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Phoenix Labs (formerly Methlabs) is a software developing community founded by Tim Leonard and Ken McKelland and best known for PeerGuardian, an open-source software program optimized for use as a personal firewall on file sharing networks. The group is also working on developing several related products.
History
The group originally organized to work on PeerGuardian, a program Leonard created in 2003 in response to the shutdown of the Audiogalaxy file sharing site *. The name Methlabs came from Leonard's handle, 'method'. In late 2004, the group added Blocklist.org, a website designed to allow users to interactively manage and block the IP addresses of certain organisations and companies.
Phoenix Labs was formed in September 2005 following a dispute between members of the Methlabs team. According to a Phoenix Labs press release, a "series of threats and incidents" forced most of the group out of the Methlabs.org website The press release attributed this action to a team member with responsibility for finances and server control. Based on information from other participants, internet news sources identified this person as using the nickname "Cerberius", but Cerberius reportedly disputed their charges of domain hijacking and described the situation as a "revolt" *.
On September 26 2005, Phoenix Labs reported that it would receive possession of the former Methlabs domains, which were subsequently redirected to the new Phoenix Labs website *. According to WHOIS information, the Methlabs.org domain was transferred from William Erwin to Tim Leonard at this time.
Products
PeerGuardian
Main article: PeerGuardian
PeerGuardian and PeerGuardian 2 are free and open source programs developed capable of blocking incoming and outgoing connections based on IP blocklists. Their purpose is to block several organizations, including the RIAA and MPAA while using file sharing networks such as FastTrack and BitTorrent. The system is also capable of blocking advertising, spyware, government and educational ranges, depending upon user preferences.
Projects in development
Phoenix Labs has several products that are still under development as of 2006. These include DeepDelete, a program to erase computer files securely and make them extremely difficult to recover, and XS, a file sharing hub and client. Blocklist.org, which is intended as a platform-agnostic database of blocked connections, also remains a test site.External links
Software companies | Internet privacy
"Phoenix Labs"