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Introductie en Overzicht

De meest gestelde vraag over Shareaza en elk vergelijkbaar programma gaat over downloaden. Is het mogelijk om mijn downloads sneller te maken door iets te wijzigen? Nee, er is geen optie om downloads sneller te maken.

Je kunt alleen zo snel downloaden als er anderen kunnen uploaden. Als je een bestand wilt downloaden, en er zijn maar een paar bronnen (gebruikers met het bestand) dan zal het downloaden minder snel gaan. Theoretisch zal een bestand met meer bronnen sneller gedownload worden.

Nb: Raak niet in de war van de eenheden; er is een verschil tussen 1 Kb ( kilobits ) en 1 KB ( kilobytes )

1 Kilobyte = 8 Kilobits
1 KB/s     = 8 Kb/s

Informatie over Bits en Bytes en hoe je de weergave in Shareaza kunt wijzigen.

Zoek op het netwerk naar een populair bestand, een klein bestand met minstens 50 bronnen, bijvoorbeeld een tophit. Als je het gaat downloaden en het lukt niet of heel langzaam, dan kun je een probleem hebben. Je zou Shareaza zelf kunnen downloaden met de Magnet link. Het Shareaza installatie-programma is zeer populair en wordt veel gedeeld door gebruikers van Shareaza, daarom zou het downloaden snel moeten gaan.

Als dat niet het geval is, probeer het dan met de onderstaande instructies op te lossen. Als je een heel zeldzaam bestand probeert te downloaden, dus met maar één bron, dan kan een lage snelheid normaal zijn, je bent dan afhankelijk van één gebruiker.

Als je download heel veel bronnen heeft en het downloaden gaat toch niet goed, dan kan het komen door het eDonkey2000 netwerk, een netwerk ontworpen voor grote bestanden en consistent, maar met een lagere transmissie-snelheid. Hier betekent veel bronnen voor een bestand niet dat je het snel kunt downloaden. Dat is wel het geval op Gnutella. Elk netwerk heeft dus verschillende eigenschappen.

Wat kun je per netwerk verwachten?

Gnutella2: (G2) is Shareaza's belangrijkste netwerk. Het is klein vergeleken met bijvoorbeeld eDonkey2000, maar het is krachtig met veel opties en met een prima efficiëntie. Een wachtrij is kort (1-25 is de norm) en heeft een goede snelheid voor muziek, maar een gemiddelde snelheid voor grotere bestanden. Dat laatste komt omdat er meestal minder bronnen zijn met dat bestand.

Gnutella2 is optimaal voor zowel grote als kleine bestanden.

gnutella: Een netwerk met meestal kleine bestanden, goed voor muziek. Het is de voorloper van Gnutella2, maar is minder efficiënt en heeft minder functies. Ook hier zijn de wachtrijen kort.

Gnutella is goed voor kleinere bestanden (~ 4-10 MB).

eDonkey2000: een netwerk met lange wachtrijen en grote bestanden. Je kunt een plek krijgen gelijk aan het inwonertal van je woonwijk. Er zijn heel veel bestanden, als je lang genoeg wacht, je laat je download een nacht doorlopen, dan kun je veel bestanden uiteindelijk downloaden, als de bron actief blijft. De download is echter trager dan bij de andere netwerken, dus je moet je verbinding actief laten. Er is wel een systeem dat je snelheid van doorlopen van de wachtrij verhoogt als je meer upload.

eDonkey is goed voor grotere bestanden (20 MB +).

BitTorrent: dit netwerk heeft een andere strategie. Je kunt het niet doorzoeken, er worden webgeoriënteerde "Trackers" gebruikt. Een "Tracker" indexeert de gebruikers die een bestand downloaden of uploaden, als je begint met downloaden krijg je dit overzicht. Je kunt dus je bronnen vinden, behalve als de tracker er mee stopt, dan stopt ook je download. Hier geldt ook : "Hoe sneller je upload, hoe sneller je download". De downloads zijn erg snel omdat de meeste gebruikers een goed deel van hun bandbreedte beschikbaar stellen om het bestand dat ze downloaden te delen. Echter download iemand een bestand natuurlijk niet altijd, hoogstens een week. Er zijn geen wachtrijen, je hoeft ook geen verbinding te maken anders dan met de tracker als je niet aan het downloaden bent. Dat wijkt natuurlijk ook af in vergelijking met de andere netwerken.

BitTorrent is optimaal voor zowel grote als kleine bestanden.

The most important thing when working with Shareaza

The most important thing when working with Shareaza is that you pass the connection test. If you don't, your downloads will ever be limited, as you can only connect to around ~60% of all network users, which will also limit your download speed to a maximum of 60% of the possible speed it could have.

Read the Shareaza Connection Test page for more information before you continue to follow this guide.

Use High Sourced/Verified Files

This part is so crucial, I decided it deserves its own section. This is, by far, one of the most important thing you can do to get good download speeds (besides passing the Shareaza Connection Test, of course).

Since having more sources usually results in a bigger download speed, you have to find the highest sourced files to improve your 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 recommended only if you want single files, or can't find what you need on release sites. Watch out for fakes though, as they can be popular. To protect yourself from this, be sure that the file size seems realistic and the file type is what you're looking for. Make also sure your Security Filters are up-to-date. Note also that you should prefer downloads that have sources in multiple networks above downloads that have sources in one single network, as this increases the chance of finding more sources at a later time.
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.

*** PAGE HAS BEEN VERIFIED UNTIL THIS PLACE. EVERYTHING ABOVE IS OK, THE REST HAS NOT YET BEEN CHECKED OR VALIDATED ***

Primary Tweaks

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. Many versions of Shareaza will occasionally check shareaza.sourceforge.net automatically, to see if an update is available. This is the single best "tweak" or change you can make to Shareaza.

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 close second in terms of the most effective tweaks to follow.

Fix Windows SP2

Windows SP2 contains new "features" which are designed to impede the spread of worms and other malware. However, this limitation directly impacts p2p programs, causing it to either severely limit Shareaza's performance or block it alltogether. Recent versions of Shareaza include workarounds to this limitation, however repairing the situation by installing a third-party patch is the best solution. See the SP2 Troubleshooting page for more information.

Alternate Tweaks

These are things that will help after reading the primary tweak section, and help you to get more out of your p2p experience with Shareaza.

Modify the Number of Download Connections

Firstly, it's best to check the number of concurrent connections your network hardware can support.

If you connect to the Internet via a modem attached directly to your PC (eg via USB), then you should be able to virtually have an unlimited number of connections.
If you use a dedicated router to connect to the internet, the number of concurrent connections will be limited by the capability of the router. Due to the limited amount of memory (RAM) used in such devices, the number of concurrent connections is relatively small for P2P. All Linksys (wired or wireless) routers support a maximum total of 253 concurrent connections. This limitation applies to all internet activity, so don't tell Shareaza to use all of them; allow some spare connections for web browsing and emails etc.
If you use PC as a dedicated router (with a modem attached directly to it), then you should be able to virtually have an unlimited number of connections.

Unfortunetly there's no test for this, so I suggest contacting the router manufacturer for information. If you just can't, or don't want to, you'll have to guess (255 is a good estimate).

Once you've learnt the number of connections your hardware can handle, you now know what you can set the options to.

Shareaza Settings > Internet > Downloads - Set Maximum Transfers to 40% of the maximum concurrent connections supported by your network hardware (or use the maximum value if you can have an unlimited number of connections). Set Transfers per File to half of the Maximum Transfers value. Increasing these values helps to properly utilize your bandwidth - this allows you to optimize your "swarm" or "multi source" downloads. In other words - tweaking this setting is strongly recommended.
Shareaza Settings > Networks > eDonkey2000 - Set Client Link Connections to 40% of the maximum concurrent connections supported by your network hardware (or use the maximum value if you can have an unlimited number of connections). Increasing the number of client link connections is the key to the eDonkey network, allowing you to stay in more queues and take advantage of your bandwidth.

Configuration Tip: 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. The absolute maximum value for this setting is 200 - 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 starting the number at 40-60, and raising the number in increments of 10-20 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. Having too many connections can also impede your network equipment (such as a router or DSL modem), or your computer.

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 Tip: 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 Tip: 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.

You will have to restart Shareaza for these changes to take effect.

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.gruk.org/server.met gruk.org/]
[shareaza:meturl:http%3a%2f%2fpeerates.net/servers.php peerates.net]

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 Correctly

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.

Change Maximum Queue Length

Sometimes you will find that your download sources are filled with edonkey connections with long queues. To make room for more G1/G2 sources and thus speed up your downloads you may want to change the max queue length to something more like 1500 or 1000, but no lower then that. This setting can be changed by going to

Tools > Shareaza Settings > Downloads > Limits > Maximum Queue Length

and manually typing in a lower number. Shareaza may show a warning but it should allow you to make the change.

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 will 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. Keep sharing. Every bit counts.