Wacky Napster issues

[PeteS99]

Hey all,

My songs cannot be uploaded (keep "Timing Out"), and I can only download in about 10% of my attempts ("Transfer Errors").

Heres the setup: Cable modem, Lynksys 4 port router, 3 PC's hooked up. Until recently, my Napster was just fine.. but suddenly, its acting like my port forwarding is wrong (but it is correct). The only change I have made is upgrading it to Beta 9. I've tried a couple of other ports as well, to no avail.

Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks much!

pete

[glc]

Napster is grossly overloaded right now - because everyone in the world is on it trying to beat the court decision which is due any minute as I write this.

[PeteS99]

ah - thanks glc - thought it was something on my side.. the decision is today? oh no!!!

[reboot]

Try Gnutella as another option.
http://www.gnutella.co.uk/downloads/
Don't believe the hype they give their clients, just get BearShare, it's by FAR the easiest to use, and a really small footprint as well.

[Floppyman]

That or I have also heard of some people having problems with the new release. I still use Beta 7 and it works fine. But also as glc said, it probably is overloaded at this point.

[PeteS99]

I'd bet its just overloaded where I am.. Boston, about 100000000 colleges around. I'll try Beta 7 maybe... no worries though.

Looks like I'll have to use another source soon anyway..

[Floppyman]

Yep you're right, I tried to download something last night and it wouldn't really work (transfer error after a while), but thought that was just my ping. Tried to download a song today (with a MUCH better ping) and got the same results. So yeah..they're overloaded allright.

[RayH]

It's been a while since I've tried Gnutella. It's severely grown. Bear Share does seem to be the smallest, easiest, and best connector of the Gnutella protocol programs.

After Napster gets really shutdown and more people jump over to Gnutella protocol, the RIAA is going to wish Napster was still running.

[Strider]

Scour is also an alternative to Napster, but I believe they are also being sued by the RIAA.

[RayH]

For the uninitiated, Gnutella is a program orginally posted by NuSoft, a division of AOL. It was only posted for a few hours until the Time-Warner side read AOL the riot act. AOL quickly realized that SELLING music is a big part of their business!

But the cat got out of the bag. The original Gnutella is more difficult to understand how to work. The beauty of Gnutella is that there is no central computer. Computers are linked directly.

Over the past few months, Gnutella has grown to be not only the original program, but a protocol. Much like internet browsers! There are several programs that will link you to people on the Gnutella network.

The original Gnutella required to find a first connection. The newer ones will find them for you automatically. Bear Share seems to be the best one right now!

AS there is no central computer or service, there is no company to sue! It seems the "starter" computers for Gnutella are off shore, out of the reach of US Courts.

Within a few months, Gnutella is going to grow to proportions that the RIAA will wish Napster was still in business. You see, with Napster, they could keep an eye on things.

[Floppyman]

Hey Pete,

Is Napster still giving you trouble? I tried downloading a couple songs yesterday and it worked just fine again.

[PeteS99]

Its still messed.. it has the same symptoms as when i was not sharing a port through my firewall.. but everything checks out. Odd! Oh well..

[courto]

I tried reboots tip and downloaded BearShare. It works well, only problem is your IP address is out there...but BearShare restricts the folders that are shared. I am on cable and my ISP uses dynamic IP addresses. All in all I think BearShare is a good alternative.

[RayH]

If you just want MP3s, NEWTELLA (correct spelling) might be the thing. It limits itself to MP3s. That way, someone can't unload some trojan horse on you!