FileSharing Uploading FAQ

Uploading

Q: Why should I upload?
A: As I've said before, many file hosting services need more files in order to get more views for their ads in order to get more money. Now, it is only logical that they would want more files, and in order to stay competitive against other services and to attract more users, they will usually offer incentives to upload. For example, on Rapidshare, if you upload a file and it gets downloaded by a free user, you get one point. If you get 10000 points, you get to extend your account for a month or create a new one month account. Many people who use Rapidshare don't want to pay to have the Premium benefits, so they see that it is worth it to upload files in order to not have to pay the monthly fee. Another service that does something like this is Megashares. Megashares doesn't have Premium accounts, rather, it has link cards which are more anonymous and less binding. They offer a sort of affiliate service where if someone clicks on the Link Card buy link from a page of a file you uploaded, you'll get a percentage of the money.

So you see, usually there are benefits to uploading files that are provided by the service itself, but if you really consider yourself a good samaritan, you could say that you're uploading to help the community. And I'm sure that those premium points will not encourage you whatsoever .

Q: Alright, I'm convinced, where do I get stuff to upload?
A: Well, many people think that it is OK to simply download stuff from here and just reupload them to your account. Although this is not really against the rules, think of the person who you are stealing downloads from. If you uploaded something then someone else came and reuploaded that to their account, effectively stealing part of the downloads you could've gotten, would you be happy? Of course, this is unless you are mirrorring files from different sites, in which case, it still is kind of wrong as the person still doesn't get the exposure they deserve.

So, if you shouldn't get files from here to upload, then where?! Irony that that is a question inside an answer to a question in a FAQ aside, there are various places you could find files from. Firstly, you need to know that all warez on the internet come from the Scene, P2P only groups (e.g. Axxo) or from single users. The Scene is a rather secretive collection of chat channels and topsites (super fast hidden dedicated servers) in which professional groups compete to see who can release games, movies, applications or anything else faster. Some groups only do it for kicks though, or perhaps to learn. The Scene is also quite organized, to the point where all releases are indexed. You can find a list of releases here:

Code:

http://www.nforce.nl/

These releases are firstly only available on the topsites which not many people have access to, and then are later redistributed on the web. This can take anywhere between seconds and hours, hardly ever more than an hour though. They then show up on various places such as private FTPs, the Usenet, private torrent sites, P2P networks and of course, here. Most of the people who upload here have access to private FTPs, the Usenet or private torrent sites. Of course, you could also get files from other sites like this one, but it'd be the same thing as getting the files from here, just more indirect.

Q: TL;DR, where do you recommend a new guy like me to get stuff like this then?
A: Too long; Didn't read eh? Well, that's OK, I tend to go on and on regarding these things. I would personally recommend torrent sites like TorrentLeech or Demonoid. ThePirateBay even if you don't want a private tracker.

Q: Alright, I got my files all nice and downloaded, but how am I going to make it small enough to upload on my file hosting service of choice?
A: Seems we have a problem eh? Well, you have two options: use WinRAR or use a file splitter. A popular file splitter would be HJSplit available at:

Code:

http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/#win32

Of course, that solution isn't too popular at all, even though it is technically more correct. What most people use is WinRAR as it has the ability to compress and split files. If you are splitting movie files, set the compression ratio to Store. Know why? Because DivX/XviD uses a similar type of compression as WinRAR so you won't be getting much compression (a couple of MBs at most). Here would be a screenshot illustrating how to set up WinRAR to split files correctly. To get that dialog, simply select the files you want to pack, right click and click Add to archive...


Q: Why is my upload so slow?!
A: You see, the way that DSL and Cable work, they provide a very small frequency range for upload and a large one for download. The difference between the two can actually be very disproportionate. For example, I have a 4 MBit download yet only 512 KBit or so upload. If you know your real upload speed, and you know that you're uploading slower than you should, then maybe you should try a different network (if you're on Rapidshare), a different program to upload, or perhaps a different protocol altogether.

What I do is I upload everything on my web hosting and then remote upload it to Rapidshare. I happen to have excellent speeds using FTP. This also allows me to make mirror to other file hosting services if I were so inclined (as well as sharing the files with my friends without needing a Rapidshare account).