Metal MP3 Trading via Direct Connect FAQ Version: 2.0 Date: November 4, 2008 This is a FAQ for those interested in trading death and black metal music and other forms of neoclassical music, including synthpop, electronic music, soundtracks and ambient, in the form of mp3 files using the Direct Connect P2P networks. Throughout this FAQ, we use Neoclassical Music Hub as our example and encourage all who are interested in ancient or modern Indo- European music to visit this hub. I. Getting Online 1. Install Software 2. Prepare MP3s 3. Begin Sharing II. Hub Questions 1. Technical 2. Social 3. Conventions 4. Contact Appendix A: List of Metal MP3 Trading Sites I. Getting Online You will be accessing a "hub," which is a computer serving as an address book for those computers currently online and sharing files. When you connect to the hub, you can then see what other machines are available, and connect to them through the mediation of the hub. This hub uses the "direct connect" protocol and is online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 1. Install Software The first step is to find the software, and the second to install it. a. Finding Direct Connect++ The preferred version of Direct Connect is an open-source freeware version authored by a brave team of volunteers. While it is not perfect, it has no advertising and runs more efficiently than the original. You can find it here: http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/ Click on the "download" option to the left, and save the current version for your operating system to your hard disk. There are both Windows and source code versions here, so if you are on a Mac or Unix system you will need to compile a binary. Seek your local expert for help with that process (it is beyond the scope of this file). b. On Windows machines, installing is as simple as double-clicking the installation archive and then entering some information about your system. You can change the values entered later, including most importantly the location of your "shared folder." Since the values entered can be changed, and require explanation to be lucid, they are covered in more detail in the next section. 2. Prepare MP3s a. Settings The most important decision is the choice of folder to share. It is wisest to pick a place on your local harddrives where you have plenty of room, and can consolidate your mp3 files by folder. If you have only one drive, your C: drive, it is advisable to pick some place away from your system folders and files, such as C:\tmp\share or c:\share, which allows you to add new folders within it with minimal chance of you including sensitive files. b. Configuration By local custom, the configurations used are thus: C:\share \band name \album_name1 \album_name2 \album_name3 band_name - album name - 01. track name.mp3 band_name - album name - 02. track name.mp3 band_name - album name - 03. track name.mp3 Using the extended "0n" format for track listing allows computers to automatically sort the tracks correctly in numerical order. c. MP3s "Ripping" MP3s refers to the process of transferring files from a music CD to digital form. Since the Windows file system does not natively recognize these files, an additional piece of software is used to convert them so that they can be encoded. To rip MP3s, you need: - A CD-ROM drive of ripping capability - Software to rip and software to MP3 encode - Space on your hard drives (approx 40 mb per full-length album to be ripped) The software we recommend for extracting from CD or WAV files is CDex, which can be found here: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ Go to the Options menu, select "Settings" and then "Encoder" and enter "%1 - %2\%1-%2 - %7. %4" (without quotation marks) in the "Filename" blank. This package both rips (CDex) and encodes (LAME). A more complete set of instructions for the ripping process, including a list of compatible drives, can be found at: http://www.mp3-faq.org/tips/encoders.html It is also useful to change the "WAV -> MP3" directory to your shared folder. This allows you to directly rip CDs in the preferred format. To do this, go to the "Options" menu and select "Settings" and browse to your share directory in the field "WAV -> MP3". 3. Begin Sharing a. Connecting Once you have installed the software of your choice and set up your MP3 directory, you are ready to connect to the hub itself. Checklist (Use the rulesets in Section II part 3 as a checklist.) In the upper left hand corner of the DC++/Direct Connect screen is a button option called "Connect." Select this, and in the "Address" line of the ensuing dialogue box, enter the address of the hub you wish to use (see list in Appendix A). When you connect, you should should see the following message: neoclassical.no-ip.org:412 [ Indo-European modern and classical music hub. ] b. Sharing Your files are made available when you place them in your share directory and tell your Direct Connect client to recompile a list of the files it has (in the "Settings" menu). Other people will download your files and your system will establish a queue, or line in which tasks wait before being acted upon, both for the people downloading files and for the files you download from others. A user list should be in the upper right hand window of the program; if you right-click on a user name and select the "Browse" option, your system will download a directory of their files. There is also an area on your client for system messages and hub chat, which is a free for all channel based around the hub. When you are on the hub, the speeds you perceive for each transfer will reflect the portion of your bandwidth being consumed by all of your transfers. If you join the hub at 56k with 3tb of rare black metal, expect to have a bandwidth shortage rapidly. II. Hub Questions 1. Technical "I can't connect to the hub(timeout)!" Most likely, one of two things has happened: 1. Your local ISP/relay is moving slowly. 2. The local ISP/relay for the hub is moving slowly. There are other possibilities, such as cataclysm or hardware failure, but it is most likely one of the above two. Wait for a few hours, then try to reconnect. "I can see a user's files, but not download." Either this user is out of slots (method of regulating number of people using the user's bandwidth at any one time) or there is a problem, most likely with a firewall, in the sending of your file request. Often, if the user whose share is inaccessible can be enticed to send a message to the user requesting, routing blockages are "cleared" because the system recognizes the connection and allows it. 2. Social "I've been banned!" The person banning you will send a one-line message with the ban request. This explains the reason why you are being banned. This is usually one of the rules of the hub. Fix whatever it is (unorganized files, not sharing, not enough sharing) and return when you're ready. If you show a willingness to help us out by standardizing to the formats and behavioral level required, we'll help you out by allowing you to download and trade MP3s. "People were mean to me!" (cough) this is black metal (cough) "What do you mean, 'too much humanist music'?" Undue amounts of hippie music, nu-metal, leftist metalcore, etc. will annoy the clearer-headed ones on the hub. If you're sharing 75% RnB and Soul Classics and then a handful of later black metal albums, expect "no connection" error messages. 3. Conventions On the Neoclassical Music Hub, we don't like rules because it's easy to conform to the meaning of the words used to state rules without acting out the social role which is needed. Once you are forced to state clear rules, people follow those and stop thinking about the spirit of what they are doing. Thus there are no rules, and discipline - while lax - is arbitrary if you do not understand the principles of neoclassical culture and thought. The following behavioral suggestions seem necessary: 1 - Contribute (you get what you give).
2 - No moralizing (no topics are taboo).
3 - Your behavior reflects your character.
If you really need these defined, it's not the place for you. We are not inclined toward kicking/banning, since these are overused on most hubs for the masturbatory glorification of the egos of the ops, but if you are not contributing you are a drain on the community and will be ejected. You can type "+rules" into the main chat window or the server window to see a display of the current standards. - All shares must contain neoclassical music. A metal-only share, or a rock share, does not count. If the music you are sharing that is not neoclassical outweighs the amount that is, we would like you to return only when that condition is corrected. - Shares that are disorganized and have the bulk of mp3s more than one level from the root will not be acceptable. - Games/warez, movies, porn, etc. are not part of neoclassical culture. If these outweigh the musical contributions of your share, you will not be welcome. - Finally, if you are kicked/banned, check your share for the above violations. If you do not correct them, you will not be welcome to return. 4. Contact For help, visit our support forum here: http://www.anus.com/metal/hall/ This FAQ -------- There will be information about these servers and software at: http://www.anus.com/metal/about/mp3/ Appendix A: List of Metal MP3 Trading Sites * Underground Metal Search Engine http://www.deathmetal.org/ * Death Metal and Black Metal Reviews http://www.anus.com/metal * Political Representation for Metalheads http://www.hessian.org/ (c) 2002-2008 srp (http://www.anus.com/etc/people/srp) all rights reserved.