Direct Connect

Direct connect (DC) was originally created by a company called NeoModus, but became unpopular due to its downloading limitations and built in adware. It was superseded by an open-source alternative called DC++ which has superior features and doesn't contain the adware. It isn’t known exactly what proportion of people connected to DC hubs use DC++, but it is believed to be the majority.

Many hubs have strict requirements on the minimum amount you need to share before you can join. The more you have, the more exclusive the hubs you can access, but if you’re new to Direct Connect and don’t have much to share, don’t worry there are plenty of quality hubs out there that have no restrictions or share limits.

How it works

When you first run your DC++ client it will display an online public hub-list from which you choose the ones you want to connect to. To help you do this, the list gives you a description of the type of files being shared on each hub, how many people are connected, and any restrictions such as a minimum share size.

There is no limit to the number of hubs you can physically connect to, but some will refuse your connection if you have already joined more than a certain amount. After you have chosen some suitable hubs, you can add them to your favourites and the client will automatically connect to them each time it is started.

The hub server maintains an index of all the users that are connected and the files they have made available so you can either manually search through a particular individual’s shared folder, or you can run an automatic search which will cover every user on every hub you are connected to.

The file searches and download requests are routed through the hub to the host, and subsequent file transfers are then carried out directly between the clients.

Learn the important Direct Connect terminology.

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