What is this bittorrent all about anyway? How do I get the files?
Check out Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide
Where I can find BitTorren Software for downloading using the BitTorrent protocol?
ABC - "ABC is an improved client for the Bittorrent peer-to-peer file distribution solution."
Azureus - "Azureus is a java bittorrent client. It provides a quite full bittorrent protocol implementation using java language."
BitTornado - a.k.a "TheSHAD0W's Experimental BitTorrent Client".
µTorrent - µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.".
BitComet - BitComet a powerful C++ BitTorrent client for Windows File Shring.".
Why should I use BitTorrent?
BT is a great technology used to transfer large files. Unlike other common file transfer methods which is using a client-server model. A central server sends the entire file to each client that requests it. The problem with this model is when there are too many clients downloading at the same time from the server the speed will be divided among every client which will caused a slower download speed.
As for bitTorrent, each client that is downloading the file will try to upload it's downloaded portion to other client which is downloading the same file. Thus, it will reduce the load of the server and even increased the speed of downloading. The more peers seeding the file the faster it is to download it.
What is a Seeder & a Leecher?
Seeder is a person who is only uploads files to other clients because they are the one who has a complete file. Meanwhile, leecher is someone who is connected to the swam of seeders and leechers to download the file they wanted. Eventually they also uploads the downloaded partial files to other peers.
Another meaning of leecher is for those who uses bitTorrent to download a file but refuses to seed (share/upload) once they have completed the download. Therefore, leave the BT Client continue to run once you have completed the download to ensure a higher sharing ratio. This will keep the BT community alive.
How often is this site updated?
Daily. Pretty much. The admins of Torrentway aren't like admins of other sites. They actually visit the site and look for ways to improve it, all the time!
The admins have completely engineered the code that Torrentway uses, and are not using code that someone else has designed. They've created a fully working website and are continually improving it to make Torrentway.com the best and easiest to use Islamic Torrents/NZB indexing site on the internet.
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I registered an account but did not receive the confirmation e-mail!
You can use this form to delete the account so you can re-register.Note though that if you didn't receive the email the first time it will probably notsucceed the second time either so you should really try another email address.
I've lost my user name or password! Can you send it to me?
Please use this form to have the login details mailed back to you.
Can you rename my account?
We do not rename accounts. Please create a new one. (Use this form to delete your present account.)
Can you delete my (confirmed) account?
You can do it yourself by using this form.
So, what's MY ratio?
Click on your profile, then on your user name (at the top).
It's important to distinguish between your overall ratio and the individual ratio on each torrentyou may be seeding or leeching. The overall ratio takes into account the total uploaded and downloadedfrom your account since you joined the site. The individual ratio takes into account those values for each torrent.
You may see two symbols instead of a number: "";Inf."";, which is just an abbreviation for Infinity, andmeans that you have downloaded 0 bytes while uploading a non-zero amount (ul/dl becomes infinity);"; "";---"";,which should be read as "";non-available"";, and shows up when you have both downloaded and uploaded 0 bytes(ul/dl = 0/0 which is an indeterminate amount).
Why is my IP displayed on my details page?
Only you and the site moderators can view your IP address and email. Regular users do not see that information.
Help! I cannot login!?
This problem sometimes occurs with MSIE. Close all Internet Explorer windows and open Internet Options in the control panel. Click the Delete Cookies button. You should now be able to login.
My IP address is dynamic. How do I stay logged in?
You do not have to anymore. All you have to do is make sure you are logged in with your actualIP when starting a torrent session. After that, even if the IP changes mid-session,the seeding or leeching will continue and the statistics will update without any problem.
Why is my port number reported as "---"? (And why should I care?)
The tracker has determined that you are firewalled or NATed and cannot accept incoming connections.
This means that other peers in the swarm will be unable to connect to you, only you to them. Even worse,if two peers are both in this state they will not be able to connect at all. This has obviously adetrimental effect on the overall speed.
The way to solve the problem involves opening the ports used for incoming connections(the same range you defined in your client) on the firewall and/or configuring yourNAT server to use a basic form of NATfor that range instead of NAPT (the actual process differs widely between different router models.Check your router documentation and/or support forum. You will also find lots of information on thesubject at PortForward).
What are the privacy settings for?
In "Your Account" settings you can set a privacy level for your account.
If you set your privacy setting to strong, most of your account information will be hidden from public view.
Why do I get logged off automatically?
If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you log in, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university cluster, etc.
How do I prevent my username from appearing in the online user listings?
In your profile you will find an option Hide your online status; if you switch this on you'll only appear to board administrators or to yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.
I registered in the past but cannot log in anymore!
The most likely reasons for this are: you entered an incorrect username or password (check the email you were sent when you first registered) or the administrator has deleted your account for some reason. If it is the latter case then perhaps you did not post anything? It is usual for boards to periodically remove users who have not posted anything so as to reduce the size of the database. Try registering again and get involved in discussions.
Try to Recover your account.
I changed the timezone and the time is still wrong!
If you are sure you have set the timezone correctly and the time is still different, the most likely answer is daylight savings time (or summer time as it is known in the UK and other places). The board is not designed to handle the changeovers between standard and daylight time so during summer months the time may be an hour different from the real local time.
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 | Torrent Information - Top | |
Most common reason for stats not updating
- The user is cheating. (a.k.a. "";Summary Ban"";)
- The server is overloaded and unresponsive. Just try to keep the session open until the server responds again. (Flooding the server with consecutive manual updates is not recommended.)
Best practices
- If a torrent you are currently leeching/seeding is not listed on your profile, just wait or force a manual update.
- Make sure you exit your client properly, so that the tracker receives "";event=completed"";.
- If the tracker is down, do not stop seeding. As long as the tracker is back up before you exit the client the stats should update properly.
May I use any bittorrent client?
Yes. The tracker now updates the stats correctly for all bittorrent clients. However, we still recommendthat you avoid the following clients:
• BitTorrent++,
• Nova Torrent,
• TorrentStorm.
These clients do not report correctly to the tracker when canceling/finishing a torrent session.If you use them then a few MB may not be counted towardsthe stats near the end, and torrents may still be listed in your profile for some time after you have closed the client.
Also, clients in alpha or beta version should be avoided.
Why is a torrent I'm leeching/seeding listed several times in my profile?
If for some reason (e.g. pc crash, or frozen client) your client exits improperly and you restart it,it will have a new peer_id, so it will show as a new torrent. The old one will never receive a "";event=completed"";or "";event=stopped""; and will be listed until some tracker timeout. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.
I've finished or cancelled a torrent. Why is it still listed in my profile?
Some clients, notably TorrentStorm and Nova Torrent, do not report properly to the tracker when canceling or finishing a torrent.In that case the tracker will keep waiting for some message - and thus listing the torrent as seeding or leeching - until sometimeout occurs. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.
Why do I sometimes see torrents I'm not leeching in my profile!?
When a torrent is first started, the tracker uses the IP to identify the user. Therefore the torrent willbecome associated with the user who last accessed the site from that IP. If you share your IP in someway (you are behind NAT/ICS, or using a proxy), and some of the persons you share it with are also users,you may occasionally see their torrents listed in your profile. (If they start a torrent session from thatIP and you were the last one to visit the site the torrent will be associated with you). Note that nowtorrents listed in your profile will always count towards your total stats.
The torrent is supposed to be 100MB. How come I downloaded 120MB?
See the hash fails topic. If your client receives bad data it will have to redownload it, thereforethe total downloaded may be larger than the torrent size. Make sure the "";kick/ban""; option is turned onto minimize the extra downloads.
How does NAT/ICS change the picture?
This is a very particular case in that all computers in the LAN will appear to the outside world as having the same IP. We must distinguishbetween two cases:
1. You are the single user in the LAN
You should use the same account in all the computers.
Note also that in the ICS case it is preferable to run the BT client on the ICS gateway. Clients running on the other computerswill be unconnectable (their ports will be listed as "";---"";, as explained elsewhere in the FAQ) unless you specifythe appropriate services in your ICS configuration (a good explanation of how to do this for Windows XP can be foundhere).In the NAT case you should configure different ranges for clients on different computers and create appropriate NAT rules in the router. (Details vary widely from router to router and are outside the scope of this FAQ. Check your router documentation and/or support forum.)
2. There are multiple users in the LAN
At present there is no way of making this setup always work properly.Each torrent will be associated with the user who last accessed the site from withinthe LAN before the torrent was started.Unless there is cooperation between the users mixing of statistics is possible.(User A accesses the site, downloads a .torrent file, but does not start the torrent immediately.Meanwhile, user B accesses the site. User A then starts the torrent. The torrent will counttowards user B's statistics, not user A's.)
It is your LAN, the responsibility is yours. Do not ask us to ban other userswith the same IP, we will not do that. (Why should we ban him instead of you?)
Why do I get a "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted" error?
Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports(6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.
This tracker does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols.The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports(that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).
The blocked ports list include, but is not neccessarily limited to, the following:
| Direct Connect | 411 - 413 | | Kazaa | 1214 | | eDonkey | 4662 | | Gnutella | 6346 - 6347 | | BitTorrent | 6881 - 6889 |
In order to use use our tracker you must configure your client to useany port range that does not contain those ports (a range within the region 49152 through 65535 is preferable,cf. IANA). Notice that some clients,like Azureus 2.0.7.0 or higher, use a single port for all torrents, while most others use one port per open torrent. The sizeof the range you choose should take this into account (typically less than 10 ports wide. Thereis no benefit whatsoever in choosing a wide range, and there are possible security implications).
These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker.Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact itshould increase your speed with torrents from any tracker, not just ours). Your clientwill also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports.If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.
Do not ask us, or in the forums, which ports you should choose. The more random the choice is the harderit will be for ISPs to catch on to us and start limiting speeds on the ports we use.If we simply define another range ISPs will start throttling that range also.
Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in yourfirewall, should you have them.
What's this "TTL" in the browse page?
The torrent's Time To Live, in weeks. It means the torrent will be deletedfrom the tracker after that many hours have elapsed (yes, even if it is still active).Note that this a maximum value, the torrent may be deleted at any time if it's inactive.
Why We have a limited update interval?
Flooding reason, so the tracker won't get flood data all the time, that is why we have a minimum of 300 seconds for internal update.
What is the max leech?
Max leech is limiting the number of torrents that a user can download at the same time and thats depends on the class they are in, for example user class has only 3 torrents that they can download at the same time where uploader class has 5 torrents.
User maxleech = "3"
Power User maxleech = "4"
Uploader maxleech = "5"
VIP maxleech = "6"
JMOD maxleech = "7"
SMOD maxleech = "8"
ADMIN maxleech = "10"
Why the System banned me from Downloading?
If a user maintain a ratio below 0.5 for 14 days the system will watch them only for that 14 days.
after the 14 days passed and user still has ratio below 0.5 then he/she will get warned for 28 days to correct the ratio to get it above 0.5.
If after 28 days the ratio still below 0.5 then the user will get banned only from downloading, everything else works.
if within the 14 days or the 28 days user get the ratio above 0.5 then the system will delete them from the database and remove their warning or banning status.
How do I use the files I've downloaded?
Check out this guide.
Downloaded a movie and don't know what CAM/TS/TC/SCR means?
Check out this guide.
Why did an active torrent suddenly disappear?
There may be three reasons for this:
(1) The torrent may have been out-of-sync with the site rules.
(2) The uploader may have deleted it because it was a bad release.A replacement will probably be uploaded to take its place.
(3) Torrents are automatically deleted after 90 days.
How do I resume a broken download or reseed something?
Open the .torrent file. When your client asks you for a location, choose the location of the existing file(s) and it will resume/reseed the torrent.
Why do my downloads sometimes stall at 99%?
The more pieces you have, the harder it becomes to find peers who have pieces you are missing. That is why downloads sometimes slow down or even stall when there are just a few percent remaining. Just be patient and you will, sooner or later, get the remaining pieces.
What are these "a piece has failed an hash check" messages?
Bittorrent clients check the data they receive for integrity. When a piece fails this check it isautomatically re-downloaded. Occasional hash fails are a common occurrence, and you shouldn't worry.
Some clients have an (advanced) option/preference to 'kick/ban clients that send you bad data' orsimilar. It should be turned on, since it makes sure that if a peer repeatedly sends you pieces thatfail the hash check it will be ignored in the future.
What is the anatomy of a torrent?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about how the statistics updates work. The following is a capture of a full
session to see what's going on behind the scenes. The client communicates with the tracker via simple http GET commands. The very first in this case was:
GET /announce.php?info_hash=c%97%91%C5jG%951%BE%C7M%F9%BFa%03%F2%2C%ED%EE%0F& peer_id=S588-----gqQ8TqDeqaY&port=6882&uploaded=0&downloaded=0&left=753690875 &event=started
Let's dissect this:
• info_hash is just the hash identifying the torrent in question;
• peer_id, as the name suggests, identifies the client (the s588 part identifies Shad0w's 5.8.8, the rest is random);
• port just tells the tracker which port the client will listen to for incoming connections;
• uploaded=0; (this and the following are the relevant ones, and are self-explanatory)
• downloaded=0;
• left=753690875 (how much left);
• event=started (telling the tracker that the client has just started).
Notice that the client IP doesn't show up here (although it can be sent by the client if it configured to do so).
It's up to the tracker to see it and associate it with the user_id.
(Server replies will be omitted, they're just lists of peer ips and respective ports.)
At this stage the user's profile will be listing this torrent as being leeched.
>From now on the client will keep send GETs to the tracker. We show only the first one as an example,
GET /announce.php?info_hash=c%97%91%C5jG%951%BE%C7M%F9%BFa%03%F2%2C%ED%EE%0F& peer_id=S588-----gqQ8TqDeqaY&port=6882&uploaded=67960832&downloaded=40828928& left=715417851&numwant=0
("numwant" is how the client tells the tracker how many new peers it wants, in this case 0.)
As you can see at this stage the user had uploaded approx. 68MB and downloaded approx. 40MB. Whenever the tracker receives
these GETs it updates both the stats relative to the 'currently leeching/seeding' boxes and the total user upload/download stats. These intermediate GETs will be sent either periodically (every 15 min
or so, depends on the client and tracker) or when you force a manual announce in the client.
Finally, when the client was closed it sent
GET /announce.php?info_hash=c%97%91%C5jG%951%BE%C7M%F9%BFa%03%F2%2C%ED%EE%0F& peer_id=S588-----gqQ8TqDeqaY&port=6882&uploaded=754384896&downloaded=754215163 &left=0&numwant=0&event=completed
Notice the all-important "event=completed". It is at this stage that the torrent will be removed from the user's profile.
If for some reason (tracker down, lost connection, bad client, crash, ...) this last GET doesn't reach
the tracker this torrent will still be seen in the user profile until some tracker timeout occurs. It should be stressed that this message will be sent only when
closing the client properly, not when the download is finished. (The tracker will start listing
a torrent as 'currently seeding' after it receives a GET with left=0).
There's a further message that causes the torrent to be removed from the user's profile,
namely"event=stopped". This is usually sent
when stopping in the middle of a download, e.g. by pressing 'Cancel' in Shad0w's.
One last note: some clients have a pause/resume option. This will not send any message to the server.
Do not use it as a way of updating stats more often, it just doesn't work. (Checked for Shad0w's 5.8.11 and ABC 2.6.5.)
Why do I get a "Not authorized (xx h) - READ THE FAQ" error?
From the time that each new torrent is uploaded to the tracker, there is a period of time thatsome users must wait before they can download it.
This delay in downloading will only affect users with a low ratio, and users with low upload amounts.
| Ratio below | 0.50 | "; | and/or upload below | 5.0GB | "; | delay of | 48h | | Ratio below | 0.65 | "; | and/or upload below | 6.5GB | "; | delay of | 24h | | Ratio below | 0.80 | "; | and/or upload below | 8.0GB | "; | delay of | 12h | | Ratio below | 0.95 | "; | and/or upload below | 9.5GB | "; | delay of | 06h |
"And/or" means any or both. Your delay will be the largest one for which you meet at least one condition.
This applies to new users as well, so opening a new account will not help. Note also that thisworks at tracker level, you will be able to grab the .torrent file itself at any time.
N.B. Due to some users exploiting the 'no-delay-for-seeders' policy we had to change it. The delaynow applies to both seeding and leeching. So if you are subject to a delay and get the files fromsome other source you will not be able to seed them until the delay has elapsed.
Why can't I upload torrents?
Everyone can upload, if for some reason you can not get the upload page please Contact US.
What's this "IOError - [Errno13] Permission denied" error?
If you just want to fix it reboot your computer, it should solve the problem.Otherwise read on.
IOError means Input-Output Error, and that is a file system error, not a tracker one.It shows up when your client is for some reason unable to open the partially downloadedtorrent files. The most common cause is two instances of the client to be runningsimultaneously:the last time the client was closed it somehow didn't really close but kept running in thebackground, and is therefore stilllocking the files, making it impossible for the new instance to open them.
A more uncommon occurrence is a corrupted FAT. A crash may result in corruptionthat makes the partially downloaded files unreadable, and the error ensues. Runningscandisk should solve the problem. (Note that this may happen only if you're runningWindows 9x - which only support FAT - or NT/2000/XP with FAT formatted hard drives.NTFS is much more robust and should never permit this problem.)
Can I upload your torrents to other trackers?
Yes you are welcome to do so in order to "Spread the word" about out website. But keep in mind that people who download our .torrent file but are not actually registered with us will have to come and register to be able to download. Sites like TorrentSpy.com who simply list our .torrent file there without trying to connect any leechers to us are the best ones to use for external uploads. However sites that try to scrape from our tracker and connect unregistered leechers will give an error as our tracker does not allow scraping.
Do not immediately jump on new torrents
The download speed mostly depends on the seeder-to-leecher ratio (SLR). Poor download speed ismainly a problem with new and very popular torrents where the SLR is low.
(Proselytising sidenote: make sure you remember that you did not enjoy the low speed.Seed so that others will not endure the same.)
There are a couple of things that you can try on your end to improve your speed:
In particular, do not do it if you have a slow connection. The best speeds will be found around thehalf-life of a torrent, when the SLR will be at its highest. (The downside is that you will not be able to seedso much. It's up to you to balance the pros and cons of this.)
Limit your upload speed
The upload speed affects the download speed in essentially two ways:
- Bittorrent peers tend to favour those other peers that upload to them. This means that if A and B are leeching the same torrent and A is sending data to B at high speed then B will try to reciprocate. So due to this effect high upload speeds lead to high download speeds.
- Due to the way TCP works, when A is downloading something from B it has to keep telling B that it received the data sent to him. (These are called acknowledgements - ACKs -, a sort of "";got it!""; messages). If A fails to do this then B will stop sending data and wait. If A is uploading at full speed there may be no bandwidth left for the ACKs and they will be delayed. So due to this effect excessively high upload speeds lead to low download speeds.
The full effect is a combination of the two. The upload should be kept as high as possible while allowing theACKs to get through without delay. A good thumb rule is keeping the upload at about 80% of the theoreticalupload speed. You will have to fine tune yours to find out what works best for you. (Remember that keeping theupload high has the additional benefit of helping with your ratio.)
If you are running more than one instance of a client it is the overall upload speed that you must take into account.Some clients (e.g. Azureus) limit global upload speed, others (e.g. Shad0w's) do it on a per torrent basis.Know your client. The same applies if you are using your connection for anything else (e.g. browsing or ftp),always think of the overall upload speed.
Limit the number of simultaneous connections
Some operating systems (like Windows 9x) do not deal well with a large number of connections, and may even crash.Also some home routers (particularly when running NAT and/or firewall with stateful inspection services) tend to becomeslow or crash when having to deal with too many connections. There are no fixed values for this, you may try 60 or 100and experiment with the value. Note that these numbers are additive, if you have two instances ofa client running the numbers add up.
Limit the number of simultaneous uploads
Isn't this the same as above? No. Connections limit the number of peers your client is talking to and/ordownloading from. Uploads limit the number of peers your client is actually uploading to. The ideal number istypically much lower than the number of connections, and highly dependent on your (physical) connection.
Just give it some time
As explained above peers favour other peers that upload to them. When you start leeching a new torrent you havenothing to offer to other peers and they will tend to ignore you. This makes the starts slow, in particular if,by change, the peers you are connected to include few or no seeders. The download speed should increase as soonas you have some pieces to share.
Why is my browsing so slow while leeching?
Your download speed is always finite. If you are a peer in a fast torrent it will almost certainly saturate yourdownload bandwidth, and your browsing will suffer. At the moment there is no client that allows you to limit thedownload speed, only the upload. You will have to use a third-party solution,such as NetLimiter.Browsing was used just as an example, the same would apply to gaming, IMing, etc...
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What is Usenet?
The easiest way to learn about usenet is to check out the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
What is a Newsgroup?
A newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. The term is somewhat confusing, because it is usually a discussion group.
For a full answer please see wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup
Brief History
Newsgroups were around before the internet as we know it even began. In the early stages of the internet, special interest groups shared information by using a system similar to a bulletin board. This system took advantage of the internet in a way an old BBS couldn't. Each location in the system had a machine (news server) that stored all the messages of the newsgroups that were desired by it's users. These servers connected to each other frequently and synchronized their messages with each other. Using this method, every message would eventually get distributed to every server that carried that newsgroup.
Not too long afterwards, some users wanted the ability to share files with each other. However, the current system was not designed to transfer binary files - it could only transfer ascii text files. However, early internet pioneers came up with a way to take a binary file and convert it (encode it) so that it reads as an ascii text message. This message could then be distributed through the newsgroup and then whoever wants to retrieve the file could download that message and convert it back (decode it) into the original binary file. Thus began file-sharing in the Newsgroups.
Understanding, navigating and downloading files from the newsgroups requires a little more effort than just connecting to Morpheus, searching for something, and clicking on the result. A typical download from the newsgroups requires more steps than other methods because a large file is always split into many pieces as shown below:
So why are files split up in the first place? Well, many news servers will not accept messages that are longer than 10,000 lines, many even less than that. A 670 MB file would take around 15 Million lines if it were encoded into one message. No news server will accept a message with that much data. The main reason for the first split into RAR files is because sometimes messages don't always get to every server for some reason or another. A large file is also split up to minimize the time and bandwidth needed to recover from a missing/bad message. So in our example above, if a message doesn't make it for the file cdimage.r06, it would only be necessary to find and download that one file instead of the whole thing if it were all one file. PAR files have now emerged making the argument for splitting into rar files even stronger. Smaller files, such as MP3's, are usually not split the first time, so downloading them is simple.
To make matters more confusing, while browsing newsgroups it can be hard to distinguish which messages are the files you need from all of the other messages that are not files but actual text messages.
What's an NZB File?
An NZB File is a text file, which is XML parsed. This file only contains metadata/links to postings on Usenet. It makes downloading from Usenet much easier than manually selection groups of files.
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzb
Is Usenet illegal?
No, it's not illegal, Usenet is indeed legal.
Is Usenet secure?
Of course! Usenet is completely secure and annonymous!
Some premium Usenet server providers even provide SSL connection!
What is Retention?
Retention is the ammount of time a usenet post (its files) are "retained" or kept on the usenet server. The greater the retention, the better.
Most ISPs will have a low retention, premium providers will have 100's of days.
Why is greater retention better?
The greater the retention of usenet posts, the longer chance you have to complete your download and more is availiable to you.
What client/news reader should I use?
There are several NNTP clients out there, even Outlook Express has some Usenet capabilities.
We recommend the following clients:
Grabit (FREE) - http://www.shemes.com
NewsLeecher - http://www.newsleecher.com
For a complete list and comparison of Usenet Clients please see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_news_clients
Binary News Readers:
A news reader is a program that you install on your computer to connect to a news server. When you first use the news reader, it will connect to the news server and retrieve a list of all the newsgroups that are carried by that news server. When you want to see a list of the messages in a newsgroup, the news reader will connect to the news server and retrieve the list of messages (the headers of the messages) in that group without actually downloading the messages themselves (the body of the messages). Now you can browse through the list of messages to see what is available in that group at the time. If you decide to download something that you see listed, simply highlight it (if it has more than 1 file, highlight all of the messages of the posting) and the news reader will download the messages and decode them into binary files. To begin downloading files you must GET A NEWSREADER! Below you will find a list of some common Binary News Readers. Some of them offer free trial versions for you to try out. We are currently using News BinPro as our News Reader.
NewsBin Pro (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) - used by NFONews Staff
Xnews (Free)
FreeAgent
Newspro
Newsgrabber
NewZMiner
Also you can visit Binaries 4 All
How do I upload an NZB File?
Easy. There is a link at the top of the site, or:
Upload
If you want to become a regular NZB poster we have several methods of bulk uploading to the site.
I uploaded an NZB but it's not listed. How come?
The main home page is updated every 10 minutes, and todays/yesterdays is updated every hour.
If these pages updated in real time, the strain on the server would be tremendous.
Your upload should show instantly within the category browse pages and the search facility.
Why are NZBs downloaded as ZIP archives?
This is because the cost of bandwidth would be too great for ALL our users to be downloading the 1MB+ files.
How do I download partial NZBs?
Any user will see a link within the "File Details" section of the NZB information page, once you click this link you will see all the files within the NZB.
Simply tick what files you require and click generate NZB.
We would like to remind you that this should only be used for "partial" NZBs, if you want the entire NZB please use the usual download link.
Are there download limits?
We currently enforce a 10 NZBs per 24hrs limit for all users.
The download counters are updated every hour.
Partial NZBs also count towards your limit.
Why do I get article not found?
There could be a few reasons.
- Your provider may not have the required file retention.
- Your provider may not carry that particular newsgroup.
There are known issues also with some Grabit installations and Windows Vista.
What is News Server?
So how do I get onto Newsgroups and start downloading files? Well first you must have access to a News Server. A news server is a computer that stores all of the messages for the newsgroups that it carries. It also communicates with other news servers to transfer new messages. These news servers have an enormous storage capacity. However, eventually the news server must delete messages to make room for new messages. The amount of time that a message is on server before it is deleted is called Retention Time.
On each news server the administrator will determine the retention for each newsgroup usually by allotting it a certain amount of hard drive space. So alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.classical (a relatively busy newsgroup receiving 100's of songs a day) will have a longer retention than alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.complete_cd (an extremely busy newsgroup receiving 1000's of songs a day). An easy way to tell what the retention is for a newsgroup is to look through the list and see when the oldest messages are from. If all the messages are from the last three days, then the retention is about 3 days!
Choosing a News Server
There are two ways you can get access to a news server:
A) Use the news server maintained by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
B) Pay for news server access through a Commercial Usenet Provider
A) Using your ISP's news server.
Most ISP's maintain a news server that they allow their subscribers to access. Some are very good servers carrying most newsgroups and have high completion rates. Completion is simply the percentage of messages that make it to the server (low completion means a server is missing a lot of messages making downloading very difficult). The problem is that many ISP's neglect their news server and therefore have low completion rates. There are, however, many ISP's that have servers running that are fast and have high completion rates. The only way to know is to find out what the address of your ISP's news server is and try it out!
A news server may require you to log into it using a user name and password. Usually the news servers run by ISP's do not require you to log on using a user name and password because they assign you your IP address (your unique internet location address) and the server automatically accepts only those IPs it recognizes. However, this also means that you will not be able to access the news server from another internet connection. You would have to be using theirs.
To find out if your ISP has a news server and to find the IP address go to the customer support section of their website and search for news server. If their website doesn't help, give them a call and ask whether they have a news server and what the address is. Bargain ISP's (such as Netzero and Juno) do not maintain news servers. Even some major ISPs such as America Online (AOL) currently do not offer Newsgroup access.
B) Using a Commercial Usenet Provider.
There are many reasons for deciding to use a news server that you have to pay to access. You may have an ISP that doesn't have a news server. Your ISP may have a news server, but it isn't worth much because it's slow, or has a low completion rate, or doesn't carry the binary newsgroups. You may have a relatively decent news server and want a cheap news server that you can access that can fill in the missing files from your normal news server. Whatever your reason, these servers can be GREAT to awful. Usually in this market, as most, you get what you pay for. And most times you can get what you need at a reasonable price. When you sign up for one of these services they will tell you what the name of the server(s) is and issue you a user name and password that you must enter into the news reader.
What to do about missing parts and there are no PAR files?
Unfortunately, not everyone is posting PAR files with their posts yet. So you have a couple of missing parts and no PAR files are to be found. Here is a list of the actions that you should take:
- Search the newsgroup to see if it has already been reposted.
- Read the .nfo file for the post. Many times it has information on what to do about missing files and if the poster will be doing a full repost.
- Check each day after the post was completed and see if it has been reposted and if anyone else has requested the file be reposted.
- Read the .nfo for information regarding how to request that a file be reposted.
- Post a message to the group. The subject of the message should look like this:
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How do I edit or delete a post?
Unless you are the board admin or forum moderator you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post (sometimes for only a limited time after it was made) by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic that lists the number of times you edited it. This will only appear if no one has replied; it also will not appear if moderators or administrators edit the post (they should leave a message saying what they altered and why). Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.
How do I add a signature to my post?
To add a signature to a post you must first create one; this is done via your profile. Once created you can check the Add Signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate radio box in your profile. You can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box on the posting form.
How do I create a poll?
Creating a poll is easy -- when you post a new topic (or edit the first post of a topic, if you have permission) you should see a Add Poll form below the main posting box. If you cannot see this then you probably do not have rights to create polls. You should enter a title for the poll and then at least two options -- to set an option type in the poll question and click the Add option button. You can also set a time limit for the poll, 0 being an infinite amount. There will be a limit to the number of options you can list, which is set by the board administrator.
How do I edit or delete a poll?
As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator, or board administrator. To edit a poll, click the first post in the topic, which always has the poll associated with it. If no one has cast a vote then users can delete the poll or edit any poll option. However, if people have already placed votes only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it; this is to prevent people rigging polls by changing options mid-way through a poll.
Why can't I access a forum?
Some forums may be limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post, etc. you may need special authorization which only the forum moderator and board administrator can grant, so you should contact them.
Why can't I vote in polls?
Only registered users can vote in polls so as to prevent spoofing of results. If you have registered and still cannot vote then you probably do not have appropriate access rights.
What is BBCode?
BBCode is a special implementation of HTML. Whether you can use BBCode is determined by the administrator. You can also disable it on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML: tags are enclosed in square braces [ and ] rather than < and > and it offers greater control over what and how something is displayed. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page.
Can I use HTML?
That depends on whether the administrator allows you to; they have complete control over it. If you are allowed to use it, you will probably find only certain tags work. This is a safety feature to prevent people from abusing the board by using tags which may destroy the layout or cause other problems. If HTML is enabled you can disable it on a per post basis from the posting form.
What are Smileys?
Smileys, or Emoticons, are small graphical images which can be used to express some feeling using a short code, e.g. :) means happy, :( means sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen via the posting form. Try not to overuse smileys, though, as they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may decide to edit them out or remove the post altogether.
Can I post Images?
Images can indeed be shown in your posts. However, there is no facility at present for uploading images directly to this board. Therefore you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.some-unknown-place.net/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor to images stored behind authentication mechanisms such as Hotmail or Yahoo mailboxes, password-protected sites, etc. To display the image use either the BBCode [img] tag or appropriate HTML (if allowed).
What are Announcements?
Announcements often contain important information and you should read them as soon as possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. Whether or not you can post an announcement depends on the permissions required, which are set by the administrator.
What are Sticky topics?
Sticky topics appear below any announcements in viewforum and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them where possible. As with announcements the board administrator determines what permissions are required to post sticky topics in each forum.
What are Locked topics?
Locked topics are set this way by either the forum moderator or board administrator. You cannot reply to locked topics and any poll contained inside is automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons.
What are Administrators?
Administrators are people assigned the highest level of control over the entire board. These people can control all facets of board operation which include setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc. They also have full moderator capabilities in all the forums.
What are Moderators?
Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) whose job it is to look after the running of the forums from day to day. They have the power to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally moderators are there to prevent people going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.
What are Usergroups?
Usergroups are a way in which board administrators can group users. Each user can belong to several groups (this differs from most other boards) and each group can be assigned individual access rights. This makes it easy for administrators to set up several users as moderators of a forum, or to give them access to a private forum, etc.
How do I join a Usergroup?
To join a usergroup click the usergroup link on the page header (dependent on template design) and you can then view all usergroups. Not all groups are open access -- some are closed and some may even have hidden memberships. If the board is open then you can request to join it by clicking the appropriate button. The user group moderator will need to approve your request; they may ask why you want to join the group. Please do not pester a group moderator if they turn your request down --they will have their reasons.
How do I become a Usergroup Moderator?
Usergroups are initially created by the board administrator who also assigns a board moderator. If you are interested in creating a usergroup then your first point of contact should be the administrator, so try dropping them a private message.
How do I add an attachment?
You can add attachments when you post a new post. You should see a Add an Attachment form below the main posting box. When you click the Browse... button the standard Open dialogue window for your computer will open. Browse to the file you want to attach, select it and click OK, Open or doubleclick according to your liking and/or the correct procedure for your computer. If you choose to add a comment in the File Comment field this comment will be used as a link to the attached file. If you haven't added a comment the filename itself will be used to link to the attachment. If the board administrator has allowed it you will be able to upload multiple attachements by following the same procedure as described above until you reach the max allowed number of attachments for each post.
The board administrator sets an upper limit for filesize, defined file extensions and other things for attachments on the board. Be aware that it's your responsiblity that your attachments comply with the boards acceptance of use policy, and that they may be deleted without warning.
Please note that the boards owner, webmaster, administrator or moderators can not and will not take responsibility for any loss of data.
How do I add an attachment after the initial posting?
To add an attachment after the initial posting you'll need to edit your post and follow the description above. The new attachment will be added when you click Submit to add the edited post.
How do I delete an attachment?
To delete attachments you'll need to edit your post and click on the Delete Attachment next to the attachment you want to delete in the Posted Attachments box. The attachment will be deleted when you click Submit to add the edited post.
How do I update a file comment?
To update a file comment you'll need to edit your post, edit the text in the File Comment field and click on the Update Comment button next to the file comment you want to update in the Posted Attachments box. The file comment will be updated when you click Submit to add the edited post.
Why isn't my attachment visible in the post?
Most probably the file or Extension is no longer allowed on the forum, or a moderator or administrator has deleted it for being in conflict with the boards acceptance of use policy.
Why can't I add attachments?
On some forums adding attachments may be limited to certain users or groups. To add attachments you may need special authorisation, only the forum moderator and board admin can grant this access, you should contact them.
I've got the necessary permissions, why can't I add attachments?
The board administrator sets an upper limit for filesize, file extensions and other things for attachments on the board. A moderator or administrator may have altered your permissions, or discontinued attachments in the specific forum. You should get an explanation in the error message when trying to add an attachment, if not you might consider contacting the moderator or administrator.
Why can't I delete attachments?
On some forums deleting attachments may be limited to certain users or groups. To delete attachments you may need special authorisation, only the forum moderator and board admin can grant this access, you should contact them.
Why can't I view/download attachments?
On some viewing/downloading forums attachments may be limited to certain users or groups. To view/download attachments you may need special authorisation, only the forum moderator and board admin can grant this access, you should contact them.
Who do I contact about illegal or possibly illegal attachments?
You should contact the administrator of this board. If you cannot find who this is you should first contact one of the forum moderators and ask them who you should in turn contact. If you still get no response you should contact the owner of the domain (do a whois lookup) or, if this is running on a free service (e.g. yahoo, free.fr, f2s.com, etc.), the management or abuse department of that service. Please note that phpBB Group has absolutely no control and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. It is absolutely pointless contacting phpBB Group in relation to any legal (cease and desist, liable, defamatory comment, etc.) matter not directly related to the phpbb.com website or the discrete software of phpBB itself. If you do email phpBB Group about any third party use of this software then you should expect a terse response or no response at all.
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| Messaging Information - Top | |
I cannot send private messages!
There are three reasons for this; you are not registered and/or not logged on, the administrator has disabled private messaging for the entire site, or the administrator has prevented you individually from sending messages. If it is the latter case you should try asking the administrator why.
I keep getting unwanted private messages!
Use the block option under any user you wish not to receive a message from. Also you can control how you receive messages from your control settings.
I have received a spamming or abusive email from someone on this board!
We are sorry to hear that. The email form feature of this siteincludes safeguards to try to track users who send such posts. You should email the board administrator with a full copy of the email you received and it is very important this include the headers (these list details of the user that sent the email). They can then take action.
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What is a proxy?
Basically a middleman. When you are browsing a site through a proxy your requests are sent to the proxy and the proxyforwards them to the site instead of you connecting directly to the site. There are several classifications(the terminology is far from standard):
| ";Transparent | "; | A transparent proxy is one that needs no configuration on the clients. It works by automatically redirecting all port 80 traffic to the proxy. (Sometimes used as synonymous for non-anonymous.) | | ";Explicit/Voluntary | "; | Clients must configure their browsers to use them. | | ";Anonymous | "; | The proxy sends no client identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header is not sent;"; the server does not see your IP.) | | ";Highly Anonymous | "; | The proxy sends no client nor proxy identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR, HTTP_VIA and HTTP_PROXY_CONNECTION headers are not sent;"; the server doesn't see your IP and doesn't even know you're using a proxy.) | | ";Public | "; | (Self explanatory) |
A transparent proxy may or may not be anonymous, and there are several levels of anonymity.
How do I find out if I'm behind a (transparent/anonymous) proxy?
Try ProxyJudge. It lists the HTTP headers that the server where it is runningreceived from you. The relevant ones are HTTP_CLIENT_IP, HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR and REMOTE_ADDR.
Why is my port listed as "";---""; even though I'm not NAT/Firewalled?
The tracker is quite smart at finding your real IP, but it does need the proxy to send the HTTP headerHTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR. If your ISP's proxy does not then what happens is that the tracker will interpret the proxy's IPaddress as the client's IP address. So when you login and the tracker tries to connect to your client to see if you areNAT/firewalled it will actually try to connect to the proxy on the port your client reports to be using forincoming connections. Naturally the proxy will not be listening on that port, the connection will fail and thetracker will think you are NAT/firewalled.
Can I bypass my ISP's proxy?
If your ISP only allows HTTP traffic through port 80 or blocks the usual proxy ports then you would need to use somethinglike socks and that is outside the scope of this FAQ.
Otherwise you may try the following:
- Choose any public non-anonymous proxy that does not use port 80 (e.g. from this, this or this list).
- Configure your computer to use that proxy. For Windows XP, do Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings, Use a Proxy server, Advanced and type in the IP and port of your chosen proxy. Or from Internet Explorer use Tools, Internet Options, ...
- (Facultative) Visit ProxyJudge. If you see an HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR in the list followed by your IP then everything should be ok, otherwise choose another proxy and try again.
- Visit this site. Hopefully the tracker will now pickup your real IP (check your profile to make sure).
Notice that now you will be doing all your browsing through a public proxy, which are typically quite slow.Communications between peers do not use port 80 so their speed will not be affected by this, and should be better than whenyou were "";unconnectable"";.
How do I make my bittorrent client use a proxy?
Just configure Windows XP as above. When you configure a proxy for Internet Explorer you're actually configuring a proxy forall HTTP traffic (thank Microsoft and their "";IE as part of the OS policy""; ). On the other hand if you use anotherbrowser (Opera/Mozilla/Firefox) and configure a proxy there you'll be configuring a proxy just for that browser. We don'tknow of any BT client that allows a proxy to be specified explicitly.
Why can't I signup from behind a proxy?
It is our policy not to allow new accounts to be opened from behind a proxy.
Maybe my address is blacklisted?
The site blocks addresses listed in the (former) PeerGuardiandatabase, as well as addresses of banned users. This works at Apache/PHP level, it's just a script thatblocks logins from those addresses. It should not stop you from reaching the site. In particularit does not block lower level protocols, you should be able to ping/traceroute the server even if youraddress is blacklisted. If you cannot then the reason for the problem lies elsewhere.
If somehow your address is indeed blocked in the PG database do not contact us about it, it is not ourpolicy to open ad hoc exceptions. You should clear your IP with the database maintainers instead.
Your ISP blocks the site's address
(In first place, it's unlikely your ISP is doing so. DNS name resolution and/or network problems are the usual culprits.)
There's nothing we can do.You should contact your ISP (or get a new one). Note that you can still visit the site via a proxy, follow the instructionsin the relevant section. In this case it doesn't matter if the proxy is anonymous or not, or which port it listens to.
Notice that you will always be listed as an "";unconnectable""; client because the tracker will be unable tocheck that you're capable of accepting incoming connections.
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| What if I can't find the answer to my problem here? - Top | |
What if I can't find the answer to my problem here?
* Make sure your problem is not really in this FAQ. There's no point in posting just to be sent back here.
* Help us in helping you. Do not just say "it doesn't work!". Provide details so that we don't have to guess or waste time asking. What client do you use? What's your OS? What's your network setup? What's the exact error message you get, if any? What are the torrents you are having problems with? The more you tell the easiest it will be for us, and the more probable your post will get a reply.
* And needless to say: be polite.
* Use the Staff Panel to contact the right person for your issue..
Whom do I contact about abusive and/or legal matters related to this site?
You should contact the administrator of this site. If you cannot find who that is, you should first contact one of the staff moderators and ask them who you should in turn contact. If still get no response you should contact the owner of Torrentway Contact US.
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