Back when DivxStage launched in 2009, very few people would have thought the site would become as successful as it is today. Not only has it survived for more than two years in cyberspace with a top 15000 Alexa ranking, but in 2011 it’s known as one of the best destinations to watch or host streaming media online. At a glace, DxS might look like yet another video hosting service. However, that isn’t entirely true. Users are able to browse or search through the majority of files uploaded to the site, making it a great place to find and watch full movies, TV shows and other video content online. Video playback on DivXStage hosted media is powered by DivX Web Player, a HTML5 based online video player created by Sonic Solutions. Uploading and watching streaming video with basic privileges is free on DivXStage and a premium plan is available will added benefits.

DivXStage launched couple of years ago, advertising itself as a hosting provider for media files. And even today, most people know of for its hosting capabilities only. Perhaps the following in their FAQ may have helped create this mindset:

Can I search for files other people uploaded
Currently we do not allow such service because not everyone likes to share the files they upload. Our service aim is either to give you a way to share large files or to keep them as a private backup.

Despite the above statement in FAQ, DxS does allow users to search its database (at least a part of it). Open the ‘Directory’ tab and try searching for a movie that recently got leaked online. Chance are that you’ll get multiple results for the search, including scene releases as well as P2P encodes of the complete movie.

As we mentioned earlier, playback on DxS hosted videos is powered by DivX Web Player. It’s not the best online media player out there but a lot of DivX sites including StageVU and DxS use it (download the free version from here). You need a pretty fast internet connection to get the best out of streaming and if you run into issues such as never ending buffering, videos not being played back with black screen, etc, the troubleshooting articles located here and here might help.

Uploading and watching streaming video with basic privileges is free on DivXStage. However, they do have a premium plan which removes advertisements, enables high speed streaming and allows video downloading (there are several browser extensions making this already possible on the free plan).

Site Name: DivXStage (http://www.divxstage.net)

Registration URL: http://www.divxstage.net/register.php

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• TV-Dump – Now With More Mirrors For TV Series Direct Downloads & Streaming
• Tvgorge – Watch Full TV Episodes Online From Anywhere In The World
• DocMasters.TV Forum – Direct Download & Online Streaming Links For Documentaries
• AZNV.TV – Free Asian movie, TV and anime streaming site

Read the rest of this article...

With the United States Department of Justice and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcements (ICE) seizing domains of file sharing sites left and right, BitTorrent trackers now have a new reason to worry. Although only a short term win for anti pirates, a domain seizure can disrupt a site’s operations and cause confusion amongst its loyal user base – in short, it’s a nuisance that tracker staff would like to avoid if possible. In face of the recent domain seizures by ICE, we’ve seen a lot of BitTorrent trackers taking preventive measures that could minimize the damage if such an event should ever happen to them. Demonoid, one of the world’s largest semi-private torrent trackers, has already moved to a .me domain (.me is the top level domain for Montenegro) from .com, making things harder for the U.S government. Following the green demon’s footprints, TorrentLeech (TL), one of the larger private trackers around, has also launched two alternative domain as backups for its existing torrentleech.org domain.

With over 200000 registered members, TorrentLeech indeed does have reasons to worry. ICE seems to be targeting sites with a lot of traffic and when (or if) they begin hunting down private trackers, TL would no doubt become a high priory target for them. TL’s current address uses the .org generic top level domain which ICE apparantly can seize easily. The backup domains are torrentleech.cc and torrentleech.cd. .cc is the country specific top level domain for Cocos (Keeling) Islands while CD is the TLD for Democratic Republic of Congo. TL could very well survive using these backups in case their .org domain gets seized just like Rojadirecta did sometime back last month. As of 3/3/2011, TorrentLeech is accessible using all thee doamins listed below:

• http://www.torrentleech.org
• http://www.torrentleech.cd
• http://www.torrentleech.cc

Read More About TorrentLeech:

• TorrentLeech v3 – New Look, New Features, More Speed
• TorrentLeech v3 – Bug Fixes & Improvements

Read the rest of this article...

File sharing is not always about BitTorrent trackers and Direct Download Link forums. This popular phenomenon has given birth to a number of other innovative services that further simplify how large data is shared online. Today’s post is about one such service, FlashSeed. FlashSeed is essentially a mash up between BitTorrent and DDL. The service makes creating a torrent of a regular file and uploading it to a BitTorrent tracker basically a one click process. Furthermore, the service will act as a seeder and continue to seed the torrent for a period of 5 days. But that’s not all, FlashSeed can play the role of a one click hosting service and will even allow downloading uploaded torrents over direct download links. This is currently in beta but is open to all.

The main goal of FlashSeed is to make torrent uploads as simple as possible. We know, this is a way more simplified task than it used to be with most modern BT clients but this service makes it even more simpler. With FS, all you have to do is to hit the upload button and point to the file you need tracked as a torrent. There are no extra steps involved and a torrent download link (which you can share with others) will be generated once file uploading is complete. This is of course not without limitations. File storage is currently limited to 1GB and FlashSeed will only seed an uploaded file for 5 days (other peers will be able to seed/leech the file for as long as they like since the torrent will not be deleted from tracker – only the web seed will be removed after 5 days) .

Files uploaded as torrents can be directly downloaded from FS’s servers without the need for a BitTorrent client. You will however need FlashSeed points to do this. How the points system works is outlined below:

FlashSeed Points is a reward-based system to encourage seeding. Points may be used to download a file directly from our servers rather than through BitTorrent (useful for torrent-restricted environments, video streaming). 1 Point = 1 MB download credit. You will receive 1 point when:

• you upload 3 MB through our tracker
• someone completes a file that you uploaded

Currently the service is in beta but is open to everyone. According to developers, the FlashSeed will continue to be free of charge but will be ad supported after public launch. It’s an interesting service nevertheless. Check it out.

Site Name: FlashSeed (http://www.flashseed.com)
Registration URL: http://www.flashseed.com/index/register

Special thanks to Jack Qiao for the heads up.

Read the rest of this article...

Here we go – our first R5 DVD release dates update for the year 2011. As most of you would already know, knowing the DVD release date of a movie in advance is useful if you are planning to actually buy the DVD off the shelves. But it comes in handy even if you are a pirate too. Although movies don’t have an official ‘leak online date’ set by publishers, you can pretty much guess when some movies will appear on file sharing networks if you know their DVD Region 5 (R5) release date. The R5 format was first introduced to minimize DVD movie piracy in areas such as Russia, Indian subcontinent and Africa. These DVDs are usually released ahead of other regions and are cheaper than their R1/R2 counterparts (in an attempt to convert would-be pirates). However, scene/P2P groups too use this to their advantage by making releases combining video ripped from R5 DVDs (which have near DVDRip quality) and English audio from CAM/TS sources. A R5 is the next best thing for BitTorrent downloaders unless a DVDRip, BRRip or a true HD copy of the movie is already available.

Listed below are R5 release dates for January – December 2011. Please keep in mind that these dates are subject to frequent change. Additionally, note that some of the movies mentioned below have R1 DVD and Blu Ray versions already released or leaked online.

January 2011

• The Virginity Hit - 13th January 2011
• Devil - 18th January 2011
• Submarino - 19th January 2011
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - 20th January 2011
• My Name Is Khan - 20th January 2011
• Open Season 3 - 20th January 2011
• My Soul To Take - 27th January 2011
• Red - 27th January 2011
• Get It At Goode’s - January 2011

February 2011

• Womb - 2nd February 2011
• Sniper: Reloaded - 3rd February 2011
• The Social Network - 3rd February 2011 (Second Date)
• Gulliver’s Travels - 10th February 2011
• The Tourist - 10th February 2011
• The Erotic Man - February 16th 2011
• I Spit on Your Grave - 16th February 2011
• Ticking Clock - 17th February 2011
• Life as We Know It - 17th February 2011
• Burlesque - 24th February 2011
• Love and Other Drugs - 24th February 2011
• Sanctum - 24th February 2011
• The Virginity Hit - 24th February 2011
• Trust - February 2011
• Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 - February 2011

March 2011

• The Green Hornet - 3rd March 2011
• A Little Bit of Heaven - 3rd March 2011
• Hit List - 3rd March 2011
• Due Date - 3rd March 2011
• How Do You Know? - 10th March 2011
• Coriolanus - 17th March 2011
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 - 17th March 2011
• Burlesque - 24th March 2011
• Ben Hur - 31th March 2011
• Love, Wedding, Marriage - March 2011
• Confucius - March 2011
• Largo Winch (Tome 2) - March 2011
• Tangled - March 2011
• Secretariat - March 2011
• Tron: Legacy - March 2011

April 2011

• Battle: Los Angeles - 7th April 2011
• Vanishing on 7th Street - 7th April 2011
• Just Go With It - 14th April 2011
• The Debt - 19th April 2011
• Faster - 21th April 2011
• Butter - 21st April 2011
• Yogi Bear - 28th April 2011
• The Roommate - 28th April 2011
• The Irishman - April 2011
• An Invisible Sign - April 2011
• Mona Lisa - April 2011
• The Job - April 2011
  

May 2011

• Insidious - 5th May
• Hit List - 12th May
• Provinces of Night - 12th May
• Bad Teacher - 19th May
• Country Strong - 26th May
• Hereafter - 26th May

June 2011

• Unknown - June 2
• Hall Pass - June 9
• The Fields – June
• Orlando - June

July 2011

• Sucker Punch - July 28

August 2011

• Red Riding Hood - August 11
• Drive Angry 3D - August 25

October 2011

• Hangover Part II, The - October 6
• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - October 6
• Arthur - October 13
• Green Lantern - October 20

November 2011

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - November 17

December 2011

• Horrible Bosses - December 1
• A Very Harold

Above information was compiled using two main sources:

1. Sam’s Blog which is one of the most frequently updated release dates resources online
2. Thread posted by PooPy on SCC forums

Once again, please note that DVD releases are subject to frequent change and the list above may not be 100% accurate. As usual, updated articles will be posted when less abstract, precise release dates become available in the coming days.

Related Articles

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To get updated on new FILEnetworks Blog articles instantly, follow us on Twitter, become a fan of us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed.

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As we mentioned in a previous post, expect a lot of closed file sharing communities to open public signups this holiday season. Here’s a little heads up on one such DDL forum that will have open registrations this Christmas and new year – TemplateP2P. TP2P will open its doors to the public for one whole week starting 25th of December. For those of you who have not heard about this site before, it’s a DDL forum which indexes templates, graphics, code snippets and scripts, invaluable resources if you are a web developer, graphics designer, software engineer or a student. Most of the available files are premium content for which you have to pay if you are obtaining them through conventional means. So yeah, this is a heaven for pirates :p

The official news post announcing the open registrations is quoted below:

We are only a little over a month away from Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Years, and many other Holiday Celebrations.
I want to make you all aware of what we have planned for these events...
TemplateP2P Celebration Starts December 25th and Ends January 1st.
During this period we will have Open Sign Up & VIP Sale/Special.

Note that there are only a handful other sites online which are similar to TemplateP2P. It’s a unique, active community with over 18000 registered members and ~30000 forum threads. For a detailed overview of this site with screenshots, please refer to our full review located here.

Site and signup URLs are mentioned below – note that the registration link will only work on or after the 25th of December.

Site Name: TemplateP2P (http://templatep2p.com/forum/index.php)

Signup URL: http://templatep2p.com/forum/index.php?action=register

Special thanks to T.J and @tracker_nfo for the heads up.

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A while ago we posted an article about PeerAccess (PA), a file sharing related forum home to P2P release group T0XiC. Despite being the official home of an exclusive movie enocder team, PA was best known amongst the file sharing community for a totally different reason; R5 movie release dates - the site had probably the best maintained R5, R1, R2 DVD and Blu Ray movie release dates on the web. These lists were being updated on a regular basis, with incorrect dates being removed and new entries added. Just when things were going very smoothly, PA ran into some trouble last month and it appears that they had to rebuild the site from scratch. Good news is that PA is now back online, fully functional, with a new look and with all of its favorite features intact.

The most popular feature on PeerAccess is without a doubt their DVD release dates section. PA has a separate forum section which indexes release dates for DVDs and Blu-Ray disks in region 1, 2, and 5 (R1, R2, R5). So how does knowing a release date help the average pirate? Well, you can pretty much guess *when* a particular movie will leak online, if you know its public DVD release date. These schedules are subject to frequent change due to last minute decisions by publishers. This is one reason why most R5/R1/R2 predictions on the web soon become out of date. However, PA is one of the rare forums I have seen which regularly update its threads to reflect new schedules. This is one reason why we quote from their lists in out monthly R5 update articles such as this one.

In addition to the popular Release Dates section, PeerAccess also contains a BitTorrent tracker invite section, tracker reviews, seedbox reviews, open signup news, torrent reviews, screens and samples from latest movie releases as well as links to new movie trailers. Additionally, PA is the official home of P2P movie release group T0XiC. New site does not contain any exclusive T0XiC encodes just yet but according to a message posted on site, TOXiC RG plans to restart their operations soon.

Recent downtime seems to have reset PA’s user database and the new site is pretty much re built from scratch. Within a couple of days into the (re)launch, there are 200+ threads and 100+ active members registered. Of course, not all of these threads have high activity just yet as the forum is still at the starting stage, but over time and with more members, it could really kick off. For those interested in joining, registrations are currently open.

Site Name: PeerAccess (http://peeraccess.info)

Signup URL: http://peeraccess.info/register.php

Special thanks to Quizz for the heads up.

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Read the rest of this article...

Probably all of you have heard about PeerGuardian (PG), the P2P utility program that is able to block incoming connections based on IP blocklists. PG’s blocklists contained IP addresses of known anti piracy agencies, various government entities, spyware oriented servers, etc and the software effectively prevented these addresses from making contact with your BitTorrent client or any other file sharing program. For those very reason, PG was hugely popular among the file sharing community back in its day. However, the program did not have a bright future as its developer discontinued development and moved on to other projects. This is where PeerBlock comes in – it’s an actively maintained fork of PeerGuardian 2 with lots of updates to the core application ( and not just a new list IP addresses). A new stable release of PeerBlock (v1.1.0) was just released yesterday with several new features including signed drivers for Windows 7, direct iBlocklists.com integration and more.

Usually, this is the kind of an app only computer power users tend to use. However, using PeerBlock is dead simple – even novices should easily be able to figure out how this works. For those of you who are unfamiliar with PB, here’s a brief description of the software, as mentioned on its homepage:

PeerBlock lets you control who your computer "talks to" on the Internet.  By selecting appropriate lists of "known bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been "hacked", even entire countries!  They can't get in to your computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either.
And best of all, it's free!

Setting up PeerBlock is easy - you basically need to install it. There is no need to configure your file sharing clients manually to integrate with PB - the program will run in the background and block all incoming or outgoing connections from/to your PC based on its blocklists. It comes with several pre configured block lists, one each containing IP addresses of anti P2P organizations. spyware/adware servers, advertising servers and educational institutions. The client will automatically update these lists online, as updates become available (much like how anti virus software download new definition files). You can create lists of your own or download additional lists from http://www.iblocklist.com/lists.php

Download

A new stable build of PeerBlock has just been released. If I’m not mistaken, this is the newest stable release to hit the web after almost 6 months. You can download the installer and view release notes using the links below.

[Click Here] to download PeerBlock 1.1.0 Release 518 installer

[Click Here] to view release notes

Note that although software such as PeerBlock and PeerGuardian do provide an additional layer of security to your p2p activities, they should not be mistaken for all-in-one magical solutions that will shield you from all kinds snoopers. For example, anti piracy agencies might use IP addresses that are not yet included in PB’s blocklists. Therefore always be on the lookout for prying eyes – don’t let a sense of false security fool you.

Read the rest of this article...

Ever since it’s inception back in 2001, BitTorrent has attracted millions of users who utilize it daily for transferring large files online. Public BitTorrent sites and private torrent trackers have nowadays become so popular that almost everyone including novice PC users seem to use them. However, it wasn’t only torrent sites that benefited from the file sharing boom – BitTorrent news and invite forums also grew alongside trackers. These sites serve as a gateway into most closed private torrent communities by helping their members obtain invites. Most such forums cover BitTorrent news, invite requests, giveaways, seedbox discussions, tracker recruitment, tracker reviews and even guides and tutorials related to various mediums of file sharing. This post summarizes information about 12 such forums that are currently open for registration.

Not all sites listed below have direct open signups – some are open via IRC interviews, some via online invite applications and some even via E-mail requests. For sites that were featured previously on FILEnetworks Blog, we have included a link to the full review so that interested readers may get more info before signing up.

FileSharingTalk (FST)
 
Site Name: FileSharingTalk (http://filesharingtalk.com)
Signup URL: http://filesharingtalk.com/register.php
Statistics:  101500+ members and 375000+ threads
Description: Of all BitTorrent forums out there, FST probably has the largest community. Discussions on this site are not limited to BitTorrent and covers a wider scope including DDL forums and other mediums of file sharing. Invites, drama, flaming – you can find everything here.
Full Review: N/A

TrackeReactor 

Site Name: TrackeReactor (http://trackereactor.com)
Signup URL: http://trackereactor.com/register.php (invite applications)
Statistics: 10000+ members and 41600+ threads
Description: One of the oldest invite forums around, TR recently merged with Tracker-Invites.us and the merger should bring in some much needed activity into the site.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Torrent-Invite

Site Name: Torrent Invite (http://torrentinvite.com)
Signup URL: http://torrentinvite.com/forum/register.php
Statistics: 36000+ threads and ~7800+ members
Description: An underrated but decent BitTorrent forum with an active user base exceeding 4000. Covers tracker news, open signups, seedbox tips and the usual threads you’d find on any other similar forum. TI has some great tracker reviews which go beyond the usual ‘tracker name + few screenshots’ model.
Full Review: N/A

InviteThe.Net

Site Name: InviteThe.Net (http://www.invitethe.net/forum)
Invite Request Address: invitethe[dot]net[at]gmail[dot]com
Statistics: ~850 members and 6000+ threads
Description: A new and growing BitTorrent discussion forum which has done pretty well so far. Signups are not directly open but you can send a mail to the address specified above and request for one.
Full Review: [Click Here]

VoiceThe.Net (VTN)

Site Name: VoiceThe.Net (http://www.voicethe.net)
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.etiv.in/VTN-Interview
Statistics: ~600 members and ~7500 threads
Description: VoiceThe.Net is a new BitTorrent news and invites forum that’s part of the ETiV network. A fully fledged BT news site in its own right, VTN also acts as the gateway into their big brother, ETiV (see full review for more information)
Full Review: [Click Here]

The Pirate Society

Site Name: The Pirate Society (http://www.thepiratesociety.org)
Signup URL: http://www.thepiratesociety.org/register.php
Statistics: 9200+ members and 50000+ threads
Description: A decent BitTorrent forum but has been having a bit of a rough time lately with internal conflicts. Direct signups are closed but new members are able to sign up by going through IRC interview (channel details on register.php page linked to above).
Full Review: [Click Here]

TTInvite

Site Name: TTInvite (http://ttinvite.com)
Signup URL: http://ttinvite.com/register.php
Statistics: ~2300 threads and ~250 members
Description: Another new BitTorrent invite forum. Covers everything from tracker invites to seedbox discussions. Could use some new blood as it’s not the most active forum out there.
Full Review: N/A

NeonScene

Site Name: NeonScene (http://neonscene.net)
Signup URL: http://neonscene.net/register.php
Statistics: 175 members and 3400 threads
Description: Was a fairly active BT community back in the days when it launched. The activity however has gradually gone down over time – anyways the site is not dead and is open for signup.
Full Review: N/A

FeelTheFlow

Site Name: FeelTheFlow (http://www.ratioproof.us)
Signup URL: http://www.ratioproof.us/index.php?action=register
Statistics: ~1000 threads and ~1100 members.
Description: A relatively new BT forum that has a nice looking design. Unfortunately, not much activity yet.
Full Review: N/A

Forum.Torrents.Ro

Site Name: Forum.Torrents.Ro (http://forum.torrents.ro)
Signup URL:  http://forum.torrents.ro/register.php
Statistics: 14000+ threads and 64000+ members
Description: A Romanian torrent forum with a huge user base. Most of the threads are in Romanian language and English speaking users will have to use a translator to figure this out.
Full Review: N/A

BTSkins

Site Name: BitTorrent Skins (http://btskins.net)
Signup URL: http://btskins.net/index.php?app=core&module=global&section=register
Statistics: ~150 members (at last check)
Description: BTSkins is not really a tracker invites forum – it’s target audience is developers, designers and other enthusiasts who are interested in building torrent sites. You can discuss and download templates, hacks & mods for all major tracker codebases here. Read full review for more information.
Full Review: [Click Here]

We have tried to include as many sites as possible in this update but not all open signup forums were included (for example, we did not list some sites that were almost dead). If your favorite file sharing news forum is not listed above, please leave a comment to this post or send us an E-mail (filenetworks[at]gmail[dot]com) so that we may be able to list it in the next update (it should be open for signup either directly or indirectly).

Read the rest of this article...

I’ve seen many funny names for private torrent trackers, DDL forums and streaming sites during my time but this one gets the prize. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you say ‘Picrap’? Yeah, you guessed correct – it’s ‘piece of crap’. Picrap.com is a new movie and TV show steaming site that launched just recently. While it has an odd sounding name, the service works great and actually seems to hold a lot of promise. It’s a free TV show and movie streaming site which works from anywhere in the world (and not just from the United States like Hulu and numerous others). Although it hasn’t been a while since launch, Picrap already indexes episodes from over 1000 different TV shows, several hundred movies and a large number of movie trailers. In case you were wondering, streaming video content featured on this site do not come directly from rights holders. This removes any restrictions usually put forth by publishers and Picrap is able to index even the latest TV episodes without delay.

If video streams are not offered by rights holders then where do they come from? They are fetched from file sharing sites such as MegaVideo, ZShare, Wisevid and DivXDen. Picrap does not host any of the streamed video which essentially makes it a search engine for steaming content. However, the service is capable of playing most video streams from within Picrap.com itself, without redirecting visitors to an external site. There are advertisements in the web interface but I am yet to run across popups, pop unders or any other type of intrusive ad formats. Video quality is usually pretty good and in fact, most of the streams Picrap fetches have scene released HDTV rips as the video source:

Finding a TV show on Picrap is pretty easy. You can search for the show by it’s name - each TV show has it’s own page where all available episodes are listed (Note that the main TV shows page on Picrap does not list all of the indexed shows – you can use the search feature to avoid this minor annoyance). Clicking on an episode will take you to a separate page with an embedded video player and a list of available video streams. You can watch any of the listed streams but it looks as if MegaVideo sources are recommended – they can be played from within Picrap itself, can be played full screen, they stream without delay and the MV player has a pretty decent set of options. When you try to watch the newest episode of a show, you might sometimes get ‘Removed due to infringement’ message. In this case you can try another stream or just wait till another copy gets uploaded.

In addition to basic episode listing and streaming functionality, Picrap has some additional features which makes life easier for its users. For instance, you can use the built in TV guide to watch latest episodes of currently airing series instantly. There are separate RSS feeds for movies and TV shows, ability to report broken links as well as a list of most popular TV shows on site.

Picrap is a completely free service and does not even require registration. Hopefully, the site will survive interference from rights holders and stay online for a long time to come – this is a pretty useful site.

[Click Here] to visit Picrap Homepage

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• Tvgorge – Watch Full TV Episodes Online From Anywhere In The World

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Few years ago, there was this unofficial rule on the internet regarding UseNet; you don’t talk about UseNet. However, this has recently changed with some indexers publicly advertising on file sharing blogs, forums, etc. The increased publicity has not only resulted in many pirates adopting to UseNet technology but it has also diverted the attention of copyright lawyers who seemingly have only one intention; bringing UseNet down. Recently, there has been several court cases filed in various countries against Usenet indexers and this series of events has eventually lead to the closure of Newzbin - as reported by TorrentFreak, Newzbin shut down its operations after a court ruled it’s operations were against the law. But have we truly seen the end of world’s largest Usenet indexer? We think not.

Quoted below is part of a mass email sent to previous NewsBin account holders:

Good news: we are Newzbin Two, and we have glad tidings:

NEWZBIN IS BACK! and we are the new management. The crew got most of the original Newzbin source code and the main databases. We loved it too much to let it die.

According to Newzbin’s Ex- owner Caesium’ Chris Elsworth, their source code is indeed leaked and is in the wild:

The Newzbin source code *is* in the wild. Someone has it. I don’t know who, and I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, and I don’t really much care. Best of luck to them, it won’t be competing with anything I choose to do in future.

Don’t ask me to share the Newzbin source with you, it is not mine to share. Control of Newzbin Ltd was transferred away from me (because I sold it. not by force) in January 2010 and with it, all my rights to the source code and servers etc etc. Whoever obtained it didn’t get it through me – how did they get it? I don’t know.

You can read more of his comments (and more Newbin gossip) on this blog.

As of right now Newsbin Two has not gone live yet. Whether it will be named differently or what it’s new URL will be is currently not known. It’s likely that these information will also be made public through another mass E-mail directed at all Ex-NewsBin users. Either way, this just sends another message to the copyright industry – whenever a large file sharing site gets taken down, several others spawn to take it’s place - The hydra effect is not only limited to BitTorrent trackers.

Read the rest of this article...

You hear about movies being leaked via BitTorrent all the time – scene and P2P groups make sure that these are all shared online, whether movies makers and distributors like it or not. Of course, right now there aren’t many publishers who embrace BitTorrent as a distribution medium. However, there are folks who willingly share their work via BitTorrent at no cost at all. Makers of Indie movie Self Helpless belong to that rare segment of movie producers – they have released their independent movie via BitTorrent and encourage torrenters to share it  with as many people as they like. For those who are not into BitTorrent, an online streaming version is available for free through NinjaVideo.

Here’s how Adam Jaroszewski, a co-director and co-writer of Self Helpless, explained their decision to release the movie on BitTorrent:

Instead of fighting downloaders we're embracing them. Basically we want our movie to spread far and wide because we know that the community supports art and content it truly enjoys. We're confident there's a large audience for Self Helpless, and we want to give people the chance to check it out.

By our estimation, the Self Helpless torrents and streamed video on ninjavideo have been viewed about 5000+ times in its first 5 days. And the community is starting to show some support. Being avid downloaders, it seems pretty damn clear to my team and me that bittorrent is here to stay and will be playing a major role in the future of content distribution. This is true irrespective of what the current powers-that-be want. We're sort of confused as to why more content creators don't get this and adapt, but I'm betting they eventually will.

Given below are download links and other resources related to Self Helpless. By all means, download it, watch it and share it with your friends :)

Torrent Download: http://www.mininova.org/tor/3191913
Streaming Link: http://www.ninjavideo.net/video/64177
Official Web Page: http://www.selfhelplessmovie.com/
HD Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHoKDXA9UU

Special thanks to Adam Jaroszewski for letting us know.

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If you upload files, images or videos to the internet on a frequent basis, File and Image Uploader (better known as FileUploader or FU) can be a great asset to have. It’s a less hyped but a very useful piece of software. This simple application allows you to upload files to over 250 (280 at time of writing) one click hosting services such as Rapidshare, Megaupload, Storage.to, HotFile, etc from the comfort of your desktop. If the file you need uploaded is an image, FU can take care of that too – it supports a number of image hosting services including BayImg, ImageShack and many more. The software comes absolutely free of charge and more importantly is not packed with malware, viruses, toolbars or any other form of crapware :)

Among the ~280 services supported by FU are dedicated file hosters such as RapidShare, Image hosting services such as ImageShack, specialized video hosting services such as Megavideo and even link spreader services like Uploadjockey. Desktop integration for most of the listed services work – you can upload files and retrieve the download link with no web browser involvement at all. Premium accounts and simultaneous uploads are also supported.

One of the best features of this small application is that it displays a summary of file hoster capabilities the moment you select one. While still a beta feature, this function allows quick access to information such as max supported file size, storage time, etc of each one click host and lets you make an informed decision as to use which service. You can even view a summary  of all supported services through the ‘File hosters’ button on topmost toolbar.

On top of all this, FU comes with several built in utilities such as a downloader, Link checker and protect grabber, link sorter, universal file manager and several more. While these may not be advanced tools, they are certainly worth having. 

Download

Again, this is free software and does not contain any adware or spyware.

[Click Here] to visit the official download page to download latest version of File and Image Uploader

Note: Some hosting services required additional DLL files to function – you can download these via the links at the bottom of download page. 

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Just a quick update to notify our readers that Miro has been upgraded to version 3.0. Miro (formerly known as Democracy player) is an internet video player that supports a wide range of video file types (HD formats included), streaming media, podcasts, a built in TV guide, web based video search and many other useful features. Additionally, Miro has strong RSS support and it has the ability to handle RSS feeds from BitTorrent trackers and download the .torrent files using its own built in BitTorrent engine – if used correctly, this feature can completely automate your TV torrent downloading. Miro is completely free, open source software and is available for multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Miro 3.0 is a major upgrade over existing v2.5 installations. Some of the new features include a built in video converter and support for subtitles. It appears that v3.0 is better optimized and has better resource handling that it’s predecessor – the new version consumed less RAM and seemingly operated faster than v2.5 when we tested it.

Miro 3.0 retains the popular RSS downloading support which the application has become famous for. Thanks to the built in BitTorrent engine, TV torrent fanatics can program the app to automatically download select TV episodes. This way, new episodes of your preferred shows will automatically  be downloaded to your PC as they are released. You can find several free services that provide TV BitTorrent RSS feeds from this post.

Download

As mentioned earlier this is free and open source software. It’s available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

[Click Here] to download Miro 3.0 from official download page.

Related Articles

• 3 services to find RSS feeds for new TV episode torrents

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FirstWire, the popular free LimeWire alternative, is one of the best clients that support Gnutella, a decentralized file sharing network. Although unnoticed by many, FrostWire can also handle torrent files as it comes with built in support for BitTorrent protocol. However dedicated torrent clients such as Vuze and uTorrent  sued to pwn FrostWire’s BT engine which was based on legacy LimeWire technology. However the FW team announced a major change to the software recently, dubbed ‘FrostWire Torrent Joint’ – it’s aging BitTorrent engine has been replaced with a more modern version entirely powered by Azureuz technology. The new change introduces many improvements to FrostWire’s torrent file handling including support for magnet links, faster downloads and not to mention tons of bugfixes.

Following text which briefly summarizes the changes in ‘Torrent Joint’ is quoted from the FW blog:

Now FrostWire’s BitTorrent engine has been entirely replaced and features all the power of a lightweight version of the Azureus BitTorrent Core under the hood.

Not only all the prior issues our users reported with torrents are gone, but downloading torrents with FrostWire is faster than ever. Torrent Bootstrapping has also significantly improved and in some cases the average download speeds are even 3x faster than with our previous torrent technology.

For a detailed list of changes you can read the full blog post from here.

It would be interesting to see how the changes will affect FrostWire’s standing in allowed clients lists on private torrent trackers. Right now, there aren’t many private torrent sites that allow FrostWire on their sites. The move to Azureuz core might change things as Azureuz/Vuze is a widely accepted client on most sites.

To clear up any confusion, FW Torrent Join can not only handle torrents but it retains support for Gnetella network connectivity as well. If you want a client with decent support for both Gnutella and BT, check FrostWire out.

Download

[Click Here] to download FrostWire for Windows, Apple, Ubuntu, Debian and other platforms

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Recently we talked about SkyDrive Explorer, a software that allows you to browse your cloud based storage from within my computer. The software featured in this post, FeelHome, does quite the opposite of what SkyDrive Explorer does. It allows you to connect to your home computer through a web browser from anywhere in the world. With this cool app, you can browse the hard disk of your home computer, copy files, alter files, share and save them from remote locations may it be at work, school or in prison (if you have connectivity that is :p ). You can even shut down your home machine from the web interface when you are done. Best part about this application is that it doesn’t involve a complex configuration process. Thanks to the straightforward installation and well presented instructions, the software is usable by both power users and novice users alike.

There’s a lengthy explanation of how FeelHome works on its homepage https://www.nuxinov.com/ but if you don’t have the time for it, here’s a shorter three step process to get it working quickly.

1. Download FeelHome client from this location https://www.nuxinov.com/install.php.
2. Your home computer needs to have the FeelHome client installed and connected to the internet for this to work. Run the installer, create a FeelHome account and log in (all of these can be done from the setup process itself).
3. That’s it. You can now login to your computer from any location in the world, simply by visiting https://www.nuxinov.com/feelhome/login.php. (Use the same credentials you used in step 2)

Once logged in, you can download files from the home machine, upload files to the home machine and even invite friends to share your files. There are some other features such as virtual desktop which we leave you to discover. Cool part is that the remote computer used to access the home PC does not need to have any software installed. All you need to have is a web browser. I’ve been using FeelHome for some time now and it’s worked pretty well so far. However, note that the service is still in beta.

This may sound too good to be true but FeelHome is not without restrictions. While the service is free, there are some limitations to bandwidth usage and maximum downloadable file size (7.63 Mb  max file size and 24mb bandwidth usage per month). However, we hear that these restrictions will be relaxed as the software goes out of beta in a couple of months. EDIT: You can also get extra bandwidth by inviting friends to the service.

[Click Here] to visit FeelHome homepage

P.S- If you skipped registration during setup, you can create an account using the web interface by visiting https://www.nuxinov.com/feelhome/register.php

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Here’s quick update on new BitTorrent client releases. Both uTorrent and Vuze (formerly Azureuz), the two most popular BT clients in the world, have released new builds of their software to the public. After releasing uTorrent 2.0 Final the the masses several days ago, it seems the UT team is busy working towards their next major milestone; uTorrent 2.1. Another new alpha build was released released yesterday and albeit still a long way away it’s another step closer to the highly anticipated v2.1 Final. Vuze v 4.3.1.4 too has been released which features minor updates and bug fixes over previous builds. If you use an older build of the same, upgrading to the newest is always recommended.

µTorrent 2.1 Alpha (2.1.18069)

Highlights of this release includes a new, encrypted webUI that doesn't require port forwarding (tentatively called Falcon); many improvements to the standard WebUI backend; streaming; and a new, optional (non-default) simplified UI. Please note that this is still an Alpha build and you might run into undiscovered bugs – proceed at your own risk.

Download

[Click Here] to download uTorrent 2.1.18069 Alpha build
[Click Here] to download uTorrent 2.0 Final

Vuze for Windows 4.3.1.4

The newest build of Vuze has the following fixes and enhancements over the previous Vuze 4.3.1.0a and Vuze 4.3.1.2 builds:

• Core | Added .vuze file format to trigger a search operation
• Core | Disable IPv6 under Windows by default, as it needs Java7 to work properly
• Core | Added system property to disable instance manager
• Core | Give user friendlier error message when offline-downloader disconnected
• Core | Auto-dump threads if shutdown takes > 30 seconds
• UI | Permit deletion of classicaly shared content from download/seeding views:
• Core | Fixed bug whereby HAVE_ALL messages were failing to set the last bit of the bit-flags
• Core | Wait until sid registered before attempting pairing test
• Core | Various pairing HTTPS fixes
• Core | Fix missing 'logout' button when paired with no authentication
• UI | Windows - Vuze now pops up if closed to system tray and user launches exe
• UI | Fixup some Remote Pairing dialog edge case bugs
• UI | OSX - Fix sidebar animations sometimes not animating
• UI | OSX - Text in table views are now the correct color (white) when selected
• UI | Protect against case where Main Window's stored dimensions area invalid or stupidly small
• UI | Fix invalid thread access and NPE when closing pairing dialog
• UI | Fixed case where status bar was blank after deiconifying

If you are using an older build of Vuze, it’s recommended that you upgrade to 4.3.1.4. If you haven’t figured it out, the classic menu is still available although the option is a little harder to find. If you feel the default UI is bloated (like me), you can always choose the classic view from the UI chooser.

Download

[Click Here] to download Vuze 4.3.1.4

Note: If you are using private torrent trackers, always make sure the new client version is allowed below you use it to download torrents from such sites. Using versions not in the a tracker’s allowed clients list could get you banned in extreme cases.

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After a number of beta builds and four Release Candidate (RC) builds, uTorrent v2.0 final has been released. It has been a long wait for fans of this popular BitTorrent client – final version has hit the web almost 6 months after the first public beta was released. As usual, no new features have been introduced in the final build that weren’t available in RC4 and changes are limited to a couple of bug fixes. Major new changes in uTorrent 2.0 (as revealed earlier) remain to be UDP support, transfer cap feature, more user friendly setup dialog, UI improvements, etc. What’s even more important is that uTorrent continutes to be lightweight client – here’s an app that hasn’t (at least not yet) got bloated with every new release.

In addition to the newly added features, uTorrent 2.0 retains almost all of the popular features available in 1.X builds. This includes simultaneous downloads, bandwidth scheduler, RSS downloader and trackerless support (Mainline DHT). Changes in build 17920 is mentioned below (changelog quoted from forum):

2010-01-25: Version 2.0 (build 17920)

• Change: update TCP/IP overhead estimation
• Fix: handle wrapping in uTP timestamps
• Fix: Crash in setup dialog when dialog is exited before server list is downloaded.

Download

[Click Here] to download uTorrent 2.0 (build 17920) for Windows

[Click Here] to download uTorrent skins

[Click Here] to download language packs

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We’re now living in an era when file hosting services have peaked in popularity. One click hosting sites like RapidShare and Megaupload are increasingly being used to transfer large files such as movies, music, games and other content (both copyrighted and copyright free). Uploading a file to a one click hosting service is a relatively straightforward task. But what if you want to upload the same file, to multiple hosters without wasting precious bandwidth? This is where file spreader services come in. File spreaders are capable of automatically distributing a user upload across multiple one click hosters simultaneously. MirrorCreator is one such utility which boasts some impressive features.

You don’t need to know rocket science to figure out how MirrorCreator works. The whole process can be broken down into three simple steps:

1. You upload a file to MirrorCreator, ticking the one-click hosting service you need it distributed to.
2. Once your upload finishes, MirroCreator begins to upload the file to selected hosting services
3. MirrorCreator displays a page with download links to your file, now hosted on the services you selected at step 1.

You will also get a mirrorcreator link that points to the page with individual download links for different one click hosting service. By sharing this link on forums, direct download link sites and blogs, you’ll ensure the maximum availability of your files and others will be able to download from a service of their choice (even if the file gets deleted from one host, the copy uploaded to others will still be available). MirrorCreator currently supports 24 different one click hosting services – a file can be uploaded to a maximum of 8 hosts at once. If you are uploading a large file, you can specify your E-mail address and MirrorCreator will send you the links once upload is finished on their end.

This service however does have some rules. If your link does not receive visitors over X period of time, you risk getting your files deleted from the hosting sites. For more information about rules and guidelines on how to use this service, check out the FAQ.

[Click Here] to visit MirrorCreator homepage.

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I’m sure everyone has heard about Windows Live SkyDrive by now. If you haven’t, it’s is a cloud based online file storage solution from Microsoft which offers 25GB free space. With this useful web service, you can store your files online and access them from anywhere (or share them with others). You usually need to login to your online storage with the use of a web browser, through Windows Live portal. However SkyDrive Explorer is a Windows application that adds SkyDrive integration to My Computer. Once you install the program, your SkyDrive online storage will appear on My Computer as a new disk drive and you’ll be able to manage file operations right from your Windows desktop, with no web browser involvement at all.

SkyDrive explorer allows you to perform all major Windows Explorer functions such as copy, rename, create new, delete, drag and drop features, etc on files and folders stored online. When you click on the SkyDrive Explorer icon on My Computer, you’ll be prompted with a Windows Live login dialog. Use the appropriate credentials to log in and you’ll be able to browse your SkyDrive just like you browse any other folder/drive in Windows (keep in mind that navigation will be slower). For a full list of features see this page. For screenshots of the service look here.

Download

SkyDrive Explorer is free software. It’s lightweight and is only around 1.3MB in file size.

[Click here] to download SkyDrive Explorer from official page.

[Click Here] to signup for a free Windows Live account (if you haven’t already got one that is – any existing Hotmail/Windows Live Messenger/Passport account comes with SkyDrive enabled)

Errors and Troubleshooting

The first time you use this software you might run into the following problem – you can log in and view the folders just fine but can’t do anything else (some actions will simply do nothing while others may give error messages). This may be because you have not agreed to the renewed SkyDrive license agreement from Microsoft. To resolve this issue do the following:

1. Login to your SkyDrive account via Web Interface from here.
2. Click on an existing folder. If you need to renew you license agreement, you’ll be prompted now. Accept it and proceed.
3. Log out of your SkyDrive account. Also log out of the service from SkyDrive Explorer (if it doesn’t work, reboot your PC). 
4. You will now be able to use the service from My Computer.

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Given the nature of this blog’s content, it’s safe to assume that most of our readers are familiar with .torrent files. A .torrent file basically contains metadata (filenames, size, checksum, etc) about other files it makes downloadable. However to work the magic of a torrent, you usually need a BitTorrent client such as uTorrent or Vuze. How about converting a .torrent file to a stand alone exe so that users can download it even on machines without a BitTorrent client? Torrents2Exe is an innovative free online service that allows you do just that. It’s still new but looks like it can come in handy for both regular users as well as torrent site owners.

Torrent2Exe currently runs two versions of its online service – the stable release and the beta version. Beta of course has more features so this post and the included screens are based on it. Anyways if you are wondering as to why you’d ever need a service like this, several potential uses are listed on their website itself (and I’m pretty sure there are more):

• Publish exe files on your site or blog.
• Add extra functionality to your torrent-related site. You can put direct links to these downloads along with links to torrent files or use special script that will do it automatically.
• Process torrents before sending them to your friends who don't want to be bothered with installing the client.

Converting a .torrent file to exe is easy and involves only 1 mandatory step; you have to select the .torrent file you need converted (obviously). This can either reside on your hard disk or you can directly link to a torrent hosted online. Additionally, you can select the size of the generated exe (this and other advanced features are available only in ‘Convert Torrent’ page). There are two options; ‘Normal Size’ and ‘Small Size’. Exes generated under ‘Small Size’ option will be around 50kb in file size. These however will automatically download around 1MB additional components the first time a user executes it (this will be a fully automated one time download and will not be repeated for different exe files). Exes built under the ‘Normal Size’ option will be sized around 1.4MB – there will be no additional component downloads as the Torrent2Exe BitTorrent client will be embedded in the executable (You can even download the client separately, install it on your machine and download regular .torrent files with it).

As said above Torrent2Exe uses its own internal BitTorrent client for downloading and offers basic functionality such as seeding, setting min/max download and upload speeds, selecting the download location, pausing downloads, creating new torrents, hide to tray, DHT support and so on. All of these features are available even when downloading torrents in exe format. If you want you can exit the download altogether and restart it at later stage  - downloading will resume from where it left off and won’t restart from scratch.

Links

[Click Here] to visit Torrent2Exe (Beta) homepage

[Click Here] to visit Torrent2Exe (Beta) online torrent conversion page

[Click Here] to visit Torrent2Exe (Stable) homepage

CAUTION: Using Torrents2Exe with .torrent files downloaded from private torrent trackers is not recommended. Torrent2Exe uses its internal BitTorrent client for downloading and this is most likely not an allowed client on private trackers. Additionally, most private sites prohibit sharing of .torrent files and you could end up getting banned if you distribute generated exes as this will essentially be you sharing your torrent with another party along with your unique passkey etc.

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