QuickGuide.FirstStart

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Starting Shareaza for the first time

Now that you have succesfully installed Shareaza, lets start it for the first time, and get it configured to fit you and your computer best.

Either Shareaza starts automatically after the installer has been closed, or you will have to open Shareaza manually from its Desktop/quick start/start menu link.
Once Shareaza starts for the first time, a setup wizard appears in the middle of your screen. The remote window will also appear (you can close it - or ignore it for now). The remote window is an interface for Shareaza's included media player plugin. Plz note that the ugly default skin can be changed at a later time.
The second step of the wizard asks for information about your internet connection, which will help Shareaza get the maximum performance out of your wire. First choose either the type of your internet connection or your respective up- and downstream speeds. If you are not sure how fast your internet connection really is, you can test this here. I recommend you running several tests from at least 2 different servers and take out the highest results for each, your up- and downstream separately. Note that you can choose the units in which the site displays your test results on the left side directly below the SPEEDTEST.NET logo. (kbps are kilobits per second; KB/s are kilobytes per second; mbps are megabits per second etc.)
Now chose whether you want to set up port forwarding via UPnP (recommanded). This will only work if your internet gateway device (modem/router/NAT) supports UPnP. If this is not the case, you will need to set up port forwarding manually (this can be done at a later time). Note that not configuring this correctly will diminish your search results and download speeds by up to 60%.
Step three allows you to share files by adding folders you wish to share to your Shareaza library. Some defaults are already suggested, but you can safely delete them. Keep in mind that you should imperatively share the folder Shareaza stores your downloads in, as doing else can have negative influences on your download speed. If you don't have any other folders to share, you can ignore this step, and click "Next". (Note: You can also add folders to share later on via the Tools menu.)
Shareaza is community oriented, and users can browse other's profiles, and even exchange each other's favorites. To take full advantage of this you can fill in as much of a user profile as you like. Any information you enter here can later be edited or removed. The user name you've chosen may be sent to others when they upload or download from you. Other profile information may be sent to other people when browsing or chatting with you. This is the only use of profile information. When you are done, click "Next" to continue.
The wizard will ask what kind of interface you want to use in Shareaza. Normal Mode is preselected, but you should choose Power Mode for more options and configuration possibilities. Note that if yo like it easy ans simple at the beginning, choose Normal Mode now and if you feel ready, switch to Power Mode at a later time via the View menu.
Shareaza can display simplified progress bars to reduce CPU usage. This is a relic of the early days of Shareaza and today only very rarely an issue as computers are hundreds/thousands times faster then they were when the Shareaza project was born.
Shareaza can handle .torrent-links. Uncheck this option if you have already installed an other client to handle torrents which you want to use instead of Shareaza. The Shareaza settings can be used to register/unregister Shareaza as the handler of the .torrent file type if you change your mind about this setting later.
In the last step you can define to which networks Shareaza connects by default at startup. It is highly recommended to connect to Gnutella2, as without this network, lots of the advanced networking features simply won't work and you will get crappy downloads in return.
Now select whether you want to connect now, whether Shareaza connects to the previously selected networks once started and also select whether you want to start it with Windows or not. The last two options are recommended, the first one is at your choice. Plz note that you can't download or search if you are not connected to the networks.
Now you can click "Finish". Congratulations! You have now configured Shareaza to fit your needs, and can start using it!
In order to check whether everything works as it should, go to Help >> Connection Test. A webpage should open and your test results will be displayed soon after. If both tests are passed (green), everything works fine. If this is not the case, you have limited connectivity, which reduces your download and search results by up to 60%. See the port forwarding section of our Wiki for help and instructions or ask specific questions at our forums.
Note that you may rerun the QuickStart wizard at any time by choosing its item in the Tools menu.

Continue to the next step >> (Let's start searching and downloading from the network)

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QuickGuide.FirstStart

Starting Shareaza for the first time

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