If a friend of mine theoretically downloaded Kazaa onto his computer in order to download an occasional image, song, or dirty video, and he found that his participation level rapidly dropped from the 100 that it starts at down to 19, or so, and as a result the program didn’t work so well anymore, how would he boost the performance rating back up again? He tells me that there are two ways: either rating the integrity of his files or uploading more images of his own for others. Is that true? What’s the best way of increasing the rating and performance?
MT,
KaZaA heavily penalizes users who do not share their files by giving priority access those with the higher participation level. Essentially, when several users are pulling from the same source file, it appears the software switchboards the bandwidth to the less hoarding.
It’s recommended to have a popular song or dirty video available for everyone to pull from. So, if a guy allows his system to run over night, he’d see the participation level skyrocket to “Supreme Being” and, in turn, be rewarded with better performance from the software.
All of this, of course, is unfortunate for the dial-up user because most of bandwidth is used to maintain a decent participation level.
It just requires more micro-management of a person’s files I guess. Trying to download and maintain a participation level at the same time can be taxing for a dial-up modem, but by removing the files from the shared directory when downloading and moving them back to increase the level once again should help. Anyway, it’s definately a balancing act.
Hope this helps,
-A.
Try KaZaA Lite 2.1.0. (K++ Edition)
doa2.host.sk
Some added features:
- Unlimited times ‘Search more’ is possible
- Multi-source downloads can go up to a maximum of 40 sources (instead of 8)
- ‘Find more sources’ for a download is possible every 4 minutes (instead of 10)
- Participartion Level can be set at a constant level of 1000 (Supreme Being)
- No dll files are loaded anymore (cd_clint.dll, TopSearch.dll, kzscan.dll, etc.)
- No more yellow-colored search results (Altnet Inc./TopSearch)
- Fixed Kazaa’s error 1030 bug
Konglong
The best Things about Kazaa lite:
- No spyware
- It doesn’t install anything else you don’t want
Ok, so based on your advice my friend downloaded Kazaa lite on top of his Kazaa, in the hopes of getting a rating of 1,000, but it didn’t go up. Perhaps one only gets 1,000 if Kazaa lite is downloaded as the initial program and not as an upgrade.
I’m sure you’re right that part of the problem is dial-up modem. Downloading a song can take a half hour. He’ll be getting ADSL very soon.
Drunken Dragon: I’m not sure what you mean by, “removing the files from the shared directory when downloading and moving them back to increase the level.” One should keep as many files as possible in the shared directory so that others can download them and increase your rating, right? Why would one want to remove files from the shared directory even temporarily?
Thanks.
I had a lot of problems with Kazaa 2.0. It messed up a lot of other stuff and stuck a heap of spyware/adware on my PC. When I caught a virus from it that seemed to just be the last straw for it and my computer. I would definitely go with Kazaa lite and skip the regular Kazaa altogther. Another problem I had was that if someone started uploading from me, then my download speed was normally cut in half.
I’m looking for another computer now to just use as a Kazaa computer, just needs to have a USB port.
Using a dial up modem though? What is this the 90’s? 
Tell that boy to get himslef ADSL and enjoy the speed.
Okami
konglong,
Thanks for the reminder since I’m still sitting on K-lite 2.0.0… I’ll be sure to upgrade.
MT,
konglong and matthewh offer excellent advice. As for clarity of my earlier statement, I was recommending an option of managing your files in a way that won’t drain your bandwidth by removing the files from the shared directory when downloading and moving them back again once you’re done. That way you are not performing a push / pull at the same time, therefore receiving your file quicker.
One could download all during the day yet still maintain their level by sharing while they slept at night.
Of course this advice is mute now that KaZaA Lite has the option to set the participation level at 1000 (per konglong) because a guy doesn’t have to share in order to maintain.
See if it’s possible to completely uninstall all references to KaZaA and start over. You’ll find the Lite version much more convenient.
Good luck,
-A.
Okami et al.,
If you haven’t already, be sure to pull down Spybot at security.kolla.de/
This is a great tool to help detect all kinds of spyware and is highly recommended. It’s amazing what it will find and every so often updates are available to try and keep your system scrubbed.
Enjoy,
-A.
Imesh is very good. I’ve never used kazaa, but imesh beats the hell out of the neonapster that I was using. I mean my friend.
Brian
Drunken Dragon wrote:
“It’s recommended to have a popular song or dirty video available for everyone to pull from. So, if a guy allows his system to run over night, he’d see the participation level skyrocket to “Supreme Being” and, in turn, be rewarded with better performance from the software.”
You’re not kidding. When one first starts using the program the rating drops drastically due to the initial excitement of downloading files, and because there will have to be more downloading than uploading at first, but as the excitement wanes and one turns to other online activities instead, the rating rapidly starts climbing as others start downloading from you. One takes for granted that we’re all part of an interconnected web; it’s interesting actually observing the interactions in such a program. . . seeing what others like and don’t like, secretly watching as they share particular files, and thinking, “oooh you little pervert, I know what you’re downloading.” 
As far as spyware detection goes, this is my personal favorite. They have a personal edition for free (Ad-Aware):
lavasoft.de/
But the rule of thumb is not to install softwares that self-install other spyware onto your computer. There are two main reasons for this: Privacy and resource hog. You’d be surprised how many free programs install other crap on your computer without you even knowing… If someone would like to know more about this, post up and I will go into details on how to spot them and remove them.
In terms of Kazaa, drunken dragon nailed it right on. But Kazaa Light doesn’t not have to be installed on top of Kazaa. It’s a Kazaa compatible without all the ads and hassles. I highly recommand it as well. To get a high rating, of course, you share what you have, but limit the “upload” threads. If you allow too much simotaneous uploads from your computer, the bandwidth will be hogged. Not good (for you). Keep it to 3 at most, I’d say. In terms of privacy, always always define your own directory. Personally, I redirect all downloads to a “downloads” folder somewhere other than within Kazaa. And only the stuff in that folder is shared out for others to see.
Scchu, I would be interested to knwo more about free programs installing other crap on your computere. Create a new topic on it if you’d like.
Thanks!
Ok, I started a new thread for this. Any feedbacks and/or comments are welcomed. Please do share your experiences and/or tips as well.
Completely different question: how do I erase songs/files that I’ve downloaded? I have a few playlists, and whenever I want to remove something from a playlist it just appears again when I log back on.
Playlists keep track of what need to played when it is launched. It simply keeps “shortcuts” of the songs on your computer. So by deleting something from the playlist, you are only removing the shortcut. If this is still Kazaa you are talking about, the songs are likely in:
c:/program fles/kazaa/downloads (or mydownloads… etc.), or
c:/kazaa/downloads (or mydownloads… etc), or
c:/documents and settings/your username/desktop/downloads (or my downloads… etc)
Performaning a search on your computer on the name of the song can also reveal its location.
Whew, thanks for the help. I couldn’t believe how much junk I had on my computer that I thought I had deleted. Maybe I should start spending more time in “my computer”.
Well, I deleted all the songs I didn’t want from program files, but they still haven’t disappeared. Every time I open kazaa they start downloading automatically, I think I probably have an instruction somewhere telling kazaa to do this.
I guess I’ll just have to stop deleting and learn to live with them.