I admit it.... I download music fromk the internet. I had been using a few different P2p's over the last few years. But lately it is almost impossible to get anything I need on Kazaa or WinMx or the such. I've known about Direct Connect for a while but never tried it. It seems lik this might be the last place I could get music that I am interested in. My question is, how do you hook up with the hubs? Do you have to know someone, or is there some sort of special requirments to hook up with the hubs? Any input would help...................................
Now for the reason why. While most folk I know have slowed in buying CD"s since the introduction of Audio Galaxy and Napster, I have actually increased my CD buying. I have used P2P to find new music and because of this I have probably increased my CD buying by 50% over the last few years. I know a lot of you on this board do not condone stealing music but I think of it as sampling music justas thousands of others out there. I really don't have many MP3's that were downloaded. I either buy the CD if I like it or dump the files if I don't. I don't think I can make it any simpler or legit. I am not out for a free lunch. It is just that over the past few years the quality of music that the major labels are pumping into our society has really been garbage for the most part and I now have a house to pay for. hence less money available to spend on music. I want to protect my investment by making sure what I buy is worth the "raping I get for paying $16 for a CD that actually costs pennies on the dollar to make. We all know that the RIAA and the labels screw us as well as the artiists.

Ugh, I just realized that this simple question turned into a lot more than the few lines of text it was meant to be. So back to the original program. So anyone use Direct Connect?

I've used it a couple times. Most of the hubs won't let you on unless you share a really large amount of files (30Gigs or more is common). Because of this you get a lot of tools sharing multiple copies of the same thing, their C:\windows directory, installed programs, etc. Because it does use hubs it is seems to be faster than the various gnutella networks, but won't have as many files available from any one hub.

-Mike

I use DC mainly for TV shows not yet (or likely never to be) aired in Sweden.

The main "currency" to get into hubs is share volume - though some also put requirements as to connection speed. Typically also requirements on how many connections you must allow to download from you. If you know the hub operator(s) you can get "vip" status which allows you to connect though you don't meet the normal requirements of the hub.

/Michael

Because of this you get a lot of tools sharing multiple copies of the same thing, their C:\windows directory, installed programs, etc

Most hubs run scripts to check for (and kick) peope sharing their C:\Windows, entire C:\, installed progs etc; as well as people duplicating their shares by, for instance, creating multiple drive letters pointing to the same folder...

/Michael

Short answer: stick with other programs. Loooooong answer:
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I admit, I used it. It has one problem: the users.

It's truly a community-driven P2P program, and as we've discussed before, most of the internet is inhabited by people who aren't as polite and level-headed as the folks here.

Every single hub has a multitude of rules that you must follow, and they all differ from each other. Further, most of them have population limits, so you either get transferred to a mirror hub or simply disconnected.

Then once you are on, there's any number of things that you can do to get kicked off. Search for a certain number of files within a certain time limit, and you're booted. Accidentally share a few unfinished Kazaa downloads, and you're booted.

And don't think you're simply kicked off and you can just log back on. Most block your IP for a few hours to permenantly.

I tried to be nice and civilized to the people on the hubs I needed (Dragonball Z hubs), but another problem comes with moderators.

The owner of the hub (a person running the DC server software on their PC or web server), will assign moderator status to their more frequent users. This makes people power hungry, which in turn upsets other users, which causes the script kiddies to attack the hub with bots that flood the chat sessions, slowing down the server for everyone. (no, I wasn't one of these people, just one of the affected).

Want more problems with it? Here's some more:

You can find any number of files, but if you are behind a firewall and the other person is behind one too, no dice.

People frequently lie about their connection speed (a suprising number of people have T1 and T3 lines in their houses).

I agree, it's incredibly hard to figure out how to get on a hub. I haven't used the program in months, or I'd remember how to tell you to do it. But once you get on, and find a user, you will wait days for a user's 1 or 2 download slots to open up, and if the program doesn't happen to check for the opening fast enough, another user will latch onto it.

You also have to watch out for what version of the program you're using. If it's DC++, maaaany hubs won't let you in. From what I remember, if gives you many advantages that upset people. It's like cheating with KL++ on the activity rating, except the hubs can detect DC++.

There are other negative points to it, but I've already rambled enough.

One more point about the general effectiveness of the program:

I lined up about fifty DBZ episodes on both iMesh and DC (different share folders).

Between all the fussing with the hubs, the waiting to connect to users, and the constant boots for doing nothing at all, I got all 50 eps from iMesh in about 4 days, while only about 20 were received from DC.

OK, I've officially been turned off from using DC. The reasons you posted for not using it were some of the same reservations I've had for the past few months and kept me from downloading and trying it. With that being said can any of you recommend a good file sharing program or service for music that will not get me sued by the RIAA?

In another thread someone recommended Shareaza. I've been using it for only 3 days and have had some luck downloading obscure files. It's worth a try. Plus, I have that and KL++ running at the same time, usually looking for the same files on each.

Honestly, I think filesharing of all types has taken a hit since the lawsuits started. People who used to share things other than music (but music as well), have stopped sharing entirely, and it's very hard to find things anymore.