Mirroring/sharing the Mapraider files with Shareaza

External tools, software and sites for creating or editing UT99 resources.
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Dr.Flay
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Mirroring/sharing the Mapraider files with Shareaza

Post by Dr.Flay »

Helping to download and mirror the Mapraider collection, is far easier than many of you think, so I thought I'd cover the subject of using Shareaza.

The site itself uses the power of Shareaza to distribute the archive in a painless way that avoids the issues of torrent seeding.

Step 1.
Download the correct Shareaza.
:mad2: Unfortunately the evil Discordia company has been cyber-sqatting every p2p site it can grab. All .com sites for Shareaza, Limewire, iMesh bareshare...etc. are fake, with fake software.
Shareaza only use Sourceforge http://shareaza.sourceforge.net

Step 2. Configuring
I recommend configuring Shareaza before adding your shared folders. During the quickstart wizard just leave the default folders for now. You can add and remove later.
During the quickstart, it is worth enabling the "Power mode" as this adds a network icon to the GUI.
This makes it easier to see who or what you are connected to.

By default the current version 2.6 has the old G1 network disabled (Gnutella, Limewire, Bareshare etc.)
:idea: To re-enable it, look in Shareaza's advanced settings (CTRL+P) and look for the section "Discovery.EnableG1GWC" and set it to "True"
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Shareaza already knows about server and host files for G1, G2, e2k and torrent. Other networks will have to be manualy added.
You can add more e2k (eDonkey) servers if you wish, though the Swedish "eDonkeyServer No2" in the default list is probably the largest you will find. (You can set it as a priority server via "right-click")
:!: Hit "F8" or go to the "Host Cache" menu option, in the advanced section of the "View" menu.
View->Advanced->Host Cache.
Here you can import any server lists you have downloaded.

Lets add the DC++ network.
You can stick to hubs based in your own country if you wish, or just use the largest (or even a pre-aranged hub).
http://www.dchublist.com/support/lists/
I install the complete list, and often connect to 2 large servers in different countries.
You will need WinRar or WinZip etc. to open the file (??.hublist.xml.bz2) and extract the "XML" file (Shareaza does recognise the "bz2" files, but fails to import them).

:idea: TIP: You can either import server lists via their section in the hosts cache, or if the file is visible in a shared folder, from the "Library" in Shareaza, you can double-click on it.

Step 3. Security
Visit the security forum and get the filter/blocklist.
The link is always on the "Home" tab in Shareaza.
:!: Press "F7" to open the security section, or from the menus "View->Advanced->Security"
Due to the amount of spam ZIP files being spewed out by fake results, the filter blocks ZIPs, so we need to fix that.
Look for the line that starts "\.zip$" and change its setting from "Deny" to "Accept" or "None".

Step 4. Sharing :tu:
OK. you are ready to share your Unreal archives.
Go to the "Library" tab and choose the "folders" mode.
Right-click in the folders area, and click on "Share Files". Now add the extra folders you whish to share.
It will now scan and "Hash" all the files it can see. If you are sharing a large collection this will take a while!
As each file is hashed, it becomes visible to the networks.
By default it scans the files in low-CPU mode, but if you are not doing much else, you can switch it to fast-hashing.

:thuup: Shareaza lets you add or correct "metadata" in/on all files.
You can add star-ratings and reviews to your favorite mods and maps, which helps people see which files are good and trustworthy.
Shareaza can also see into ZIPs and RARs etc. so users can see inside a remote file (and even read the readme) to make sure the file contains what users expect.

I am often connected to 9 networks (3x G1 / 2x G2 / 1x e2k / 2x DC++ / 1x torrent).
and share upto 200GB. (try doing that with a normal torrent program!)

:idea: TIP: when doing your first searches, you will get lots of spam results from Limewire scumbags.
Your first search, should be the default "any filetype", and search for "I @m @ SP4M file" or "Spam-trap K1LL M3" or anything that should not exist as a real file. (You can even mash some random keys).
All the results that start coming in are fake. :pfff:
After a few minutes you can start Right-clicking on the files and "Ban-User". Do this until the list empties.
The longer you waited, the more you can ban in one click. These bans get added to the security filter, so Shareaza remembers it.

:!: Users banned in the file-transfer window, are only banned for the session.
Abusive or suspicious users/organisations can be changed to a permanent ban, so Sharaza remembers it.
I have blocked 2 extra IP ranges that look very suspicious, as up to 7 PCs on the same network, kept grabbing exactly the same files every day, and running different clients from the same IP.
65.199.18.*
66.212.143.*
Adding a security rule to Shareaza is easy when blocking IP addresses. Just change the last number to a "*" and all PCs on that network are blocked.

That covers all the main stuff, you can tweak the GUI and settings at your own leisure.
Enjoy real file-sharing :D
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Wises
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Re: Mirroring/sharing the Mapraider files with Shareaza

Post by Wises »

Pretty cool alright.. many years ago I was helping with a similar mod named Exo see

Appears to be open source now..
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Dr.Flay
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Re: Mirroring/sharing the Mapraider files with Shareaza

Post by Dr.Flay »

Chatting to each-other

For convenience you can add the MapRaider IRC room/channel to Shareaza.
In the Shareaza chat preferences, you can swap the server to "irc.enterthegame.com"
Image
Then once you connect to it in the chat window, you can add the "Mapraider" channel.
Image
Now you can quickly copy and paste links to files, or browse the collection of a user you can see.
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