QuickGuide.Searching

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Searching and downloading files from the network

Now we can begin our file sharing journey by doing the most anticipated task, searching and downloading files from the network.

First of all Shareaza greets you with a home screen where most of the file sharing experience can be monitored. You can always switch back to this view by clicking the "Home" tab located on the tool bar.

For a detailed explanation of the items and information found on the home screen, you can take a look at the "Home" part of the Shareaza manual.

Let's continue with the tutorial:

Searching

Before searching the network, you should make sure that Shareaza is connected. In order to find out if it is, you can look at the side bar to the left on the home screen, where it says "Connection", it should say "Gnutella2: Connected" or something along the lines of "Gnutella2: 2 hubs". If so, Shareaza is ready to begin, if it says "Gnutella2: Connecting...", wait some time for it to connect. There might be other networks listed there, but their status is not necessary information at this point, Gnutella2 is the most important network for Shareaza.
Now go to where it says "Search Shareaza" with a spy glass beside it, under that you will find a box where you can enter the search terms of what you want to look for. Generally those would include keywords that identifiy the file you want to look for, like the title, subject, theme, or author. Try to be specific with your search. Keep in mind that each word will be matched with the files on the network, and Shareaza will return those hits that match ~60% of the search criteria.
The field below allows you to choose the type of file that you are looking for, so you can choose "Audio" if you want music, "Video" for movies, etc., and so forth for any other type. If you are not sure of what kind of file you are looking for, the option "Any File Type" should be chosen.
Now click "Start Search". Shareaza changes the view to the search results window, but it will be empty at first as it queries the network for your search terms.
Search results will begin to appear if any files were found. You can now continue on to the "Download" section in this tutorial (below). Or if you don't want to continue searching, you can stop the search by clicking the red circle with an "X" in it labeled "Stop". To close the search window all together, click the red square with an "X" to the right of the toolbar button labeled with the search keywords used.
You can use the Search Filter to organize your results by removing unwanted files.
It is recommended that you wait at least 5 minutes before canceling the search so that Shareaza can comb the network for your request.

Downloading from the search results

Once search results begin to appear, you can start downloading the file(s) that you were looking for. If there are too many results you can stop the search.
You can look at the list for the file that you wanted, and if you want some more information about one of the files, you can move your mouse over it, and a tooltip banner will appear with the metadata (detailed information) of the file. You may also single click on a file to display other metadata.
To begin downloading the desired file, double click on it and Shareaza will display the "Transfers" view, where you can see the file's transfer progress. (Note: it is often handy, for faster transfers, to download files with the most sources, shown on the source column. Usually the files at the top of the results are the ones with more sources.)
Now we can go back to the search results by going to the button labeled with the search terms that you used, located right below the toolbar.

Watching the progress of the downloads:

The side bar of the home screen shows a little summary of the files being downloaded, if you put the mouse over them, it will show some more detailed information.
For full information on the downloads, you can go to the "Transfers" tab. There will be files listed, and next to them is a progress bar, which first will be white, and will eventually fill up with colors as the file is downloaded.
During the download some files can be previewed, to see if it is really what you want. To do this, click on the file, and then click on the preview button on the toolbar in the lower part of the screen. You can also right click the file for a quick context menu, or you can just double click on it. Note: Some files will not preview, that doesn't necesarily means that the file is broken, it could also be that it is not previewable. It could also be that you don't have the necessary decoders to play it. For more information, take a look at the Media Player FAQ.
If you then decide that it is not the desired file, you can always cancel it by using the toolbar below or the context menu (left click).
Once the files are done downloading, they will turn to the Verified status, and the progress bar will be gray, and most likely with a green bar below it. For information on the progress bar, and the download progress, you can take a look at the Transfers FAQ. The "Transfers" tab is also explained on the Transfers part of the Manual.
The downloaded files can be played directly from the download list by double clicking on them, they will also appear on the side panel of the "Home" screen. However, the best place to find them is through the library, which is explained next.
To clean up the list of the files that are already downloaded, click on "Clear Completed" button on the right of the "Downloads" toolbar. Or right click anywhere and use the context menu.

Continue to the next step >> (Using the library to manage the downloaded files)

(Note: Keep in mind that some files found on the network might be copyrighted, and not legally transferable. Using Shareaza to upload or download unlicensed copyright material may be against the law. Don't violate national or international copyright laws!)

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QuickGuide.Searching

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Searching and downloading files from the network

Searching

Downloading from the search results

Watching the progress of the downloads:

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