Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

Okay, I have bunch of .xls, .bin, and other weird files. Now what?
In short, you download the files to your computer, then you must rename the files to one of the applicable extensions (mp3, zip, or rar).

You must rename the files into .mp3 from whatever file extention you had before. If .mp3 does not work, you should then try renaming the file to .zip (use Winzip) and see if you can unzip it. If it still doesn't work, rename it to .rar (use Winrar) and see if you can unrar it. Use the File Renaming Guide if you are not sure how to rename your files.

What is MP3?
MP3 is an audio compression codec that allows users to compress songs, speeches, and monkey sounds (Yes, they're out there...) dramatically without noticeable loss of quality. MP3 stands for Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3), and because its ability to compress songs, it became de facto standard for music distribution over the web.

MPEG? What's that?
MPEG, pronounced M-peg, is the nickname given to a family of international standards used for coding audio-visual information in digital compressed format. MPEG developed not only the MP3s, but played important roles in many other audio-visual technologies including mpeg movies and DVD.

How does MP3 work?
Magic. :) Actually, it's quite simple (in concept, that is). What MP3 codec does, is that it gets rid of parts of audio that you and I cannot hear. Our human ears are quite limited in that after hearing something loud, you can't hear quiet sound for short period of time. MP3 codec calculates and deletes that part. This is how MP3 achieves its great compression ratio without the apparent quality loss.

Are MP3s Legal?
MP3 is just a file format. MP3s by themselves are perfectly legal. Also, if you rip MP3s from a CD that you own, and use it for your personal enjoyment, it is legal. However, it becomes illegal when you start trading MP3s or give MP3s away to your friends without permission from the copyright holder.

How do I play MP3s?
There are a number of MP3 players out there, from software that runs on your computer to hand-held portable MP3 players. I personally use WinAmp, but there are a lot of other nice MP3 players as well. So, go and search around!

MP3 skips a lot!
MP3 requires a lot of computer resources. If your computer is not fast enough, or if you are doing something cpu-intensive, MP3 will skip. You might be able to go into Preferences of MP3 players and set it to lower quality to listen to the music without skipping.

MP3 sounds like sh*t!
If you've used Netscape to download MP3, from a improperly setup server, your MP3 might be cooked. If the MP3 sounds like squeaky noise, use Uncook95 to fix it. Please be aware that using/cenook on a file that works will screw the file up.

How can I resume dropped downloads?
There are several programs out there that lets you resume dropped downloads. One we recommend is Download Accelerator. Most recent servers do support resuming, and if you use Download Accelerator, even if your computer restarts while the song is being downloaded, you will be able to resume from where you left off. Also, Download Accelerator speeds up your downloads by up to 300%! If you download a lot of stuff, you should seriously look into getting one of these programs as they do make your life somewhat easier.

FTP? What's FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is one of the main ways to get the file gets transferred over the internet. Think of it as a way for people to share their files with others. Although Netscape and Internet Explorer has built-in support for FTP, their they are not quite powerful enough for anything other than simple downloading, so if you think you'd be using FTP a lot, you should get a FTP client. There are hundreds of FTP clients out there, and most of them are freewares, or sharewares that you can try out for free.

What is a ratio site?
Ratio site is a FTP server that expects you to upload some stuff before you get to download from the server. You must have a FTP client to be able to download from Ratio sites. There are number of ways the servers measure the uploads and downloads. Some lets you download X number of files everytime you upload 1 file, while others regulate by measuring how much bytes you've uploaded and downloaded.

Napster? Gnutella? What are those?
Napster and Gnutella are file sharing programs that allows you to trade files with other Napster (or Gnutella) users. Once you find the file you want, you download directly from that other person's computer. The biggest difference between Napster and Gnutella is that while Napster is a centralized service (you need to log-in to a central server), Gnutella has no central point, and that network is always shifting as people login and logout.

Why can't I play this MP3 that I've downloaded?
There are many reasons why the MP3 is not playing. Your speakers might not be plugged in, or the volume might be set to mute. If you are sure the MP3 player is working, and only that certain MP3 is not working, then you should try re-downloading the file. You should also check the MP3 player help file and readme file as well.

The download speed is really slow. What can I do?
If you are on a dial-up account, there isn't much you can do but wait. If the download is really slow, or if you are on ADSL or Cable, it might mean that the server is swamped, or there is conjestions on the Internet. You might try downloading from another server or downloading at some other time.

I don't have the password to the ZIP file!
We don't have the password either.

Because of number of links our scripts process each day, and because the process is fully automated, it is impossible for us to know the password of those zipped files. If the files have password, and the link-gathering script picked it up, a "Unzip Password" field will be shown in the Download page that tells you the password.

We've found that some MP3 files can be extracted by using the password (Text version of the password list is available here)
I'm getting a web page coming up with the error "404 Error - Not Found". Why?

Sometimes songs are deleted off various servers for unknown reasons, and it is hard to keep track of these happening. This error means the file cannot be found. Unfortunately, you cannot download this file anymore, but you can let the webmaster know about it, so that he can remove it from the archive. To do this, email the webmaster.

I keep getting these messages from GeoCities stating that the "Page is unavailable at this time". Why?

Since Yahoo, has taken over GeoCities, there have been many problems. Quite a large amount of the songs in the archive are hosted on the GeoCities servers. Microsoft Internet Explorer users often experience problems with access to GeoCities MP3s. Netscape should be OK as far as we know, but they can also come across errors.

It can often help to Shift+Click a song instead of just "Clicking" it. It will ask you where to save the file and should hopefully download. Shift+Clicking involves holding the Shift button while you click the song.

If you are an Internet Explorer user, you might want to consider downloading GoZilla which is apparently able to download files from GeoCities. It is a download manager and allows you to download files in smaller pieces which means you can download a portion of a file, and come back later to finish it off. It also helps if you get disconnected from a server often and have to start the download again. It will resume from where you were cut off.

I've downloaded the song but the filename is something like song_name.ren or song_name.pdf. What should I do to get them to play as MP3 files?

Some people when uploading MP3 files onto the internet rename the files to allow them to stay up (it is usually illegal to put MP3s on the internet). All that is required, is that you rename the file once downloaded to end in .MP3 or when choosing a filename to save it as, make sure it ends in .MP3 and if not change it so it is so. If the song can't play, then change the extension to .zip, and try extracting.

How often do you check your site for dead links in the archive?

I check the archives & charts for dead links every hour. I also go through dead links submitted via email and test those links and remove them if necessary. My aim is to keep the dead links to a complete minimum. I cannot guarantee that all links work, but I try to keep them all out. Please notify me if you find one that doesn't work.

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