We used to post these offline standalone installer builds for various IM clients quite frequently but with us focusing more on the BitTorrent front this has died down a bit. To keep things moving and up to date, here’s the standalone, redistributable installer for the latest available build of Yahoo! Messenger. An advantage of downloading the full installer as opposed to the default over the web download provided by Yahoo! is that you can save the full setup to your hard disk and install it on as many machines, whenever, wherever you like. Note that this setup is not a hacked version nor a custom build. It’s provided by Yahoo! themselves – they just don’t show it on the default download page.

When you run the installer, make sure to install only what you need. By default the this setup comes bundled with a lot of unwanted crap (IMHO) such as Yahoo! browser toolbars and so on – the average user just needs the core IM program so we recommend you install just that without cluttering your system with other junk (unless you really need them of course).

Download

[Click Here] to download Yahoo! Messenger 10.0.0.1264 standalone installer from official server

If you crave for the over the air web installer, you may download it from here.

Read the rest of this article...

As I’m writing this post, I’m wondering why we didn’t feature this site earlier. AfterPre is an excellent direct download link indexer that’s somehow managed to evade our radar up untill now. When compared to other DDL indexers, AfterPre is unique. Their uniqueness mostly comes from the looks – although a DDL index, the site looks and behaves and exactly like a private BitTorrent tracker running on a script such as TBDEV. A layout that resembles a torrent index, categories, category icons, separate download pages for each indexed release – they are all here. Only difference between AfterPre and a private tracker is that instead of .torrent files. AP gives you a list of download links through which you can download a particular release directly.

AfterPre is not a new site and it’s been online for more than a year. Its process of posting scene releases online seems to be automated – something similar to what sites like NewSceneFiles, SceneFulx and SceneDDL are doing/used to do. Pre times are pretty good and you can find most of the stuff indexed on AfterPre not long after scene groups originally release them. As of now the site’s index consists of over 25000 releases – this is a huge amount of releases for any type of site, private tracker or a DDL forum.

Speaking of the content, you can find pretty much anything here. Movies, Music, TV Shows, Games – if it’s a release from the warez scene chances are that AfterPre has got it. Just like on a torrent tracker, releases are searchable by name or category. One of the drawbacks of this site is that it does not have any packs and it does not index any releases that originate from P2P groups. Anyways the content is still great – a screenshot of part of the main index and site layout may be found below:

As said above AfterPre offers direct download links to indexed files. These usually point to external one click hosting services such as HotFile and RapidShare. You can easily download files hosted on these services with a simple tool like JDownloader.

Signups for AfterPre are currently open. You need to create an account and log into the site in order to view download links (registration is almost instantaneous). If you download scene releases over the web, this site is definitely worth checking out.

Site Name: AfterPre (http://afterpre.com)

Signup URL: http://afterpre.com/signup.php

Related Articles:

• SceneFlux – Scene Release Blog With Auto Uploader & Auto Poster

Read the rest of this article...

Here’s a quick update on another private torrent tracker open signup. HD-Bits.ro, an excellent online resource for all things high definition, has opened public signups after several months. Although it’s name might suggest the site is a rip off of HDBits.org, HD-Bits.ro is an independent tracker that has risen on its own. With thousands of members and torrents the site has two things essential for the success of a private tracker; content and activity. Apart from the scene and P2P releases that are found on almost any other HD specific BitTorrent site, HDBits has some exclusive torrents uploaded by their internal encoder groups i.e. HDBRise. Although it’s currently open for registration there’s no telling when the doors will close to the public – if you are interested in high definition content, go ahead and signup for an account without wasting any more time.

With over 19000 active members and over 4200 active HD torrents, HD-Bits.ro is easily one of the largest HD trackers currently online. Download speeds on this tracker are superb – you are likely to max out your high bandwidth internet connection when downloading torrents. Pre times are also pretty decent around here.

As for the content on this tracker, HD-Bits.Ro indexes HD movies, HDTV series, HD Documentaries, adult content and even some lossless music and HD music videos. Scene releases as well as a lot of p2p and home user encodes are available for download. Content on Hd-Bits.Ro includes lots of torrent packs (collections) – obviously, some of these packs are f’ing huge and in some cases span over 400GB in size. Screenshot below captures part of the torrent index on HDBits:

Just like on any private tracker, you’ll need to adhere by the site’s rules if you are signing up for an account on HDBits.ro. Apart from the usual rules, make sure to pay attention to the following which relates to site activity requirements:

Accounts with 0 activity, no download (free torrents not included) and no upload, are automatically deleted after being a member for 10 days.
Accounts that have total traffic (download + upload) smaller than 10GB/month will be disabled after a 1-week warning. This is an average value, actually you are not forced to upload/download every month. Freelech download isn't taken into account.

More information on the activity requirements may be found here.

As said above HD-Bits.ro is currently open for signup. Don’t expect the signups to remain open for much longer so go ahead and grab an account ASAP.

Site Name: HD-Bits.Ro (http://www.hd-bits.ro)

Signup URL: http://www.hd-bits.ro/signup.php

Related Articles

• HD-Bits.Ro imposes minimum monthly traffic requirement

Read the rest of this article...

It’s again time for our monthly roundup of of private torrent trackers. This article contains summarized information about 11 private trackers that are currently open for registration – all of the sites mentioned here have been discussed in detail on this blog before, during the past couple of months. Note that sites which recruit members via IRC, invite applications or any other alternate means other than direct open signups are not listed here (they will be featured in a separate post). This month’s list contains general trackers that index all types of content, movie trackers, TV trackers, music trackers and even sites that deal exclusively with mobile optimized content. As usual, signup URLs and updated site statistics are included with each entry – please make sure to have a look at the full review before you actually sign up for sites listed here.

iPlay
   
Site Name: iPLAY (http://www.iplay.ro/)
Signup URL: Visit http://www.iplay.ro/login.php and click on ‘Trial Account’ button
Stats: 17000+ torrents
Description: iPlay is simply one of the best General/)Day torrent trackers currently in existence. Good download speeds, decent pre times, good activity – this site has got it all. iPlay is currently open in trial registration mode – read all about it (and some instructions on the registration process) in the full review.
Full Review: [Click Here]

RuTracker
 
Site Name: RuTracker (http://rutracker.org/forum/index.php)
Translated Version of Homepage: http://bit.ly/a5TBGc
Signup URL: http://rutracker.org/forum/profile.php?mode=register
Translated Version of Signup URL: http://bit.ly/clKnFg
Stats: 5 million + users and 800000+ torrents
Description: RuTracker is arguably the world’s largest private torrent tracker. This site has a Russian interface but don’t let that fool you – there’s plenty of English releases including some rare torrents. For tips on translation and signup, refer to the full review.
Full Review: [Click Here]

EuTorrents
 
Site Name: euTorrents (http://bt.eutorrents.com)
Signup URL: http://bt.eutorrents.com/index.php?page=signup
Stats: 4400+ users and 700+ torrents
Description: EuTorrents is a BitTorrent tracker for European movies. Among the movies you can find on this site are Dannish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swiss and Turkish flicks. EuTorrents is a project by the AvistaZ crew.
Full Review: [Click Here]

xTremeTV
 
Site Name: Xtremetv (http://xtremetv.org)
Signup URL: http://xtremetv.org/signup.php
Stats: 9700+ members and 2800+ torrents
Description: xTremeTV is a relatively new TV torrent tracker. One of the main strengths of this site is it’s torrent index which has a lot of classic movies and TV shows. Decent tracker for both new and old TV shows.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Henteles
 
Site Name: Henteles (http://henteles.hu)
Signup URL: http://henteles.hu/signup.php (tick checkbox at end of page to open signup form)
Stats: ~775 torrents and 4000+ users
Description: Henteles, is a private tracker specializing in horror movies, TV shows and even games with violent content. It’s a relatively new entrant to this niche but is well worth trying out if you are into Horror, cult and sleaze genres.
Full Review: [Click Here]

PianoSheets
 
Site Name: PianoSheerts (http://www.pianosheets.org)
Signup URL: http://www.pianosheets.org/register.php
Stats: 6500+ users and 7000+ torrents
Description: PianoSheets is a private tracker that indexes piano sheet music, tutorials, electronic books & books with audio plus other educational material that will probably be useful for all students of music.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Mobile.us
 
Site Name: Mobile (http://mobile.myxz.us)
Signup URL: http://mobile.myxz.us/signup.php
Description: Mobile.us is specialized mobile content tracker by the XtremeZone crew. Although plagued by frequent downtimes, the site has done well in adding both new content and new members.
Full Review: [Click Here]

TorrentKids
 
Site Name: TorrentKids (http://www.torrentkids.org)
Signup URL: http://www.torrentkids.org/index.php?page=signup (leave invite toke fields blank)
Stats: 1800+ users and 1000+ torrents
Description: TorrentKids is a great tracker for children’s TV shows. The site was down for some time in the past month but it is now back with all torrents and users in tact. 
Full Review: [Click Here]

BioTorrents
 
Site Name: BioTorrents (http://www.biotorrents.net)
Signup URL: http://www.biotorrents.net/signup.php
Stats: 730+ users and 28 torrents
Description: BioTorrents is a different kind of a BitTorrent tracker.It’s primary goal is to allow sharing of scientific research data including large datasets and even open access software. This site does not track copyrighted content.
Full Review: [Click Here]

DIDIDave
 
Site Name: DIDIDave (http://www.dididave.com)
Signup URL: http://www.dididave.com/signup.php
Stats: 20900+ users and 6300+ torrents
Description: DIDIDave is a long standing private tracker that’s been around for ages. This site has very good pre times and decent amount of content.
Full Review: [Click Here]

ScenePalace
     
Site Name: ScenePalace (http://www.scenepalace.org)
Signup URL:  http://www.scenepalace.org/signup.php
Stats: 5700+ torrents and 4800+ users
Description: ScenePalace is a General/0day torrent tracker with good pre times. ScP V2 with several improvements to the current implementation should be pushed out soon. Overall a good tracker to supplement your day to day torrenting needs. 
Full Review: [Click Here]

Read the rest of this article...

If you have been downloading stuff from BitTorrent trackers, one click hosting sites, Usenet or any other medium, you probably are familiar with NFO files. NFO files are used by the scene and P2P groups to communicate important release information, group news and other miscellaneous details that may be related to your download. NFOs are also used for communication between scene groups – for example SceneNotices and Scene rule sets. NFOMATION is a new free service that probably is the world’s first dedicated .NFO file host. It lets you upload NFO files, share the link with others and even renders the NFO along with ASCII art and other gizmos without harming its readability.

I’ve seen folks upload NFO files to services like PasteBin, etc only to get them screwed up with line numbering and several other quirks. With NFOMATION you will no longer run into these annoyances. In fact the service’s description in the ‘about’ page reads “ NFOmation is an upload and rendering service for 'fancy' text files called iNFO files. It is not an PasteBin”.

How NFOMATION works is pretty simple – you visit the service’s homepage and upload any NFO file. The service will then take you to a page that will render the NFO online. You can share the URL of this page on internet forums, chat rooms, IRC channels or wherever you like. Folks who visit the page will see the NFO file’s content’s along with ASCII graphics, etc in tact – in fact there will even be several options to customize the visual feel such as ‘Image View’, ‘Dos Text View’ and ‘Win Text View’. Viewers will not be required to download any files unless they specifically choose to do so – in which case it’s possible through the ‘Download’ button.

The service is currently in public beta and supports uploading of files with .NFO and .txt extensions. Maximum file size is limited to 300kb. Next time you have an NFO file to share with others, don’t upload it to PasteBin (or upload it to any generic file host for that matter) – use NFOMATION :p

[Click Here] to visit NFOMATION Homepage

Related Articles

• Search for release .NFO files using NFOogle
• Scene Notice – Read inside information on the warez scene
• 10 Great Resources For Scene Releases, Pre Times, NFOs and BitTorrent

Read the rest of this article...

Nowadays a lot of people who work extensively with computers tend to use more than one monitor. According to my experience, having two monitors instead of one huge ass display can help you work smarter and increase productivity. Setting up multiple monitors on a Windows environment is almost a no brainer (provided that your video card supports it) - however there are some common gripes associated with this setup. One of the most common annoyances (for me at least) when working with two monitors is the speed which the cursor moves from the edge of one monitor to the other. For example when you try to access a UI control (i.el. scrollbar) located at the edge of the first monitor, you might suddenly find the mouse pointer had skipped the edge and moved to monitor no. 02. Thankfully, Dual Display Mouse Manager is a small piece of software that can cure this disease once and for all.

Dual Display Mouse Manager smoothens the cursor movement between monitors by inserting a small delay when the pointer approaches the edge of one monitor. This stops the cursor ‘skipping’ and makes it easier to work with elements closer to the edge of a display. You can customize this behavior using the app’s simple interface and tweak it for your liking – however I found the default values to work perfectly. Another feature of DDMM is the ‘mouse region jump’ – this lets you map the ctrl key to switch mouse pointer between monitors instantly.

Download

DDMM is free, portable software and does not require installation. It however does require Microsoft .NET framework to function (which comes pre installed with most modern versions of Windows).

[Click Here] to download the latest version of Dual Display Mouse Manager from official download page

Read the rest of this article...

Torrent sites that track audio books are not new to this blog – we’ve already covered some leading names in this niche such as My Anonamouse, Bibliotik and CatTorrent. Anyways here’s a promising new specialized private tracker that caters for audiobooks and audiobooks only; ABTorrents. ABTorrents tracks a wide range of content including fiction, children’s books, adult novels, science fiction and books relating to many other topics - mostly non educational content. After entering the BitTorrent arena several months ago back in 2009, ABTorrents has recorded some impressive growth. The site has built both a strong enough community and a rich torrent index and shows signs of becoming another BitTorrent success story. Signups are currently open and if you are a fan of audio books, you might want to check this tracker out.

As of 3/5/2010, ABTorrents currently tracks 1200+ torrents and 4400+ active members. You can’t yet compare these stats with long standing trackers such as My Anonamouse but ABTorrent’s growth in the past couple of weeks has been quite impressive. Not only has the site been adding a lot of new members but it has managed to quickly push the total torrent count past 1000 as well (and this is no easy task either, especially when it comes to a niche tracker).

Speaking of the content found on ABTorrents, there is no need to retell the fact that it’s full of audio books. The most important fact is that while most trackers tend to focus on educational content, ABTorrents has some widely sought after titles in fiction, literature, fantasy, science fiction, horror, comedy and other (non E-Learning) related categories. To get a better idea on what sort of content you can find on this tracker, have a look at the screenshot below:

As you can see above, most indexed audiobooks are encoded in MP3 format (at various bitrates). There are no specific rules governing the audio quality of an upload and even ACC, OGG, FLAC, M4A, etc files are also allowed.

Right now signups for ABTorrents are open. Currently, the site does not appear to have a maximum user limit set so it can be assumed that registrations will remain open for some time. If you are a fan of audiobooks and want to be a part of a growing tracker, don’t forget to check this site out.

Site Name: Audio Book Torrents (http://www.abtorrents.com)

Signup URL: http://www.abtorrents.com/signup.php

Other similar trackers you might be interested in:

• MyAnonamouse Invites On IRC – Excellent E-Book & AudioBook Torrent Tracker
• Bibliotik – BitTorrent tracker for magazines, ebooks, novels, audiobooks & more
• CatTorrent Down No More – Audiobook Tracker

Special thanks to ABTorrents admin for letting us know about this site.

Read the rest of this article...

In most countries, the 1st of May is a holiday (International Workers' Day) – China is one of those countries that celebrate this holiday to the fullest. It’s no wonder that even Chinese BitTorrent trackers are joining the party by opening registrations; HDStar, a private torrent tracker based in China, has opened signups to the public for a limited time. HDS is an excellent resource to find and download high definition content including movies, TV shows, sports, documentaries and even anime. Although it’s based on China, the site is packed with English content and users even have the option to change site interface language to English. If you are a fan of HD content, go ahead and register for a free account before the user limit is reached.

HDStar is not a new tracker and this is not the first time it is being mentioned on FILEnetworks Blog. We featured it back in last August when it had another open signup. Anyways the point is HDS is a well established tracker in the BT community in the same league as other popular China based HD trackers such HDChina, CHDBits, CCFBits, HDCity, OURDiSC (open) and HDRoad. HDS currently has 9400+ registered users and tracks 12000+ torrents. Seeder/leecher activity is great on this site with popular torrents having 50+ uploaders. Download speeds are also pretty good.

As the name suggests, HDStar is primarily a HD content tracker. You can find a lot of 1080p/720p full Blu-Ray movies (including some massive torrents which weigh over 45GB for a single movie), DVDRs, HDTV shows and other x264 encoded content on this site. Both scene releases as well as HD encodes by P2P groups such as HDS, CHD, MySiLU, WiKi and lots more are indexed. Screenshot below shows part of HDS’s torrent index as well as some of the available torrent/video format categories:

As you can see the torrent index has color coded torrents – a different background color means the torrent is either free leech, 2x up, 2x up and free, 50% download recorded, 2x up + 50% download recorded, etc. Information on which colors mean which benefits can be found at the bottom of Browse.php page. By allocating such bonuses to torrents, HDS promotes their motto ‘Leeching them is the best way to fix your ratio!’.

Although HDStar is currently open for signup, don’t expect the doors to be open for much longer. The site currently has a user limit of 10000 members and that only leaves around 400 more free spots remaining (at the time this post is being written). So, if you are a lover of HD content, go ahead and sign up for an account without wasting any more time.

Site Name: HDStar (http://www.hdstar.org)

Signup URL: http://www.hdstar.org/signup.php

Similar trackers:

• OurDiSC – Private Tracker For Full R1, R3 DVD And Blu-Ray Disks
• HDCity – Another HD BitTorrent Tracker From China
• CHDBits – High Definition Private Tracker
• CCFBits – Chinese HD torrent tracker with English releases
• HDRoad.ORG - Private HD Torrent Tracker

Read the rest of this article...

In the past we have featured many BitTorrent sites that specialize in Trance music such as TranceRoute, TranceBooster, etc. However, I don’t think we’ve ever featured on this blog a direct download link forum which solely focuses on the Trance genre. Well here it is – TrancElite, a relatively new DDL forum that indexes scene and p2p releases including a ton of lossless music. TE indexes both new and classic music albums, singles and not only that, it even has links to livesets, mixes and weekly radio shows from famous DJs. Getting into this site is easy as it’s currently open for registration – despite having ‘Elite’ in its name, this is not one of those l33t sites that are outside the reach of ordinary file sharers.

TranceElite is a forum that is currently in the growing phase. So far the site has done well – as of 1/5/2010 they have over 2400 registered members who have made 120000+ posts. However, there is a reason why the post count is so high – TE is one of those forums that ‘hides’ download links on a particular thread until a user replies to the thread. We feel that this promotes spam instead of genuine activity but hey, they might have their reasons for doing so.

Anyways TrancElite indexes direct download links to a number of music releases. That doesn’t mean they host copyrighted files – like most DDL forums, they merely link to files hosted elsewhere such as on one click hosting services. However they do have specific rules regarding uploads tightly regulating their audio quality. Basically, it can be guaranteed that every download link you find on TE will lead to non fake, high quality audio files.

Screenshot above shows a part of TE’s Music section. It’s under these threads you’ll find DDL links to music albums and singles. This includes scene releases as well as TE exclusives which are mostly lossless encodes not found on other sites/forums. Then there is the ‘Sets’ section where you can find livesets, mixes and radio shows. Don’t forget to check out the subsections on these threads as they are easy to miss.

TrancElite is currently open for registrations – as said earlier you need to register an account and log into the site to view the download links. Fans of the Trance music genre should check this site out.

Site Name: TrancElite (http://www.forum.trancelite.net/)

Signup URL: http://www.forum.trancelite.net/index.php?app=core&module=global&section=register

Related Articles

• FLAC Share – Direct Download Lossless Music From RapidShare, MegaUpload & More

Read the rest of this article...

The long awaited next installment of Tom Clancy’s stealth video game franchise, Splinter Cell : Conviction has now been released to the public. Despite the game receiving somewhat negative reviews (i.e. only a score of 6.5 from GameSpot), fans of the series seem to be eager to try the game out. I’ve had the chance to play with a legitimate copy (PC version) of the game for several hours and I’ve got to say it’s not the most optimized game out there. Although it ran fine without any showstopper bugs, there were some FPS issues and slowdowns present on even higher end gaming rigs. Anyways here’s our routine troubleshooting article for Splinter Cell : Conviction – hopefully this will help you resolve any nagging issues you have with the game (note that most of the fixes mentioned are ATI centric).

Black screen at launch, blank screen, stuttering or game hangs at start up

SC : C is known to have several issues with ATI video hardware. If you are an ATI video card owner, it’s strongly recommended that you upgrade to ATI Catalyst™ 10.4a Preview hotfix release that addresses some of these issues. Quoted from driver release notes:

Splinter Cell Conviction - Resolves stability issues in the game when using a Windows 7 / Windows Vista / Windows XP based system with an:

• ATI Radeon HD 3xxx Series of products

Splinter Cell Conviction - Resolves performance stuttering issues when using a Windows 7 / Windows Vista / Windows XP based system with an:

• ATI Radeon HD 2xxx Series of products
• ATI Radeon HD 3xxx Series of products
• ATI Radeon HD 4xxx Series of products
• ATI Radeon HD 5xxx Series of products

You may download 10.4a drivers from this page.

If you are an ATI card owner and if the above fix did not resolve your problem, you can try installing v10.5 drivers as specified in this forum thread. Please note that we did not test this solution.

Additionally, it’s imperative that you have the latest DirectX 9 monthly runtime installed if you are running the game in DX9 mode. You may download it from here.

Missing menu options and in game textures

If you are running into the issues with missing menu text, menu items or in game textures, try disabling Catalyst AI in Catalyst control panel. You need to do this in all applicable places (i.e. under the AI tab as well as All tab in CCC).

My screen resolution is not supported. What’s up?

This is not a technical fix but more like a UI issue. If you try to change the video resolution in Splinter Cell : Conviction, sometimes you may find the resolution that matches your display is missing from the list (for example some widescreen res). You might not notice it but you can actually scroll down the list of resolutions.

Cannot display video mode error – game starts up in a resolution unsupported by the monitor

If you get this error, you might have to manually edit the game configuration file and set a resolution compatible with your monitor. There is a detailed forum thread on UBISoft forums on how to do this – you may access it from here.

scc.exe stopped working error when trying to launch the game

Sometimes, the game might hang at launch when it tries to auto detect system components. If this happens, you can bypass the auto detection process, launch the game and manually adjust optimal settings yourself. Navigate to your game’s installation directory and rename the file systemdetection.dll to something else. Now launch the game – it will throw an error message but the game should launch instead of hanging.

This article is a work in progress – more issues/fixes will be added as they are discovered. Feel free to post any useful info as comments.

If you liked this article do not forget to subscribe to our RSS feed. We bring you the latest BitTorrent news, private torrent tracker updates, leaks, downloads and more.
You can also follow us on Twitter.

Read the rest of this article...