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Introducción y Resumen

La pregunta más frecuente sobre Shareaza u Otros Programas P2P, es sobre descargando. Toda la gente siempre cree que tienen que abrir una característica oculta para hacer sus descargas más rápidas. ¿La realidad? ¡Ninguna opción como esa existe!

The truth is that downloading is subjective. You can only download as fast as other users can upload to you. If you try to download a file, and it only has a few users (sources), chances are it won't be too fast. Therefore, The more sources a file has, theoretically the faster it will be.

Don't let the units fool you; there's a difference between 1 Kb ( kilobits ) and 1 KB ( kilobytes )

1 Kilobyte = 8 Kilobits

1 KB/s = 8 Kb/s::

Users often think that downloading at 16 Kb/s is fast and expect their downloads to finish quickly when in fact they're downloading at a slow 2 KB/s. To change the way Shareaza represents speed go to:

Shareaza Settings > General > Show rates in::

and select the units most suitable for you. Click here to read more about Shareaza's Settings.

What to Expect

From Gnutella2: Gnutella2 (G2) is Shareaza's premier network. The network is small compared to larger networks like FastTrack (Kazaa) or eDonkey, but it is powerful, with many features and great efficiency. You should expect smaller queues on Shareaza (1-25 is the norm) and "okay" speeds. For music, it is excellent, but offers only average speeds on larger files. The only thing hurting speeds on the big files is the low number of users. Hopefully, though, the network will grow and, in turn, so will the speeds. With the network growing every day, the speeds grow too. Gnutella2 is optimal for both large and small files.

From Gnutella: A network of mostly small files, good for music. It is much like Gnutella2 in the way that it acts in a similar structure, but it lacks the efficiency and features. Even with more users than Gnutella2, it actually offers worse performance. It also has short queues, like Gnutella2. Gnutella is best for smaller files (~ 4-10 MB).

From eDonkey2000: eDonkey is a network of long queues and large files. Don’t be surprised if you try to download something on eDonkey and you’re waiting in queues the size of your state's population. But, the network has pretty much everything, if you wait long enough (say, leave your download going overnight or longer). You'll be able to get most files eventually. Keyword: Eventually. The download is going to be slow, much slower than most other networks. This is why the network is suited for broadband users, who can leave their connections active all the time and wait through the queues and the slow download. However, there is a credit system involved - the more you upload to a user, the faster you go through their queues, helping you download faster. The longer you leave it on, the faster your download will be - to a point, of course. eDonkey is best for larger files (20 MB +).

From BitTorrent: BitTorrent has a reverse strategy of many P2P networks. It is not searchable, but uses a website run 'Tracker'. This 'Tracker' indexes the users that has downloaded the file, and when you begin downloading it, you receive the source list. Because of this, you will have no trouble finding sources, but if the tracker goes down, then so does your download. BitTorrent has a strategy - "The faster you upload, the faster you download". The downloads, therefore, are very fast, since few can leech. However, people won't be downloading the file forever, so a download might last a week or so, but not much longer than that. There are no queues in BitTorrent, nor do you need to connect to anything other than the tracker when you are not downloading, much unlike Shareaza's other three P2P networks. Sites that have BitTorrent links are provided in the guide. BitTorrent is optimal for both large and small files.

Use High Sourced/Verified Files

This part is so crucial, I decided it deserves its own section. This is, by far, the most important thing you can do to get good download speeds. Kazaa, because of the raw user count, has a lot of sources for about everything. Since Shareaza's supported networks are smaller, and there are a lot less sources for every file. However, there are plenty of sources for a few key files that exist on the network.

Since more sources usually results in more speed, then you have to find the high sourced files to get a good download rate. There are two ways to do this - finding them by searching, or using the recommended way - downloading off Indexing Sites (AKA Verified Files or Release Sites)

Searching - When searching, sort by the number of sources. Then, look for the file you want from the top to bottom. That way, when see the file you want, you will get the one with the most sources. The more sources, the better chance of a fast download. Searching is only recommended if want single songs, or can't find what you need on release sites.
Release Sites - Certain sites provide links to files that have been found by users and usually have to be of a certain standard. This means there are no bad quality or fake files around these sites. They also give you the added bonus to discuss the file and view lots more useful information about the download. Since this is a central source to hundreds of users, many people download these files, making them extremely high sourced. These sites are far superior to searching. For BitTorrent, this is literally the only way to use it.

Setting Tips

These "option tweaks" should be the first you try to increase your download speed. They are quick, easy, and are often fix a configuration problem.

Update Shareaza

Shareaza is constantly updated with bug fixes, UI improvements, performance enhancements and new features. Find the latest release at the Shareaza Download Page.

Firewall and Router Configuration

If you have a firewall or router, be sure it is configured. You need to forward UDP and TCP packets through a port and configure Shareaza to use that port. See the Firewall/Router Configuration Page if you need help with this. This is a very important thing to do.

Modify the Download Connection Settings

Shareaza Settings > Internet > Downloads - Increase the number of 'Maximum Transfers' and 'Transfers Per file' to properly utilize your bandwidth - this allows you to optimize your "swarm" or "multi source" downloads. In other words - fixing this setting is strongly recommended
Shareaza Settings > Networks > eDonkey2000 - Increase the client link connections - this is the key to the eDonkey network, allowing you to stay in more queues and take advantage of your bandwidth.

Configuration Tips: Maximum Transfers - The ‘Maximum Transfers’ setting tells Shareaza how many transfers it can use to contact sources, and the more people it can contact, the faster it can start a download. The configuration of this setting depends on your bandwidth. Increase the setting until your bandwidth is allocated. A good ballpark for this setting would be ? if your download bandwidth (Example: 1000 kb/s Download Bandwidth = ~ 650 Connections). The absolute maximum to set this setting at is 1500 - unless you have a very high bandwidth connection (fewer than 1% of Shareaza users) If you want to get the most out of your connection, try raising the number in increments of 50 -75 and seeing which gives you the best performance. It is BAD for the network to increase this setting too high, so be sure you don't set it to an unreasonable amount.

Windows 9x Users: Do not increase the Maximum Transfers too high or you could crash your system! See the The Lockups Page for more information.

Configuration Tips: Transfers Per File The ‘Transfers per File’ is how many sources Shareaza can download from at once. The configuration of this setting also depends on your bandwidth. For a very high bandwidth connection, try 50. For a DSL connection of about 512 kb/s Download, try around 15. The more bandwidth you have, the more the setting should be increased.

Configuration Tips: Client Link Connections This setting determines how many eDonkey sources it can stay it contact with, and the more people you can download from, the better. It is related more to your computer than bandwidth – if your computer is slower, than don’t push it too high. For a newer computer and pretty fast broadband, 800 – 1000 would not be out of the question.

Windows 9x Users: Do not increase the Client Link Connections too high or you could crash your system! See the The Lockups Page for more information.

Update your eDonkey Serverlist

Shareaza gets lists of eDonkey servers which it can search from a 'server.met', which is hosted by various websites. You can set Shareaza to automatically download these lists.

Click some of the links below to automatically add 'server.met's to Shareaza.

[shareaza:meturl:http://www.edonkey2000.com/server.met http://www.edonkey2000.com/]
[shareaza:meturl:http://ed2kmet.x24hr.com/pl/slist.pl?download/server-best.met http://ed2kmet.x24hr.com/]
[shareaza:meturl:http://www.charles-web.com/met003/server.met http://www.charles-web.com/]
[shareaza:meturl:http://www.de-site.de/ed2k/koeln.met http://www.de-site.de/]
[shareaza:meturl:http://www.gruk.org/server.met http://gruk.org/]

For More Information and locations, see bluetack's server.met page

Connect to Additional Networks

Shareaza Settings > Networks > Gnutella - Check “Connect to Gnutella2 today’. Check “Connect to Gnutella Today/Always, if you choose).
Shareaza Settings > Networks > eDonkey2000 - Check Auto-Connect/Connect to eDonkey, if you wish.

Configuration Tips :

Gnutella2: Connecting to G2 is very strongly recommended no matter what you download, since it will has a large range of file types and pretty good speeds. It is growing by the day, and takes advantage of all Shareaza’s Advanced Features. Gnutella1: Only connect to G1 for music and other small files. It offers poor performance on larger files, so you won’t find much other than audio here. eDonkey2000: Connect to eDonkey for larger files, such as Movies, Software and Games. eDonkey has more users than the Gnutella networks combined, but, due to how the network is designed, offers very poor performance on smaller files. The eDonkey network actually discourages sharing lots of small files, due to its design. BitTorrent: To download BitTorrent files, you are not required to connect to anything when you are not downloading.

Set your Connection Speed

Shareaza Settings > Internet > Connection - Set the 'Inbound Address' to a number slightly below your rated download bandwidth. Do the same for the 'Outbound Address', setting it just below your upload bandwidth.

Configuration Tips:

If you do not know your rated line speed, check out The Speed Test Page or ask your Internet service provider.
Set the connection speeds to about 80% of your rated numbers, otherwise Shareaza will suck up all of your bandwidth.
Even if you don't plan to use your connection other than downloading, don't set the speeds to more than 80% of your bandwidth. Establishing connections would get slowed down if there is little bandwidth left and time out, resulting in a lower number of active sources.

If you have Windows XP with Service Pack 2

If you have Windows XP with Service Pack 2, your file-sharing experience will be reduced, for avoid this. You will need to install a Windows XP SP2 connection limit patch. What this does, is to remove the limit of 10 connections at the same time that Microsoft added to SP2, for make the spread of worms more slow. One of the patches you can use is the one from SpeedGuide and then, you will need to remove the special configuration that Shareaza made when it detected Service Pack 2 for improve a little.

This is what you will need to change:

Connection.SlowConnect This option is default set to 0 (false), but when Service Pack 2 is detected, it is changed to 1 (true), so with this Shareaza will be able to connect to the 3 networks, but slowly. If you leave this in 1 (true), the network connection speed will be slow, but isn't very important.

Downloads.MaxConnectingSources Controls the number of simultaneous download connections in the connecting state. So if Service Pack 2 is detected, the limit will be 8, you can move it to 25.

Practical Suggestions

If you have gone through all the above tweaks, and your download speed still is not satisfactory, then the following tips should do the trick. These are things that you do over time and don't take affect for a little while. However, these techniques are the ones that all the P2P experts use to get the most performance out of Shareaza and its incorporated networks.

Leave Shareaza Running

Leave Shareaza active for a couple days. If you are downloading from the eDonkey network, it will take time to get to the end of the line in your queue spot. You will see your best download performance after leaving Shareaza on for an extended period of time. Don't judge speed in the first few minutes, because the speed is often much faster towards the middle of a download than at the start.

Tweak your DSL/Cable (Broadband) connection

Sometimes a misconfiguration outside of Shareaza can affect the download speeds. Broadband Reports is a great resource for tweaking and learning more about broadband in general. The site will try and help make your internet connection more efficient. If you do not have broadband, getting it would also be an excellent speed tweak.

Conclusion

Please remember that these are extra tweaks and suggestions to help improve your downloading experience. They may work, but then again, they may not. Don't feel that you are guaranteed speed by reading this, but it probably enhance your Shareaza experience one way or another.

Every single user has a unique situation, and it isn't possible to give each and every one of the users the optimal settings and suggestions. Your best bet is to read carefully and try to figure out the mild science behind all this. It's actually just simple math. It has become common practice now to post forum threads, asking for more tweaks or "personal settings" and neglecting to read this guide. Please do not do this! The same question is asked over and over, and users do their best to respond to these questions. However, a small mistake in judgement on a settings, and you lose all possible performance with Shareaza. Plus, there are so many of these threads that they clutter up the forum, and many people just ignore them anyway.

This guide is not perfect, and probably never will be. However, if you have something you'd really like to add, feel free to send a message to any Moderator or Alpha Team Member, and they can help out. Whether it be telling friends about Shareaza, adding to this guide, participating in the forums, or just raising your upload bandwidth, help the network grow. One day, we can make Shareaza a program as well known as Kazaa, with speeds to match. Until then - keep sharing. Every bit counts.