Downloading The Fast Way

[VB]

Sig2Dat

It is better to search for files, rather than using Sig2Dat hashes/quicklinks. If you do a search, you can see if the file is widely available or not. Also you start with sources to download from.

Sig2Dat hashes/quicklinks are still very usefull. You can compare the sizes in the search results with the size of the Sig2Dat. Then it is easy to pick the correct file. Tip: click on the filesize column in the search results to sort on the results on filesize.

Searching

Start a search. A single search (no AutoSearchMore) is enough if the file is popular. For more rare files do a couple of manual 'search more'. Stop searching when you have 10 or more sources. The reason why you shouldn't search until you get a lot of results will follow shortly.

Now start the download.

After that continue searching for the same file. This time you can enable AutoSearchMore if you want. Search for another minute or less. Two minutes for rare files. Searching longer doesn't help much, trust me.

You will notice that the download speeds are much higher now.

But why didn't we initially search until we had hundreds of results? Well, only a maximum of 30 sources is stored in the .dat file when you start a download. But once the download is started, an additional 120 sources can be added (150 total). That's why we continued searching after starting the download.

Finding more sources for active downloads

If you have a couple of big downloads that are downloading at snail pace, then it can help to find additional sources. Tools like Speed Up are good for that purpose. But sometimes it can also help to use the powers of ASM to give your downloads a boost.

Go to the seach panel and search for the same file as the one that you want to try to give a boost. Turn AutoSearchMore on. Search for a minute or less.

[swarnel]

yeah good tip
searching for the files manualy do make a difference in speed

[Janetyjanet]

Just tried it & whaddya know - instantly speeded up download - hurrah (thanks for sharing&#33

[silly_sarabear]

[COLOR=orange][FONT=Courier][SIZE=1] hey thanks for those tips helped alot

[Bebi]

What I do is when I see a file I want I enter its specific details so it will only search for that file meaning it wont pull up files I dont want and focus on getting more sources for that file alone, so I slap on autosearch and download it and set it to search for more resources every 5 seconds so its pulling up new people to download from and the auto source finder adds them to the download so it does all the work for me

[Oni]

just 2x the download speed, the file was at 28kbs now at 57kbs
wow great tip ....

Thanks

Oni

[RedRival]

No offence but I always thought that manual searching was known to everyone that is, clicking search for more everytime your sources run low. What I thought was the main issue was trying to overcome this "kazaa barrier" where downloads only hit a certain download rate and will not climb any higher. Or the fact that some people are lazy to search for more and want a mod that attempts to do so, but never did it occur to me that some of the long time users are not aware of the fact that searching for more users increase more sources and thus increase your download speed. But then again, Paul your guide was Fabulous.

[Sam Pah]

Sorry, i'm new here. I followed Paul's advice and the search gives 74 users. Cool. But when i download the file, only 2 users upload to me. Why is that?

[VB]

Originally posted by Sam Pah@26 April 2003 - 12:03
Sorry, i'm new here. I followed Paul's advice and the search gives 74 users. Cool. But when i download the file, only 2 users upload to me. Why is that?

- Read the FAQ

[{I}{K}{E}]

it's a newcomer lol

:rtfaq: