• eMule — Popular client on the eDonkey2000 network.
• LimeWire — Popular client on the Gnutella network.

External links

• Official Site
• Knowledge base on Shareaza
• Gnutella 2 home
• Gnutella protocol documentation
• Shareaza Project page