Why do you have so many Peer Points? Why aren't my peer points going up right?

Here is goes. You want lots of peer points. First don't use Kazaa for gaining points you get ripped. Kazaa is great to share and download lots of warez apps/games as well as feature divx movies. When you in the mood to do these things by all means use Kazaa (i do) but don't share any of your gold files on Kazaa or in the Kazaa shared folder. Remember when using Kazaa, share what you download. I currently have over 60gigs shared on Kazaa.

Keep close tabs on all your gold files, the only gold files that are counted towards credit with P2P/Altnet PPM are gold files downloaded after install of P2P and Altnet. Any files you had prior to this are just shareware on your computer taking up space.

Place all gold files (only gold files) in 'C:\Program Files\Altnet\My Altnet Shares' If the files are currently in your Kazaa folder that's ok, just move them (as long as you downloaded them after install of P2P and Altnet PPM). Only place gold files in your Altnet shared folder and never rename them.

Download more gold files to share. The best files to download are games. Use the 'my search' tool bar and type in 'game' then click files. Download the largest file size programs first. if you already have it it will finish instantly, you don't have to worry about duplicates. Altnet download manager is not as nice as Kazaa but it will save your files to the correct directory for PPM. If you close the download manager it will cancel your downloads.

Next download all the files listed in PPM under 'Redeem/download and redeem' section.

Do random word searches for keywords and download large files, files that download with high bandwidth connections are already being well provided, the best files to download are files that you get poor connections with or don't download from p2p and instead download direct from an Altnet server.

The setting you should set PPM to are no limit on upload bandwidth (if your ISP has limits I don't recommend surpassing them it can be quite costly) Run at startup, enable sharing, anytime. APPLY!

I remind you that whenever you run Kazaa your points will not calculate correctly, plus when your sharing your bandwidth with other applications, you can't possibly gain as many points sharing in PPM.



The following is edited excerpts from some of the discussions with Altnet customer service Glen Stanaway (who was the only one there)
 

From IvIountainman: To: Altnet Customer Service

Suggestions and Solutions follow please forward to appropriate personal

Problem: Gold files downloaded from Sherman Network's Kazaa Media Desktop (Kazaa) after install of Joltid's P2P (P2P), Altnet's Peer Points Manager (PPM), Altnet's TopSearch (TopSearch), Altnet's Download Manger (DM), and My Way's My Search browser extension/tool bar (My Search) not being properly recognized by PPM.

• Detail 1: PPM doesn't list the files as shared.
• Detail 2: When file uploads from Kazaa, PPM upload bandwidth is counted, but no points are gained.
• Detail 3: P2P doesn't show the upload transfer rates at all, while Kazaa is uploading file.

Reason 1: The download may have been interrupted or file may be confused by P2P interpreter (Possibly due to lower case only and upper case permitted settings)

Reason 2: While file download was occurring, identical file was selected for download. This can happen while P2P is managing the download in the background, and the file is again selected for download from Kazaa’s search. Standard user’s are unaware P2P is downloading previous selected incomplete session downloads.

 

Solution 1: Delete the file and download again.

IMPORTANT NOTE!: To find the file not being shared properly… Open Kazaa, My Kazaa. Select My Media/All. Any Gold file that is being properly recognized will not be able to be shared via Kazaa, Kazaa will list the file in this folder but the upload/download icon is unavailable on recognized gold files, and you are not able to select “start sharing” by right clicking the file.  Altnet TopSearch should be the sole manager of sharing gold files. I have found only one exception to this rule. Kazaa install app can be shared in Kazaa and on TopSearch. Examples of shared file and non shared file icons are displayed below:

	Kazaa	Winzip	Install	Setup
Non-Shared file Icons
Shared File Icons

Your icons may be different but the will be the same

Suggestion: If any User wants to receive credit for ALL gold files on their system, delete any gold file(s) that has a ‘’ icon in Kazaa. Then re-download the file and move to directory ‘…\Altnet\My Altnet Shares’. or simply download the file via the 'My Search' tool bar. Non-gold files are capable of being shared or not, all non gold files may be right clicked to select share properties in 'My Kazaa' tab.

Solution 2: Files may be moved from ‘…\KaZaA\My Shared Folder’ to ‘…\Altnet\My Altnet Shares’ and remain recognized.  If they in fact were downloaded after P2P install and are not showing the share icon in Kazaa.

Suggestions to Altnet:
• Make an advanced user manual:
• Explain the association changes of Kazaa, with PPM.
• How to better manage/monitor your peer network using Joltid’s P2P
• Problem solutions to try prior to reinstall or un-install of products.
• Ask Joltid to list the upload files in details of P2P like it list the download files.


Example: complete/percentage uploaded for recent activity. No need to list users.

(update): Lull has finally been resolved by having PPM update at longer intervals

Reply:

Hi Rick,

You may be quite correct in saying your Points are incorrect. A quick glance at our systems shows that you will certainly be credited points at the time we do the Audit, but we will need to properly check things out.

Thanks also for the investigations you did. It's useful to get these bits of information. The inconsistencies you are seeing is exactly what we are working on at the moment. When we have finalized our solutions to why users such as yourself aren't getting the right behavior from your Peer Points Manager we will be offering upgrades, which you may choose to install. Unfortunately I am unable to offer you a time frame on this, I can only suggest you stay tuned. When it does occur, it will be promoted within the Peer Points Manager and possibly Kazaa 2.5.

Some other info you might like to know;
 

• The sharing is actually controlled by Joltid's P2P Networking (P2Pnw). This is easiest accessed from Control Panel. Both Kazaa 2.5 (KMD) and the Peer Points Manager (PPM) use this tool, which is the actual P2P stack. It can operate independently of the PPM, or KMD, but to earn points the PPM must be running.
• Files downloaded by P2Pnw can be moved between the KMD or PPM shared folders. The files should be recognized no matter which folder they are located in.
• Files can be moved out of the shared folders to a temp location, then back in (for example, temp back up whilst uninstalling KMD or PPM) and should still be recognized by P2Pnw.
• If you uninstall P2Pnw there is no guarantee that files backed up elsewhere will be recognized when P2Pnw is reinstalled.
• Your conclusion is pretty much spot on. We would however like to see you try some of the files. Though they are not mainstream top 40 titles, there is a lot of good content there.

Glen Stanaway

Customer Service Manager
www.altnet.com

Reply: July 8th 2003 (last time we have spoke)

Yep, it's a team of me, me and me. I am good at cut and paste replies :-)

The problems you are seeing are affecting a small percentage of users, very few of whom give quality feedback like I get from you. Unfortunately it is still a significant issue we need to resolve. It won't happen overnight, but we hope to have upgrades available in the near future. Pls donot forget we will be doing a Points audit as well.... 

Glen Stanaway

Customer Service Manager
www.altnet.com

Might I add to this long story...ALTNET has yet to credit me (and I am sure anyone else) for any points missed.  Their systems are running much better but still not correctly.

That's about it
Good luck, hope to see you in the top 10
Rick
AKA IvIountainman
http://www.iamhome2.com