How to download From RAPIDSHARE

I made a quick video to show you how to download from rapidshare as most of the links on the site will lead you to there so you must know how to download!

After you click a link, you will be taken to a redirection site where you will have to click some text usually saying continue to download or something similar.
Once you click through the redirection site you will find yourself at the following page.....

Follow what you see on screen and you will get your file downloaded.
simple!



If you are confused or have any problems then do not feel embarrassed, just leave a comment and I will advise and help you work it out.


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How to download From MEGAUPLOAD

Here is a video I found that shows you exactly what to do to download from megaupload, which is where I store most of the files you will find on the site.
When you click the link on the site, it will usually take you to a redirection site first (this is to hide the URL and help the links to the music to last longer!).
On the redirection site you will see some text telling you to click to continue to download the file. (I am going to post a video very soon showing how to click through the redirection sites just in case anyone is confused but for now leave a comment if you get stuck!)
After you click to continue to download, then you will end up on the Megaupload page for the file.
That is where this video begins, right on the Megaupload page for downloading.

Watch it and then you are ready to download.
If you have any confusion or problems, don't be embarrassed, just leave a comment here and I will advise and help you out.




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THE FILE IS ONLY 1kB or 0Kb in size...?

Do not worry if you clicked a link to download an album and then were taken to a page on rapidshare etc where it tells you that the file is only 1 or even ZERO kilobytes in size!!!
PLEASE GO AHEAD AND DOWNLOAD IT!
This is just a small way that can help to make the links last a lot longer!
The actual link to the album you are looking for, is written into a text document which is inside the 1kB file. so you need to go ahead and download the small rar or zip file, then open it with the usual password MP3@3pm, then open the text document, read the link inside and go download the full sized album file.
Simple.
I really thought people would go ahead and download but they don't! I get more emails from confused people about this than anything else...what gets me is that they will get to the 'file is 1kB' page and then stop. I know that I personally would definitely go ahead and download it but well...that's just me.
Anyway now you can be sure. there is nothing wrong with the link. the file is fine. Just download it and then try the link in the text file.
Enjoy.

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What is a Rar Archive Anyway?

LINK TO THE PROGRAM, WINRAR Here or Mirror Here

OK, I have been meaning to cover this for so long now and, judging by the amount of e-mails I receive on the subject, it is still a major issue for lots of you.
I will attempt to clear up some of the most commonly found problems regarding opening Rar Archives. Firstly though:

What is a Rar Archive Anyway?

First off, Rar archives are simply files that are used to 'pack' other files. Let's imagine that you have a set of ten files. The rar archive is like a box; you can put them into it, close it up and then, like when sending through the mail, you send it over the Internet and it is opened at the other side, the box is then discarded.
The main function of 'archiving' is to reduce the size of the files. The archiving process applies compression to the data or files that you place inside. Some file types can compress very well and some not very well at all. Some files are already of a compressed format, like MP3 files for example; they don't usually reduce much when archived...look at the picture below, the setting for compression (reducing the size) was at the strongest setting but the files as you can see, didn't reduce by much.


Compare the above, with this image of a bitmap image file in a rar archive on the same high compression seting.



The reduction in size of the file is AMAZING. So for people who use the internet to transfer files to and from locations, using Winrar is a must! If you only reduce the size by a small amount, it is still worth it. Why send extra data all over the place when you just don't have to?

So Rar Archives are not some great complicated mystery. They are, in fact, very simple to use and are really useful for a number of reasons. You can put files into a Rar Archive and then protect the Archive a password. This is great as a way of stopping these free file hosting services from knowing what is inside the files! And anyone else for that matter.
You can also put large sized files into a Rar Archive and then it can split the file for you, to be rejoined later. This is invaluable for say... I want to send you a movie file. It is 700Mb! I cannot find a free host service to use and also the uploading of it might disconnect as it would take a bit too long. so I put it into a Rar Archive and set it to split the output to files of 100Mb. The result is a set of seven Rar Files each of 100Mb in size. Then I can easily upload these, you can download them and open them easily. You then take the large file out of its 'box' and you have your movie file to watch.
More about file splitting later.
I want to concentrate on common problems with rar archives that you might come across so that is my next post.


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For MAC Users, Problem Solver

I cannot take any credit for the following MAC related information. Not really. To tell the truth it is taken from about three sources but I am responsible for putting it all here so that you might have success in opening the files I put on the blog.

What follows is a collection of Mac related help concerning RAR files etc.

FOR RAR FILES (and other Archive type files too)

Rar files: Those files that have the name like FILENAME.rar
These are the most likely filetypw you will download as this is what I prefer to use for packing or splitting albums.
As far as those 'FILENAME.r01, FILENAME.r02, etc' files they are the old naming system used by WinRAR. (I usually use the new naming system for split rar files.. so it is like: FILENAME.Part1.rar, FILENAME.Part2.rar, etc).

Short history lesson.
All file sharing comes from newsgroups. Different newsgroups servers have different limits on file size but let's just say the limit is 10mb. WinRar's best function is not compression but archiving, and splitting large archives into 'post-able to newsgroup' sizes. Thus a 500 mb file can be split into 10 mb chunks all of which have an ending like this .r01 .r02 etc. This is just fine up until a 1Gb file comes along and you end up with .r01-r99 and then all heck breaks loose. (Actually it doesn't but the file name conventions get a bit unconventional). To allow a more conventional file naming convention, WinRar is trying to get everyone to use -part1.rar, -part2.rar etc file names. As the number of bits in the archive increases the -partXXX.rar part just counts up.

The new file naming convention also allows a standard file extension of .rar. But not all computers can handle long file names (longer than the DOS standard 8.3), and so the new file naming systems is not necessarily catching on so fast.

As I stated though, I will always use the new naming so no need to worry about that! - HitMeWithIt

The important thing for Mac People to note is that there are two conventions in the old style naming system. The first part of the archive can either be named filename.r00 OR filename.rar. Find .rar (if not .rar find .r00) drop in into MacParDeluxe and it will reassemble the (probably) huge file. Make sure you have disk space free, start it running and, as they say, go get a cup of coffee. With big files, the reassembly will take a while.

MacParDeluxe free download/nagware
easiest to use make sure all the segments are in the folder and drop
one or all onto the program, ( I suggest putting it in the dock) Both
links OK.
Here
or
Here


UnRarX free download/ freeware
When you unRar a file you must first enter the password in its interface. This is not the prettiest but you need it.
Download Here
Or
Here


For both MacParDeluxe and UnRarX, there are cases where one will work and the other one won't.

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In general, Stuffit Expander should be your last resort, but it is as far as I know the only way on the mac to unpack password protected zip files.
The built-in mac unzipper will fail on password protected zip files.

Stuffit expander will also routinely report that archives are corrupt and/or passwords are wrong on many RARs(this is usually incorrect!).


FOR OTHER ARCHIVE FILES
If you run into .ace files - Sometimes, if they are in a set, they will be named thus: FILENAME.ace, FILENAME.c00, FILENAME.c01, FILENAME.c02, etc.
Use the following.
UnAceX
Download Here

For Oddball stuff like self extracting zips, which have a .exe on the
end, there is File Juicer
Download Here


FOR PLAYING THE MUSIC FILES!
VLC Player will play any Audio format .wma, .ogg, m4a, .mpga, mp3 etc.
VLC- Freeware
But no useful library functions and no burning functions.

AUDION 3 (now FREEWARE!!)
This program is amazing!!! Far too many functions for me to list here but you really ought to download this for yourself. It can play all of your MP3 files, edit them, tag them, play streaming radio, Burn to CD, Rip CDs and a whole lot more. As it's no longer being developed they give you the serial number for free on the site. Make sure you get it!
Download Here
Link to the serial number on Audion Site also.

Playing OGG files..Itunes/ QuickTime
If you have a few OGG format files then you will discover that a MAC doesn't like them. Fix that by reading this
and
Downloading This
You might just want to convert them - which you can do in QT, (save as file..), although transcoding lossy formats is a BAD IDEA. Google search and find out why!



FOR DOWNLOADING THE FILES
You have to download Firefox for megaupload and some other sites.

And for god's sakes after you install firefox, find the setting that
allows firefox to install programs and turn it off.

An easy download manager is iCab, which is also a great general Internet tool. It is also a fully-fledged browser but was written to adhere to the very strictest web standards, and since most sites ignore standards, it does not properly render most sites. This is also a great tool to download sites and connect to ftp servers. I cannot recommend this browser enough as an outstanding Internet tool; it just doesn't work particularly well as a browser.
A note of warning on iCab. For whatever reason (it's a Carbon application), it truncates file names to the old 26(?) character limit. On certain downloads, this means the -part1.rar, -part2.rar etc. on the end get lost and you will have trouble to unRar the archives.
Life comes with such disappointments !
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Like I said, not written by me. Hope you got help from it!
Plus I should add, if you have any problems that are not solved by this article, Mac related oif course, then please leave a comment here and maybe other Mac users can rely and help you out. Unfortunately I won't be able to. A Mac?
What's that then?
:)



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