TRIBALMIXES.COM : F.A.Q. (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS) v1.95

» Our Community Rules, Regulations & Guidelines!!!» Specialized Share-Ratio Help and Improvement Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Site Information

User information

Downloading

Uploading

Stats

How can I improve my download speed?

My ISP uses a transparent proxy. What should I do?

Why can't I connect? Is the site blocking me?

Maybe my address is blacklisted?
Your ISP blocks the site's address

What if I can't find the answer to my problem here?

GENERAL SITE INFORMATION

What is this bittorrent all about anyway? How do I get the files?

In two words, BitTorrent is a protocol of/for data/file inter-exchange that allows strong integrity of downloaded data via many checks and summs that are provided as a special torrent-file which needs to be downloaded from the (tracker) website to start the download. besides that a torrent client is needed as well, such at utorrent, transmission, etc.

Where does the donated money go?

tribalmixes.com is located on some paid hosting. for the moment we have monthly running costs of approximately $130. if we get too much money, and we've never gotten yet, but are hoping one day to. well, if we do, we'll share it among the uploader team and enjoy it somehow! =)

What is shoutbox and how to use it?

shoutbox is like a mini offline chat. it shows up on the bottom of each page. you post messages, others do too. all are reading.. if you want to shout at someone privately - use 2:USERNAME SHOUT_TEXT format, i.e. start shouts with 2: and name of the user. such shouts are separated into private shoutbox on the right. if you want to address someone publicly, put @username and your shout will be posted in public shoutbox.

What about the points and ways to use them?

POINTS are a complex feature in two words meaning your Personal Input into the Tribalmixes Community. below are the most common ways to "score some points". please, note, that some options are only available to power users, editors or uploaders, - consider become one. other options are serviced automatically by system if special conditions (listed in other parts of this document) are satisfied... :). also note, numbers shown this way 500(600) mean that you get 500 points for some action, and lost 600 points if that action is reverted, for example, moderator removes your comment or forum post.

• Vote in Tribalmixes Poll » 50 points
• Rate Torrent/Release » 200 points + 2 Lottery Tickets
• Rate DJ, Radio, Show » 100 points + 3 Lottery Tickets
• Comment on Fresh Torrent » 350 (500) points
• Start new Forum Topic » 300 (400) points
• Submit new Forums Post » 250 (300) points
• Donate to Tribalmixes » 100 points for each 1 USD
• Ratio Warning Removed » 500 points
• Share new Torrent » 500 (500) points
• Add new DJ List record » 1500 (1500) points
• Fulfill Reseed Request » get the prize listed (5000 points average)
• Your Torrent Gets 100 Downloads » 499 points
• Become Power User » 300 points
• Torrent moves to History » 2 points
• Your Torrent Rated as 4 » 5 points
• Your Torrent Rated as 5 » 25 points
• Seed 1 torrent for 1 minute » up to 0.0005 points

So the Major Points can be scored by seeding torrents. We know that most of your seeds are idling like 90% of the time. That's why we want to reward you just for seeding. Here is the schedule of seeding reimbursement.. there are 3 categories of seeds, we'll look into each a bit deeper...

Fresh torrents, max 7 days old... - these do not award anything for seeding, becuase usually there's activity and transfers on them.

1 week to 1 year old - these have an increasing scale working by this formula: Time_Seeded x Points_Per_Seed / ( 366 - Torrent_Age_Days ) - this shows that 1 week old torrent will reward you with 0.0008 points for 1 hour of seeding. please, do not think of this as a small number, - try with 100 torrents, and seed them for 1 week...

over 1 year old - these torrents are majority, and they are often in demand, so seeding them is rewarded very handsomely. 0.005 points per 1 minute per 1 torrent seed. again, small number, but in reality, when you're seeding 1 old torrent - you get 7 points per day. do you have a 100 of old torrents? seed them all, and you'll be getting 700 points per day, and make it 7000 daily points if you can seed 1000 old downloads of yours.

to fineline this - the older the torrent, the more points one gets for seeding it. ideally, good seeder can and will gather 10 times the points of good commenter/forum poster (each day).. so seeding is the power!!

What is "Tribalmixes Lottery" and what is it for?

Tribalmixes Lottery is a daily raffle/drawing of certain prizes available to all users of any status, even warned, who are still able to log in. all prizes will use the "awards" system, so they will all be redeemable right there (not auto-applied). the lottery is designed to give active users more fun here, no monetary prizes or any commitments, just points, credits, and FUNZ!!

Lottery drawings will be initiated and prizes randomly assigned only 1 time a day, at 12 noon, GMT00, server local time. there will always be only the most recent drawing results available online, all preceeding drawings are erased from db asa new one comes in.

each user will be able to claim 1 FREE ticket per daily drawing, each additional ticket will cost your rating 1 point, up to 100 tickets. if you're yet willing to get more, each one (that is over than 101 total tickets) will be exchanged for 5 of points. but you must claim your ticket personally, you will not be entered into the drawing automatically.

click this link to claim your free ticket, if you haven't yet picked it up today!!!

Everything you ever wanted to know, but have never felt comfortable enough to ask about awards...

this is going to be a little quick Q:question1, A:answer1 f.a.q. inside the Main F.A.Q. well, answers might seem a little big sometimes, but if you do want to get your warning off or simply improve your ratio much, you need to know all this things, so please take a little time and read, and a lot of good times later is guaranteed!@

Q: where do i find my awards?
A: click this link, bookmark the page, if needed.

Q: how do i get an award?
A: to receive awards you can either download a Ratio-Free torrent or take part in the Daily Lottery, donating also gives you awards, plus Daily Prize is useful here too...

Q: why my ratio is changing when i download Ratio-Free torrents, which are supposed to be ratio-free?
A: because those torrents sizes are re-applied back to your account on completion of the downloading process via download debit awards, which you have to apply yourself manually from the Awards Center.

Q: i've downloaded a Ratio-Free torrent and am seeding it right now. but i haven't received my award for it! where is it? a.k.a. Missing Awards
A: this may happen due to multiple reasons caused by user and server. open details of that torrent, and look on the bottom. if anything was reported (and got accepted into your account's stats), it will be shown there, and if nothing is shown - then tracker doesn't know about your download on this torrent, be happy! =) but if anything there is listed and torrent is ratio-free, it will show a link for you to claim your award, or part of it.

Q: i've downloaded only several files out of an Ratio-Free megapack torrent, can i still get some award for that?
A: YES, same as above. only in this case tracker knows exactly what you getting...

Q: i've downloaded an Ratio-Free torrent, and my name is on the list of snatchers, but i've never had any award for this torrent! a.k.a. Award Disappeared??
A: for security reasons, awards for successful Ratio-Free snatches are issued for the time period of 7 days when you can simply click the awards link anywhere and claim these awards by clicking on them. however, if you do not have time to check back, forget about awards. or for any other reason you do not use any awards, they are permanently marked as "used" but kept in the database, so staff can look up your older awards.. leaving you with nothing here, only strong experience.

Q: why did i receive download award for a Ratio-Free torrent twice less than the torrent size? a.k.a. how awarding mechanism works.
A: you only get award for whatever tracker thinks you've downloaded on this torrent. it gives you back what you reported. smaller award just means not all your downloads on this torrent were properly reported to the tracker.

Q: i forgot/never had time to use the award i've recently received, and now i cannot see it. how can i get it back?
A: sorry, you simply can not. unused awards are deleted from the database whenever their life-time expires (usually 1 week), and there's no way to get back such an award.

Q: can awards help my ratio? can the lottery do so?
A: they both sure can. and are located on the same page. first check what awards you have on top of the page, use them, if you have some listed there, then look below for quick lottery info, and enter the daily drawing with at least 1 (free) ticket. one lucky win of the mega awesome GrandPrize is worth about 2GB upload credit, which would pretty much fix anyone new...

What is 'Total Silence' mode? How does it work?

'Total Silence' mode was introduced in July 2009 to serve as means of user's access closure to many specific vital website function dealing with expressing one's opinions. what functions exactly does 'Total Silence' mode cover? well, pretty much all oral (typed) communication... when SysOp places a user into such a mode, this user CAN NOT (loses ability to):

comment on torrents or quote comments of other users

start new forum topics, post new posts or quote other posts

submit public or private shouts in ShoutBox

write Personal Messages to others, forward or reply PMs of other users

rate downloaded torrents, [e]-records (DJs, shows, radios, etc)

report other users' activities or suspicious torrents to SysOp

upload new pictures into SkinMaster, as much as use this tool in general

Who can silenced? Rather, What are the Reasons someone can get silenced by SysOp?

excessive advertising of unrelated or competing websites in shoutbox, forums & torrent comments

multiple comments or posts containing little sense or intellectual value, most likely only smiley faces or thank-you-s

continious use of bad language, public cursing, as well as persistent use of any languages besides english in public areas of the website

SysOp reserves the right to silence any user if "the better" of the community is at stake. if you think you were silenced for no reason, have any questions and or want to file an appeal - directe all mail to sysop@tribalmixes.com.

Ratio-Free Torrents & Releases

Torrents on tribalmixes can be Ratio-Free. If you download such a torrent, a Download Debit award is issued (upon download completion) in the amount of data that you reported downloaded on this torrent. Use this award and restore your Share Ratio to the level it was before the download started (not exactly your ratio, but rather your downloads are decreased to neutralize the damage from the download). this way Ratio-Free works on tribalmixes. Download - get award. If your client reports torrent as completed but award has never been issued, or you just took 2 files out of 3 and client doesn't know that download is over, we have a remedy for that too. simply visit the details page of that torrent and scroll down to see your stats and manually issue an award for the download. You can only claim such award for 1st download, any downloads later on this torrent will not be ratio-free and awards will not be given out. Ratio-Free user uploads (classic torrents page https://www.tribalmixes.com/browse.php) can become Ratio-Free in exchange for 5000 points. they stop being Ratio-Free 100 days after torrent was shared. Weekly Releases section https://www.tribalmixes.com/releases is different, torrents there are automatedly promoted to Ratio-Free 30 days after upload. SO Any releases uploaded more than 30 days ago are ratio-free, and that is the time they award the downloaders, - 30 days since upload. if you see release that is not Ratio-Free - it will be one within 30 days or less...

Ratio-Free Downloads Mode

Ratio-Free Downloads Mode is given for a period of time, usually 1, 2, 6, 24, 72hrs and is issued via awards. Use this award and enable the Ratio-Free downloads on your account. For the time mentioned on the face of award, none of your (data) downloads will be applied to your account, while anything you upload back is, thus allowing for monstrous data transfers without any damage and possible improvement of your share-ratio. Such awards can be obtained in lottery (1st Grand Prize - One Hour R-F Downloads), or in exchange for points via the awards section.

USER INFORMATION

I received a warned

Warning... WHAT TO DO NOW???

there are 2 types of warnings. in case your warning came from moderators - just wait till it expires, and try not to get one again. When warning is issued by System, - it's because you received, or rather committed a hit-n-run.

check if you have some unused Hit-n-Run Fixes or get some in Awards Section. Then on your downloads page click the hit-n-runs red icon (this icon may be invisible in case you do not have any hit-n-runs) to see your hit-n-runs. Fix them by clicking the yellow wrench next to each hit-n-run you'd like taken care of. Continue until all are fixed or you're out of fixes... repeat...

start seeding the problematic torrent. Without a fix, the only way to get rid of the hit-n-run is to seed the torrent (for as long as needed, as indicated on My Downloads page, usually it's 12hrs or more, just 12 hours of this torrent being in your client in active state, we're not even asking for you to actually upload data to others - just have the seed available for 12 hours and we consider it done).

to get some Hit-n-Run fixes and instant warning removal and (for a limited time) fix all the hit-n-runs you have every time you donate any amount - DONATE- fast and easy way out, plus get a bunch of perks too

I registered an account but did not receive the confirmation e-mail!

You can use your site settings page to submit a new email address and wait for the new confirmation email

I've lost my user name or password! Can you send it to me?

Please use this form to have the login details mailed back to you. Do not contact staff on this issue - noone can help, noone has access to this information, only you.

Can you rename my account?

We do not rename accounts. Renamed accounts become unusable.

Can you delete my (confirmed) account?

You can do it yourself by using this form. We will not. We value your presense around here!!

What is Share-Ratio and why is it good to have one in good terms with the standards?

Your Share-Ratio is result of Total Uploads divided by Total Downloads. Torrents are about sharing, downloading and uploading, and if you're trying to be fair - a share ratio of 1.0 is what's fair, because it means you give back as much as you take.

As of End-Of-Summer 2014: forget about Share-Ratio & related rules, just watch out for hit-n-runs.

Share-Ratio as institution is still there, it's just changing into more of a decorative value. But for you to be able to download torrents - share ratio can be anything, as long as you don't have hit-n-runs.

Share Ratio Recommendations

for downloads under 2GB - a good and acceptable Share-Ratio should be 0.1 or higher..

for downloads of 2GB to 10GB - recommended minimum Share-Ratio is 0.2 (eg: for 5GB downloaded you should have 1GB uploaded)

with 10GB to 25GB downloaded - a good Share-Ratio would be at least 0.3 (eg: 20GB down → 6GB uploads)

next 25GB to 50GB down - and 0.4 recommended Share-Ratio is Good (eg: 40GB down → 16GB up)

next 50GB to 100GB down - and 0.6 Share-Ratio is what we'd expect from you (eg: 80GB down → 48GB up)

for downloads over 100GB - we suggest keeping your Share-Ratio above 0.8 (eg: 100GB down → 80GB up)

What is Hit-n-Run and why do I have to watch out for them?

What is Hit-n-Run?

You must seed torrents for a minimum of 12 hours (1/2 day) across the span of the first 2 weeks after download is officially completed.

No, it doesn't have to be 12 straight hours, you can stop your client and start it a few hours or days later, then again, it's up to you. Just make sure you accumulate the 12 hours minumum seeding time, and The System will be satisfied.

If no uploading happens during this seeding period, it's fine, as long as you tried and the seed was there...

If you do manage to upload data to someone, which always happens with fresh torrents, well, sending out 1 full copy of the torrent equals to 2 Hours of seeding

HIT-n-RUN happens when you fail to do the 12 hours of seeding (in first 2 weeks since the download)

How to avoid a Hit-n-Run? - Force start the torrent in your client and don't close the client for 1/2 days. This will ensure the 12 hrs of seeding. Or get to upload as much on this torrent, as you downloaded - 1.0+ torrent share-ratio is oldschool good, it also signifies the completion of this small 'challenge'. But 1/2 days of seeding in first 14 days since the download - this is all you need...

So what happens when i get a Hit-n-Run?

Nothing, really... You get a warning, a personal message and an email announcing what has happened, and also you lose some of your tribalmixes privileges until Hit-n-Runs are taken care of...

How can I improve my Share-Ratio? New Member Guide...

Newmemberguide – New users should start here...

First of all let's make sure we are all on the same wavelength…. 1GB of uploaded data = 1GB of downloaded data gives you a share ratio of 1.00.

From the outset, keep your ratio close to 1.00 or above it. If you are aware of your ratio needs from the beginning, you will have a happy and free stay on Tribalmixes.com freely downloading what you wish. If you choose to let your ratio fall under 0.5 it is difficult to regain later. Start with 1-5 torrents, download them, complete them, force start or seed them, don't stop them, leave your pc running overnight or as long as possible, the next day check your ratio. If your ratio is above 0.75 - download more, again, leave all torrents seeding to ensure you receive upload credit on the data you have shared. For example, you just joined and want a lot of music; you need to be careful about the files you choose. Remember, newly shared files are friendly and will yield you the most leech (upload value) and keep you close to goal of keeping a minimum of 1.00 ratio.

Tribalmixes is all about the music…. It also is about the community. You as a user will also be rewarded in points for your input. Comments on a torrent, forum post, new forum topic, vote in a poll, responding to a reseed request, rating a torrent and seeding your downloaded torrents. These accumulate you points which are tallied against your user profile. These points can be exchanged for just about anything within Tribalmixes.com..... If you need to improve your ratio, points can assist you greatly outside of seeding or donating.

»»» Your points tally and daily lottery can be found here »»» https://www.tribalmixes.com/awards.php »»»

The latest reward which has been added for users who frequent Tribalmixes.com daily is the addition of a daily prize. You will be given a combination of point's and lottery tickets for making a visit to the site each day. This reward is claimable only once per day...

»»» Your daily lottery prize & points can be claimed daily here »»» https://www.tribalmixes.com/dailyprize.php »»»

If you choose to start by downloading 10-20 mixes you are destined to run into ratio issues and have your downloading rights removed. Due to the amount of traffic, your ratio is precious and it is difficult to regain if you choose to abuse it. If you choose to use Tribalmixes.com in this way the alternate way to keep your ratio in check is to donate. There are some generous awards there in donations to assist you get the music you want quickly..

»»» Donations through many different methods are available here »»» https://www.tribalmixes.com/donate.php »»»

Last of all share, share, share! Top sharers get rewarded with the freedom to download what they want, when they want. This website is free, and is kept running only by its users. We want you to be friendly and join in this music community, we don't ask much.

for more info read this specialized Share-Ratio Help and Improvement Page

Enjoy!!!

Why is my IP displayed on my details page?

Only you and the site's sysop, admin & moderators can view your IP address and email. Noone else can see that information.

My IP address is dynamic. How do I stay logged in?

To stay logged in, we use cookies, which identify you to the system, we plant them in your browser and it doesn't matter to us, what ip you are using..

If, on the other hand, your IP actually changes all the time, it is still ok. just open the site and save your current new ip there, then start torrents in your client. if your IP changes later, it will not affect the peers. In this situation you should also consider using Passkey, it can be permanently enabled via your profile, so any tribalmixes torrent you take via www or rss, will be equiped with your Passkey, an actual special code-string that allows us to identify your new peer, even if your IP saved in tribalmixes account is actually different from the one that seed/leech is coming from... useful for seedboxes too...

What are the different user classes?

user	the default class of new members. regular users have to be careful when downloading torrents, they might lose that right if their share-ratio or data transfer are below some limits described further.
$\"lightning\"$ power user	power users can upload torrents. they can read info on mixes if posted. they also gain access to more graphical skins for this site. becoming a power user should be your target for the first few weeks of using the web site if you want to stick around in future.
donor $\"star\"$ $\"star\"$ $\"star\"$ $\"star\"$	has donated money to tribalmixes.com
Editor	chosen few users of any class that have access to the DJ List database, they can add information into the database, edit records, update stuff. if you don't see your dj or simply wan to add new name - please contact one of the editors. being part of the staff, their names are listed on staff page..
$\"medal\"$ V.I.P.	Same privileges as Power User and are considered an Elite Community Members. Immune to automatic demotion. Don't have to adhere to ratio rules, unless they want to. Can upload torrents. And many other perks. =)
$\"star\"$ platinum user	has donated lots of money to tribalmixes.com... access level V.I.P. with many nice additions.
uploader	Better than V.I.P since they also take part in the website staff meetings/discussions, taking decisions on community life, and of course bringing many torrents to you on regular basis.
moderator	Can edit and delete any uploaded torrents. Can also moderate user comments and disable accounts.
administrator	Can do just about anything. eternal admin - Viktor1983.
sysop	slash (site owner & creator).

How does this promotion thing work anyway?

power user	Must have been be a member for at least 8 weeks, have uploaded at least 50GB, have share-ratio at or above 2.00, and posted 20 comments and 10 forum posts. The promotion is automatic when these conditions are met. Note, that you will also be automatically demoted from this status if your ratio drops below 1.90 at any time.
	Simply donate some money, and send slash the details. this star will appear next to your name very quick.
V.I.P.	Assigned by moderators (and higher) at their discretion to users they feel contribute something special to the site. (Anyone begging for v.i.p. status will be automatically ignored.)
uploader	Appointed by admin/sysop (see the 'Uploading' section for requirements).
moderator	Don't ask to become one, we will ask you!

Why can't my friend become a member?

Did we reach max 100k users already? If yes, sorry, just wait for an open reg-spot. If no, then it is probably the issue of same ip-address. tell your friend to try and register from their home computer.

How do I add an avatar to my profile?

First, find an image that you like, and that is within the avatar rules. Then you will have to find a place to host it, such as Photobucket, ImageShack). All that is left to do is copy the URL you were given when uploading it to the avatar field in your profile. the URL must end with a picture type extension, same like file, and URL must be a normal URL, something that will show image if entered into the browser address bar by itself.

you can also store your image right here on tribalmixes. which is the best for us, but then we will make small 150px wide low-quality jpeg copies of your avatar(s) to be displayed near posts and comments, while in your profile you will still see the larger version. if you want to have animated gif as your avatar, you will have to host it somewhere else to preserve the animation.

Please do not make a post just to test your avatar. If everything is allright you'll see it in your details page.

Why do I see strange/funny pics next to my name?

these strange pics are default avatars, and they are randomly selected each time from some number of default pictures. it was made just to spring more fun into forums and comments.. the collection will constantly grow. if you like some of the pictures that you want to make it your own avatar - just copy the locationg and post in your OUTLOOK section in the right spot. you can also set up your own avatar there if you have it stored somewhere in the net, or if not - check SKINMASTER and see how you can store small sized pictures right here on tribalmixes.com..

How to set up a multiple/dynamic avatar?

this is for an understanding user, who knows what to do, why and how, and will not ask questions after reading this section.. first of all you need to use the SKINMASTER to upload all the avatars you want to use. this feature will randomly select one of them each time your avatar needs to be displayed, so allowing as many different pictures as many posts or comments you've submitted. make sure all the files are formatted as slide?.jpg or slide?.gif, where ? (question mark) is a number : slide0.jpg, slide1.gif, slide2.gif,...,slide15.jpg,.. don't put extra 0-s. do not to miss any of the numbers. then you have 5-10 files, say 7 pics (slide0.jpg..slide6.jpg), simply click the OUTLOOK link and write [b]sliding 7[/b] in the avatar field. if you upload nothing and set up "sliding XX" it will be automatically removed by system, do not be surprised. if slide3.gif and slide3.jpg are present than only gif version will show up.

Can I change my account username?

at the moment, this is impossible. please, check back here often, this feature will be implemented soon. it will be available in exchange for points, and it will be possible to change your username only once, as it involves lots of updates throughout the site, including your downloads, comments, forum posts, parts where someone quoted your messages, etc.

DOWNLOADING

How do I use the files I've downloaded?

Check out this guide

Why did an active torrent suddenly disappear?

There may be several reasons for this, most common of them:
(1) The torrent may have been out-of-sync with the site's rules.
(2) The uploader or a moderator may have deleted it because it was a bad release. A replacement will probably be uploaded to take its place.
(3) Torrents used to be automatically deleted after 105 days if have not reached Ratio-Free status.

How do I resume a broken download or reseed something?

Open the .torrent file. Drag'n'drop it into your client or double-click the file. When your client asks you for a location, choose the location of the existing file(s) or folder(s) and it will automatically try to resume/reseed the torrent.

Why do my downloads sometimes stall at 99%?

The more pieces (parts of torrent's data) you have, the harder it becomes to find peers who have pieces you are missing. That is why downloads sometimes slow down or even stall when there are just a few percent remaining. Just be patient and you will, sooner or later, get the remaining pieces.

On the other hand, there's a stronger and worse reason for this issue: bad torrent Data. It's not necessairily corrupted, but bad in the means of client's hash checks. if you do not know yet, torrents are strongly protecting their integrity with so called "hash-info". when the .torrent file is created by someone on their computer for a file called "my.mp3", their torrent client software (or torrent-making software) quickly reads through the file "my.mp3", "splits it" in many many smaller pieces and calculates hash for each one of them. later when you download this torrent, your client uses these hash sums to check each and every piece of data it downloads. if some piece's hash info isn't same as it is listed in the .torrent file, it means that something got corrupted on the way to your computer, and so this piece is re-downloaded from someone else. this is why all your downloads done through bittorrent protocol most of the time come out fast and sound, all files properly checked for the right hash sums.

Now imagine a situation when this someone mentioned above decides to change some id-tags of this "my.mp3", because he's forgotten to put his name in there, or even worse - some software does it by itself. "Real Player" has "put some library info into mp3" as one of its default options. To make this short, file "my.mp3" gets phisically changed on the uploader's computer. And what happens next? Its HASH sums become different!!! and so your client get all the "unchanged" data as it usually does, and then it reached the last piece of the mp3 that preserves the id-tags (genre, title, artist and all that stuff) right inside the mp3-file. Your client sees that the piece it received does not produce same hash sum as it says in the descriptor hash sums collection .torrent file. Yout client tries to find other sources that have the proper original data, but noone has it, because the original uploader changed mp3 and now noone at all has the proper data, proper mp3. And you will not get it in full.

There's an easy solution to this issue: stop downloading if it gets stuck at 99.8%. why? because this can only be solved if the original uploader makes a new .torrent file and shares it on some tracker once again (if you resume the download then - you'll instantly have 100%). and because you already have 99.8% of the file, so basically it's all intact except for the id-tags part, and that part usually carries no sounds, or if it does - it's usually in the end of the mp3, so maybe 5secs of 1hr of music will be bad, but the rest is fine and playable and enjoyable. The third and the most dangerous reason why you should stop the download is simply because sometimes it WILL NOT STOP BY ITSELF, your client might get looped and keep and keep trying to get the proper piece of the mp3, and other clients might keep and keep sending you that piece as well, so you end up downloading 15GB of data for this torrent overnight. good if the torrent was ratio-free, then you can request your download debit award for that, and it will probably cover all the 15GB downloaded. but what if torrent wasn't ratio-free? your ratio will suffer dramatically. so, yeah... watch out for these things... don't be blaming website later - it's all the uploader's fault.

What are these "a piece has failed hash check" messages?

Bittorrent clients check the data they receive for integrity. When a piece fails this check it is automatically re-downloaded. Occasional hash fails are a common occurrence, and you shouldn't worry.

Some clients have an (advanced) option/preference to 'kick/ban clients that send you bad data' or similar. It should be turned on, since it makes sure that if a peer repeatedly sends you pieces that fail the hash check it will be ignored in the future.

The torrent is supposed to be 100MB. How come I downloaded 120MB?

See the hash fails topic right above. If your client receives bad data it will have to redownload it, therefore the total downloaded may be larger than the torrent size. Make sure the "kick/ban bad clients" option is turned on to minimize the extra downloads.

Why does it say "Connectable - !!! NO !!!" in peer lists? (And why should I care?)

The tracker has determined that you are firewalled or NATed and cannot accept incoming connections. So you and your peer are pronounced not-connectable.

This means that other peers in the swarm will be unable to connect to you, only you to them. Even worse, if two peers are both in this state they will not be able to connect at all. This has obviously a detrimental effect on the overall speed.

The way to solve the problem involves opening the ports used for incoming connections (the same range you defined in your client) on the firewall and/or configuring your NAT server to use a basic form of NAT for that range instead of NAPT (the actual process differs widely between different router models. Check your router documentation and/or support forum. You will also find lots of information on the subject at PortForward).

Why do I get a "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted" error?

Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.

tribalmixesdotcom does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).

The blocked ports list includes, but is not neccessarily limited to: Direct Connect (411 - 413), Kazaa (1214), eDonkey (4662), Gnutella (6346 - 6347), BitTorrent (6881 - 6889).

In order to use use our tracker you must configure your client to use any port range that does not contain those ports (a range within the region 49152 through 65535 is preferable, cf. IANA). Notice that some clients, like Azureus or Utorrent, use a single port for all torrents, while some others use one port per one open torrent. The size of the range you choose should take this into account (typically less than 100 ports wide. There is no benefit whatsoever in choosing a wide range, and there are possible security implications).

These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker. Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact it should increase your speed with torrents from any tracker, not just ours). Your client will also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports. If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.

Do not ask us, or in the forums, which ports you should choose. The more random the choice is the harder it will be for ISPs to catch on to us and start limiting speeds on the ports we use. If we simply define another range ISPs will start throttling that range also.

Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in your firewall, should you have them. See the Why does it say "Connectable - !!! NO !!!" in peer lists? section and links therein for more information on this.

What's this "IOError - [Errno13] Permission denied" error?

If you just want to fix it reboot your computer, it should solve the problem. Otherwise read on.

IOError means Input-Output Error, and that is a file system error, not a tracker one. It shows up when your client is for some reason unable to open the partially downloaded torrent files. The most common cause is two instances of the client to be running simultaneously: the last time the client was closed it somehow didn't really close but kept running in the background, and is therefore still locking the files, making it impossible for the new instance to open them.

A more uncommon occurrence is a corrupted FAT. A crash may result in corruption that makes the partially downloaded files unreadable, and the error ensues. Running scandisk should solve the problem. (Note that this may happen only if you're running Windows 9x - which only support FAT - or NT/2000/XP with FAT formatted hard drives. NTFS is much more robust and should never permit this problem.)

UPLOADING

Why I can not upload and share new torrents?

at some timepoint, in march 2006, we had about 4000 users and new torrents were appearing as mushrooms after a summer rain (which should be very very frequent and often). so after some debates and discussion, we - the staff - decided to close and limit uploads, clearly to restrict uploading to power users and higher in class, which leaves users without uploading priviliges. most of the users would just try to raise ratio and not provide good and quality new music, reupload old mixes they've got from here. this is inacceptable and bad. so no more user uploads. :(

for those who will still be uploading, the rules about mistakes are still in power. if your upload is removed from website by someone from staff, - you lose upload privilidges for at least one month. this is done to protect the website and all the users from somebody who doesn't read faq and rules, but wants to upload and share, not knowing what they're doing. remember, your action counts as a mistake in case a torrent you've uploaded is deleted by someone from staff. There are 3 types of mistakes:

Light mistake (1 month uploading privileges revocation): given for wrong torrent name format (read what's written on the uploading page, it has some vital info), rebroadcast (unnoticed by uploader - still uploader's fault)..

Mild mistake (3 months revocation): given for uploading a double torrent (always check if your torrent already exists, it's easy and safe), a fake torrent (sometimes you get fakes on the net, always try to compare and see if it's genuine mixing, not some backdoor metal bucket banging...)

Hot mistake (complete revocation of uploading rights): given for uploading something illegal/commercial, something that doesn't belong to a free-for-all site like tribalmixes.com, also it is given out when uploading rules are harshly and deliberately broken.

these mistakes are avoidable. first of all, read website rules and then the special additional uploading regulations that show up when you click the upload link. equiped with that knowledge, you will never make any mistakes. although if something happens and a "bad" torrent slips through into tribalmixes, - nothing is yet lost!! in case of light and mild mistakes the website staff will point it out for you as soon as it's noticed. there will most likely be a comment on your torrent saying that it's going to be removed in a few hours (usually happens with light mistakes, so that uploader could edit torrent according to rules) or why this torrent must be deleted (mostly for mild mistakes, so that uploader could remove torrent on their own). in case something like this happens, swiftly bring your torrent to allowed standards or remove it completely, - this way you do not suffer any consequences. but if a staff member removes a torrent (for hot mistakes removal is instant, without any prior notifications) - then you're in trouble, facing at least 1 month of no-uploading.

the website's staff is trying to work with everyone and help everyone, understanding their personal situations, needs, power outtages, etc. but we cannot allow faulty torrents to stay online for more than a few hours, that is why it is crucially important to come back 2-3 hours after the upload time and check on your torrent, see if someone found something wrong with it and reported... if no response is seen from the uploader within first few hours of mistake notification, torrent is removed by staff. we do not like to do that, but we have to. and since it's not our favorite time-spending activity (giving out revocations aka fixing other's mistakes), we've added a progressing ladder of punishments, which basically means that each new offense (of the type that already happened before) will double, then triple your uploading priveleges revocation period. and so the 4th Mild mistake you make will stop you from uploading for 1 whole year (4th Mild offense = 4 * 3 months = 1 year)!

What criteria must I meet before I can get the Uploader rank?

You must be able to provide dj mixes and releases that:

include a proper nfo, description and track-list

are genuine clubmusic-scene releases or personal recordings,

are not older than 2 months,

have all files in original format (usually mp3, use no archives but rather folders),

also these are required technical issues:

you MUST be able to seed or make sure your uploads are well-seeded, for at least 24 hours.

you should have atleast dsl/cable connection or equal with upload bandwith at least 40-50KB/s (300-400kbps).

you MUST be Power User in status, there will be no users making into uploader team without being a power user. this is to make sure you know what you are doing and you can seed your torrents.

you MUST have 30-40 torrents online!!! noone will become uploader without having quite a few torrents already online.

If you think you can match these criteria do not hesitate to contact one of the administrators or moderators. Remember! Write your application carefully! Be sure to include your upload speed and what kind of stuff you're planning to upload. all messages will be considered and reviewed.

Can I upload your torrents to other trackers? Do I need to credit the source?

Yes and No (to the first part of the question). We are a closed, limited-membership community. Only registered users can use the tracker. Posting our torrents on other trackers is useless, since most people who attempt to download them will be unable to connect with us. that is included that all our torrents are made "private", thus noone will be welcomed to connect to and download from our community members. even those trying to use DHT to avoid such restrictions will still fail, unless they're using some tweaked clients..

However, if you decide to upload and share our mixes on other trackers, sites or blogs, we only require that you do not change the mp3s. we're proud to be one of the fewer and fewer sources for the quality recordings, we do not mess with the mp3s, and we do hope that you won't either. a link to the original torrent page or mentioning of the original uploader is welcome (but not mandatory).

What kind of uploading material is legal and what can I upload?

only full length dj mixes recorded from radio or live at the arenas and clubs are allowed here, as well as personal products, such as demos/promos/etc. this means, that any kinds of official releases (including albums produced by djs) will momentarily be deleted from the site. that is due to a strong wish of the site admins to stay legal and to live a long life. please do not request any albums to be posted here and do not do it yourself even if you own the cd and made a copy of it in mp3 format. still that doesnt allow you to share this intellectual property with others.

site's administration reserves the right of the final judgment on anything that looks even remotely illegal.

STATS

Most common reason for stats not updating

The user is cheating. (a.k.a. "Summary Ban")
The server is overloaded and unresponsive. Just try to keep the session open until the server responds again. (Flooding the server with consecutive manual updates is not recommended.)
You are using a faulty client. If you want to use an experimental or CVS version you do it at your own risk.

Best practices

If a torrent you are currently leeching/seeding is not listed on your profile, just wait or force a manual update.
Make sure you exit your client properly, so that the tracker receives "event=completed".
If the tracker is down, do not stop seeding. As long as the tracker is back up before you exit the client the stats should update properly.

May I use any bittorrent client?

Yes. The tracker now updates the stats correctly for all bittorrent clients. However, we still recommend that you avoid the following clients:

• BitTorrent++,
• Nova Torrent,
• TorrentStorm,
• edonkey/torrent,
• emule/torrent.

These clients do not report correctly to the tracker when canceling/finishing a torrent session. If you use them then a few MB may not be counted towards the stats near the end, and torrents may still be listed in your profile for some time after you have closed the client.

Also, clients in alpha or beta version should be avoided.

Tribalmixes.com recommends uTorrent client as a really light weight, strongly functional, fast and easy to use. also sometimes BitTorrent & Azureus clients are being used, along with Transmission torrent client for linux and mac, rTorrent for linux seedboxes.

Why is a torrent I'm leeching/seeding listed several times in my profile?

If for some reason (e.g. pc crash, or frozen client) your client exits improperly and you restart it, it will have a new peer_id, so it will show as a new torrent. The old one will never receive a "event=completed" or "event=stopped" and will be listed until some tracker timeout. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.

I've finished or cancelled a torrent. Why is it still listed in my profile?

Some clients, notably TorrentStorm and Nova Torrent, do not report properly to the tracker when canceling or finishing a torrent. In that case the tracker will keep waiting for some message - and thus listing the torrent as seeding or leeching - until some timeout occurs. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.

Why do I sometimes see torrents I'm not leeching in my profile!?

When a torrent is first started, the tracker uses the IP to identify the user. Therefore the torrent will become associated with the user who last accessed the site from that IP. If you share your IP in some way (you are behind NAT/ICS, or using a proxy), and some of the persons you share it with are also users, you may occasionally see their torrents listed in your profile. (If they start a torrent session from that IP and you were the last one to visit the site the torrent will be associated with you). Note that now torrents listed in your profile will always count towards your total stats.

To make sure your torrents show up in your profile you should visit the site immediately before starting a session.

Multiple IPs (Can I login from different computers?)

Yes, the tracker is now capable of following sessions from different IPs for the same user. A torrent is associated with the user when it starts, and only at that moment is the IP relevant. So if you want to seed/leech from computer A and computer B with the same account you should access the site from computer A, start the torrent there, and then repeat both steps from computer B (not limited to two computers or to a single torrent on each, this is just the simplest example). You do not need to login again when closing the torrent.

How does NAT/ICS change the picture?

This is a very particular case in that all computers in the LAN will appear to the outside world as having the same IP. We must distinguish between two cases:

1. You are the single tribalmixesdotcom user in the LAN

You should use the same tribalmixesdotcom account on all the computers.

Note also that in the ICS case it is preferable to run the BT client on the ICS gateway. Clients running on the other computers will be unconnectable (their ports will be listed as "---", as explained elsewhere in the FAQ) unless you specify the appropriate services in your ICS configuration (a good explanation of how to do this for Windows XP can be found here). In the NAT case you should configure different ranges for clients on different computers and create appropriate NAT rules in the router. (Details vary widely from router to router and are outside the scope of this FAQ. Check your router documentation and/or support forum.)

2. There are multiple tribalmixesdotcom users in the LAN

At present there is no way of making this setup always work properly with tribalmixesdotcom. Each torrent will be associated with the user who last accessed the site from within the LAN before the torrent was started. Unless there is cooperation between the users mixing of statistics is possible. (User A accesses the site, downloads a .torrent file, but does not start the torrent immediately. Meanwhile, user B accesses the site. User A then starts the torrent. The torrent will count towards user B's statistics, not user A's.)

It is your LAN, the responsibility is yours. Do not ask us to ban other users with the same IP, we will not do that. (Why should we ban him instead of you?)

For those of you who are interested...

Some info about the "Anatomy of a torrent session".

How can I improve my download speed?

The download speed mostly depends on the seeder-to-leecher ratio (SLR). Poor download speed is mainly a problem with new and very popular torrents where the SLR is low. (Proselytising sidenote: make sure you remember that you did not enjoy the low speed. Seed so that others will not endure the same.) There are a few things that you can try on your end to improve your speed...

Do not immediately jump on new torrents

In particular, do not do it if you have a slow connection. The best speeds will be found around the half-life of a torrent, when the SLR will be at its highest. (The downside is that you will not be able to seed so much. It's up to you to balance the pros and cons of this.)

Make yourself connectable

See the Why is my port listed as "---" section.

Limit your upload speed

The upload speed affects the download speed in essentially two ways:

Bittorrent peers tend to favour those other peers that upload to them. This means that if A and B are leeching the same torrent and A is sending data to B at high speed then B will try to reciprocate. So due to this effect high upload speeds lead to high download speeds.
Due to the way TCP works, when A is downloading something from B it has to keep telling B that it received the data sent to him. (These are called acknowledgements - ACKs -, a sort of "got it!" messages). If A fails to do this then B will stop sending data and wait. If A is uploading at full speed there may be no bandwidth left for the ACKs and they will be delayed. So due to this effect excessively high upload speeds lead to low download speeds.

The full effect is a combination of the two. The upload should be kept as high as possible while allowing the ACKs to get through without delay. A good thumb rule is keeping the upload at about 80% of the theoretical upload speed. You will have to fine tune yours to find out what works best for you. (Remember that keeping the upload high has the additional benefit of helping with your ratio.)

If you are running more than one instance of a client it is the overall upload speed that you must take into account. Some clients (e.g. Azureus) limit global upload speed, others (e.g. Shad0w's) do it on a per torrent basis. Know your client. The same applies if you are using your connection for anything else (e.g. browsing or ftp), always think of the overall upload speed.

Limit the number of simultaneous connections

Some operating systems (like Windows 9x) do not deal well with a large number of connections, and may even crash. Also some home routers (particularly when running NAT and/or firewall with stateful inspection services) tend to become slow or crash when having to deal with too many connections. There are no fixed values for this, you may try 60 or 100 and experiment with the value. Note that these numbers are additive, if you have two instances of a client running the numbers add up.

Limit the number of simultaneous uploads

Isn't this the same as above? No. Connections limit the number of peers your client is talking to and/or downloading from. Uploads limit the number of peers your client is actually uploading to. The ideal number is typically much lower than the number of connections, and highly dependent on your (physical) connection.

Just give it some time

As explained above peers favour other peers that upload to them. When you start leeching a new torrent you have nothing to offer to other peers and they will tend to ignore you. This makes the starts slow, in particular if, by change, the peers you are connected to include few or no seeders. The download speed should increase as soon as you have some pieces to share.

Why is my browsing so slow while leeching?

Your download speed is always finite. If you are a peer in a fast torrent it will almost certainly saturate your download bandwidth, and your browsing will suffer. At the moment there is no client that allows you to limit the download speed, only the upload. You will have to use a third-party solution, such as NetLimiter.

Browsing was used just as an example, the same would apply to gaming, IMing, etc...

My ISP uses a transparent proxy. What should I do?

Caveat: This is a large and complex topic. It is not possible to cover all variations here.

And a short answer to your questions: change to an ISP that does not force a proxy upon you. If you cannot or do not want to then read on.

What is a proxy?

Basically a middleman. When you are browsing a site through a proxy your requests are sent to the proxy and the proxy forwards them to the site instead of you connecting directly to the site. There are several classifications (the terminology is far from standard):

Transparent	A transparent proxy is one that needs no configuration on the clients. It works by automatically redirecting all port 80 traffic to the proxy. (Sometimes used as synonymous for non-anonymous.)
Explicit/Voluntary	Clients must configure their browsers to use them.
Anonymous	The proxy sends no client identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header is not sent; the server does not see your IP.)
Highly Anonymous	The proxy sends no client nor proxy identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR, HTTP_VIA and HTTP_PROXY_CONNECTION headers are not sent; the server doesn't see your IP and doesn't even know you're using a proxy.)
Public	(Self explanatory)

A transparent proxy may or may not be anonymous, and there are several levels of anonymity.

How do I find out if I'm behind a (transparent/anonymous) proxy?

Try ProxyJudge. It lists the HTTP headers that the server where it is running received from you. The relevant ones are HTTP_CLIENT_IP, HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR and REMOTE_ADDR.

Why is my port listed as "---" even though I'm not NAT/Firewalled?

The tribalmixesdotcom tracker is quite smart at finding your real IP, but it does need the proxy to send the HTTP header HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR. If your ISP's proxy does not, then what happens is that the tracker will interpret the proxy's IP address as the client's IP address. So when you login and the tracker tries to connect to your client to see if you are NAT/firewalled it will actually try to connect to the proxy on the port your client reports to be using for incoming connections. Naturally the proxy will not be listening on that port, the connection will fail and the tracker will think you are NAT/firewalled.

Can I bypass my ISP's proxy?

If your ISP only allows HTTP traffic through port 80 or blocks the usual proxy ports then you would need to use something like socks and that is outside the scope of this FAQ.

The site accepts connections on port 81 besides the usual 80, and using them may be enough to fool some proxies. So the first thing to try should be connecting to tribalmixes.com:81. Note that even if this works your bt client will still try to connect to port 80 unless you edit the announce url in the .torrent file.

Otherwise you may try the following:

Choose any public non-anonymous proxy that does not use port 80 (e.g. from this, this or this list).
Configure your computer to use that proxy. For Windows XP, do Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings, Use a Proxy server, Advanced and type in the IP and port of your chosen proxy. Or from Internet Explorer use Tools, Internet Options, ...
(Facultative) Visit ProxyJudge. If you see an HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR in the list followed by your IP then everything should be ok, otherwise choose another proxy and try again.
Visit tribalmixesdotcom. Hopefully the tracker will now pickup your real IP (check your profile to make sure).

Notice that now you will be doing all your browsing through a public proxy, which are typically quite slow. Communications between peers do not use port 80 so their speed will not be affected by this, and should be better than when you were "unconnectable".

How do I make my bittorrent client use a proxy?

Just configure Windows XP as above. When you configure a proxy for Internet Explorer you're actually configuring a proxy for all HTTP traffic (thank Microsoft and their "IE as part of the OS policy" ). On the other hand if you use another browser (Opera/Mozilla/Firefox) and configure a proxy there you'll be configuring a proxy just for that browser. We don't know of any BT client that allows a proxy to be specified explicitly.

Why can't I signup from behind a proxy?

It is our policy not to allow new accounts to be opened from behind a proxy. one of the reasons - registration of multiple accounts.

Does this apply to other torrent sites?

This section was written for tribalmixesdotcom, a closed, port 80 tracker. Other trackers may be open or closed, and many listen on e.g. ports 6868 or 6969. The above does not necessarily apply to other trackers.

Why can't I connect? Is the site blocking me?

Your failure to connect may be due to several reasons.

Maybe my address is blacklisted?

The site blocks addresses listed in the (former) PeerGuardian.... database, as well as addresses of banned users. This works at Apache/PHP level, it's just a script that blocks logins from those addresses. It should not stop you from reaching the site. In particular it does not block lower level protocols, you should be able to ping/traceroute the server even if your address is blacklisted. If you cannot then the reason for the problem lies elsewhere.

If somehow your address is indeed blocked in the PG database do not contact us about it, it is not our policy to open ad hoc exceptions. You should clear your IP with the database maintainers instead.

Your ISP blocks the site's address

(In first place, it's unlikely your ISP is doing so. DNS name resolution and/or network problems are the usual culprits.)
There's nothing we can do. You should contact your ISP (or get a new one). Note that you can still visit the site via a proxy, follow the instructions in the relevant section. In this case it doesn't matter if the proxy is anonymous or not, or which port it listens to.

Notice that you will always be listed as an "unconnectable" client because the tracker will be unable to check that you're capable of accepting incoming connections.

What if I can't find the answer to my problem here?

Post in the forums, by all means. You'll find they are usually a friendly and helpful place, provided you follow a few basic guidelines:

Make sure your problem is not really in this FAQ. There's no point in posting just to be sent back here.
Before posting read the sticky topics (the ones at the top). Many times new information that still hasn't been incorporated in the FAQ can be found there.
Help us in helping you. Do not just say "it doesn't work!". Provide details so that we don't have to guess or waste time asking. What client do you use? What's your OS? What's your network setup? What's the exact error message you get, if any? What are the torrents you are having problems with? The more you tell the easiest it will be for us, and the more probable your post will get a reply.
And needless to say: be polite. Demanding help rarely works, asking for it usually does the trick.

last edited LAST NIGHT!!!

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