Searching for files

[alishibaz]

Hello. I am a new user and I looked at the FAQ and tried to see anything that would apply to my problem.

My problem is that apparently, I don't understand how to search for files. When searching for audio files, there appears to be two sections.

I can enter the artist, album and title separately in the lower section or I can enter all that info on a single line in the upper section. Can anyone tell me if there is a document somewhere that I can read that might explain what the difference is between these two methods and which is preferable to use under different circumstances.

The problem I experience is that when looking for a specific audio file, things tend to slow down and all activity tends to stop. I would lilke to understand this process better. Can anyone point me to any kind of manual or document that explains these two sections?

P.S. I regret to inform you that I am running XP SP2 and will attempt to install the patch. Failing that, can anyone suggest whether System 7 is superior than Vista? If I want Shareaza to work well for me, which OS is better for me to run?

Thank you very much.

[old_death]

The difference between both search box parts is that the upper one will search for the keywords you entered without taking into account their order anywhere in a file. This means that you can't be sure where they are found (so one keyword that is part of an album title could also be found within the Genre information of a file for example). This will give you more search results - but less precise ones. If you use the lower section, the search will return only files that do match all the keywords you entered in the different sections (again, the order of the keywords to search for should not matter; so "Jones Harley" should give you the same results as "Harley Jones"). This means there will be less files being returned from a search you will probably not be interested in - however this also might filter out "good" files in some cases.

In most of the cases, using the second method is the best. There is one exception to this: when searching for very rare files, you should use the first method (as it may return more results).

As for your other questions: it is much more important you pass the connection test than you install the patch. See the help menu for the test and report back it if returns you one or two red results.

Yes, Win7 is indeed a huge improvement over Vista - however you don't need to update only for using Shareaza. I am using an x64 version of XP right now and I got no problems with Shareaza because of it.


mfg,
Old

PS.: The fact that everything slows down is quite normal, as during searches, your computer has to do an extreme amount of processing incoming and outgoing information, as well as do sorting and security checks etc. So that's something you shouldn't worry about. However there will be some improvements to this within the next version of Shareaza...

[alishibaz]

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I have been struggling with Shareaza for the past week and, at times, it has been a very strange experience.

I'm trying to understand your explanation about the difference between using the upper section and lower section. The one thing that seems confusing is that so many people seem to use very different formats for the names of their files. Some people always include Artist Name, Album Name and Track name and number. Others just seem to include a random selection of these items in the name of the mp3 files.

When Shareaza looks for specific information (like the Artist Name and Album Name), does it look at the name of the file and attempt to extract that info from the name? Or does it look at the ID3 information and try to extract that info from there?

Thanks again for your reply.

[old_death]

[alishibaz]

Ahhh .... that explains a great deal.

Now that I understand that, I feel I have a much better chance at using Shareaza to much greater satisfaction.

No need for you to reply to this. I just wanted to say thank you very much.

[old_death]

I'm glad I could be of assistance.