Quote:
Originally posted by Sphinx
always check the video extension and the size of the file before downloading, if it doesnt look right too you then avoid it. full length video files are very large depending on their file extension, if it's small in size then it's just a clip or porn. |
Sound advice, Sphinx - I always look at the filesize and extension, as well as the number of sources and the speed of the connection. Those simple measures have prevented me from downloading hundreds of worthless files in the past, and it's almost second nature to look at them now.
The trouble with this situation is that virtually ALL of the results coming back are spam - the search is completely taken up by spam results, and the search ends before it finds any real files. Searching again gives the same result, even when connected to a different ultrapeer.
I've had some limited success with the advice given in another thread on these forums; namely right-clicking on a spam result and selecting the 'Block Host' option, but that's only so effective against those annoying little 104.8 KB (and similar sized) files, which seem to come from dozens upon dozens of different hosts. I've been blocking spam hosts for a full hour so far, and although I'm now getting a small number of seemingly genuine files, I'm still getting large amounts of spam results that stop the search prematurely. A filesize filter would be a lot quicker for users to set up, and probably a lot more effective too.
I can only hope that someone is putting together a PeerGuardian blocklist for these IPs - that seems like the only alternative until LimeWire includes a filesize filter.
Oh, and just for the record - I have never downloaded copyrighted movies from LimeWire or any other P2P; in my opinion, it's not worth the risks just to see a mediocre film with crappy picture quality, muffled sound, and the silhouette of some guy standing up and scratching his *** halfway through the movie. I look for things like cartoons that aren't available on video or DVD (like the ones that were banned from being aired on TV for various reasons) and amateur films like the ones seen on RantTV and other internet TV stations. That means that the filesizes can be anything from 50 to 200 megs, but they're still easily distinguishable from the myriad porn clips and film trailers because they're a lot smaller than what I look for.