28 November 2012

RS download caps

There seems to be a worry in recent comments that RapidShare links have disappeared. Actually, they haven't. RS has unilaterally imposed a cap of 30 gb downloads per day on paid accounts and one - 1 - gb per day on free accounts. So if files are not accessible, it means that the download cap has been exceeded for that day. Downloaders are advised to try again the next day or until the files are again accessible. We don't like it a bit, but that's the way the ball bounces with this file server business. As they say, sorry for any inconvenience caused, but don't blame us, please.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m still a little unclear about this, and have e-mailed RS for comment. I've a paid account and don’t d/load anything like 30 gb a day, but since 27.11.12 I have not been able to d/load the recent Michael Smith or Marion Brown files, and am receiving the following message:

“Download not available
File owner's public traffic exhausted”

According to RS FAQ:

“I get the error message: Public Traffic exhausted
The owner of the file has no more Public Traffic, therefore no files from that customer can be downloaded. At 00:00 CET, the Public Traffic will be reset and you can start downloading files from him again”

This suggests to me (but I might be wrong) that there’s a problem with the person who uploaded the file – the owner of the file – rather than my downloading of it.

Any thoughts?

Colin

kinabalu said...

@Colin: What it means is that the public at large cannot download more than 30 gb per day of the files that Onx, Sotise, me or any other contributor have uploaded to RS. It basically puts restrictions on how much can be downloaded from the contributors to this blog. The cap is 30 gb per day per contributor.

As it says, it reverts to zero at midnight, so that another 30 gb can be downloaded tomorrow and another the day after tomorrow.

The problem is not with the uploaders, the problem is with RS. As another follower said, fun and games, eh? Whether this is a wise move for RS is a wholly other matter.

kinabalu said...

More here on the implications of the latest RS moves:

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2012/11/coping-with-rapidshares-new-tactics.html

Anonymous said...

UPDATE:

I have received the following message from RS:

“Thank you for your email regarding the error message: File owner's public traffic
exhausted.

This means, the owner of the file has no more Public Traffic, therefore no files
from that customer can be downloaded. At 00:00 CET, the Public Traffic will be
reset and you can start downloading files from him again.

Public Traffic RapidPro account: 30 GB / day.
Public Traffic Free account: 1 GB / day.

Please note, we did change our Traffic System at 27.11.2012. You can find more
informations here: https://rapidshare.com/#rsag_news

Kindly note, we also got a FAQ sections, which answerers all your questions:
https://rapidshare.com/#help_faq

You have the possibility to try it again later, or you can use the group traffic
for unlimited download. For using group traffic you have to add the person who you
will share with as your new contact.”

This suggests (to me) that once there have been more than 30 gb d/loads in respect of file(s) uploaded by a particular user, no further d/laods in respect of that user’s file(s) will be allowed, which is rather different from my having a 30 gb d/load cap. Being no expert in these matters, I may be wrong!

As a matter of interest, who do I add as a new contact, and how, to avoid these apparent limitations?

Am I the only person having such problems?

Colin x

Anonymous said...

Woops, just seen your further posts. I am not alone!

I'm now clear about what is going on, but not sure if there's a solution. I suspect not.

Given that I'm unlikely to set my alarm for midnight, this may be the end of RS file sharing!

Colin

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

Yes I have the same problems with my RapidPro account. Everyone has this problems - wether free or paid account.
You can add anyone you wish to your new contacts. Alas I haven't yet figured out how to do this!

Colin Green said...

You can add contacts from the RS File Manager, but I think that in in order to access files uploaded by our genorous posters, they would have to add you as a contact so you could access their files, which understandably, I don't think they'd be prepared to do.

Anonymous said...

as far as i understand what's written at
https://rapidshare.com/#rsag_news
one get around the download limit by uploading stuff to a folder and give "contacts" the folder adress - i may be wrong in this, of course.

so far i haven't managed to dl the hampel/brown, even though i tried it a bit after midnight cet - still the same message. we'll see...

cheers,
lucky

kinabalu said...

I think both Colin and Lucky has got it right in their comments. The download cap applies to public traffic and not to "contacts". It looks to me as if RS is stepping in on the Dropbox market which allows for private exchange of files and there seem to be no limitations set on how much can be exchanged "privately". For that system to work, one has to know who the "contacts" are in advance and how to "invite" them and that part of it is not obvious to me, as Onx has also observed. Hope all of this is a bit clearer now.

A good explanation can be found here:

http://dottech.org/86897/rapidshare-no-longer-limits-download-speeds-switches-to-different-business-model/

Bill said...

Use dropbox or sendspace and forget these file lockers.

SOTISE said...

i havent had any trouble whatsoever downloading the Marion Brown, and i have not renewed my premium account for at least 2 years...(but in my case i only download 1 album every day or two)

@Colin,one solution to the problem of downloading after midnight is to use a down load manager, which allows you to pre program the parameters pertaining to each and every download, including the time to start and stop, the speed etc , J.Downloader seems a popular (Free)choice, others such as IDM , are perhaps even better, but cost 20 or 30 bucks.

SOTISE said...

@Bill ,Sendspace Sucks , in my almost 8 years of file sharing, i have only ever managed to DL 1 rar,from sendspace (and that at 10kbs) , sendspace are notoriously difficult to either upload to or download from ,if one lives in the Southern hemisphere ..
other filehosts that i have never successfully downloaded from as a free user, are Deposit Files, putlocker, uploaded to, the list goes on ....rapidshare are easy to upload to, and until the present at least have been easy to dld from as a free user.

SHOON said...

When is midnight in the sense of THE MIDNIGHT downlaoders should all be huddled around? Wow, I bet RS's server's really take a hit at the tick of midnight!

Although RS has been with the community through thick and thin, and as customers we've weathered their previous experiments and changes, I think this time they've probably reckoned that squeezing download traffic will not effect their File Locker business.

They, no doubt, are getting inundated with complaints. Keep in mind, RS no doubt is actively examining the metrics betwixt reduced use of their servers by downloaders with angry loyal customers.

I emailed Rapidshare to complain nicely.

---

Greetings,

I hope that Rapidshare will soon withdraw your new policy that is
causing your most loyal customers so much aggravation.

On the other hand, maybe Rapidshare has looked into the future and this is what you see for yourself: much much much smaller base of customers; BUT, much less cost for servers and bandwidth too.

I've been a customer for years. This policy change doesn't effect me as a provider of podcasts because my downloads are not popular.

However, it effects me as a public downloader. So, I'm thinking about ending my account and transferring my files to another provider.

This would end our relationship. I'm not happy about possibly doing this. Still, I think what you may be looking at is a mass movement away from your service.

I could be wrong about this, but I sense the best reason to withdraw the new policy is to avoid having your customer base shrink very rapidly as the movement to abandon Rapidshare picks up steam.

thank you for listening and always, at least, being responsive,

Stephen customer #

kinabalu said...

@Bill: As I said above, I see the latest RS tactic as a move into Dropbox territory in the sense that "contacts" will have unlimited access to the files that you are making available. Keep in mind that Dropbox will also charge for files up above the 3 gb ceiling they offer for free users. You may earn up to 18 gb free space by referrals, i.e. by recruiting others, but anything above that will not be free of charge.

Clearly the idea is to cut down on public traffic which is a very bad idea for blogs like this operating in the public domain. If the idea is to offer a public service of sorts, instead of exchanging files on a private basis, the latest move is bad news. But I take it that the Man is on their backs, so they have to be seen to be doing something about alleged copyright violations and all that.

kinabalu said...

@Dr Puck: As RS is based in Switzerland, I would think midnight European Mean Time.

Colin Green said...

Yes, 0.00 CES is Central European Time, which is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) + 1 Hour.

Colin Green said...

Thanks for the remote download suggestion: I’ve set the RS manager that RS Pro users can install on their computer to d/load the Marion Brown and Michael Smith Files shortly after 1.00 am my time here in the UK. I’ll wait to see how it goes, but there remain the following issues.

1. I can only d/load direct to the external hard drive on which I keep these files. In the past, I’ve transferred the files to my folders on RS, and subsequently d/loaded locally from there. This gives me a back up when – not, if – my hard drive fails.

2. Since remote d/loads shortly after midnight CET will increase substantially over the next days and weeks – not just from users of this blog, but from all those who wish to d/load from RS – I foresee a quite monumental hit on RS’ servers in the five minutes or so after midnight, and within a short time the 30 gb limit having been sucked dry, so that anyone trying later will be unable to obtain files. We will have to see, but I’m sceptical that remote d/loading will be a long term solution.

I’ve no idea if RS can be persuaded to abandon this policy, or modify it, but if not, we are going to have to find some way of dealing with it. Perhaps the end of public file sharing is nigh – along with just about everything else – and realistically, some form of private sharing is the only way out.

Smarter folk than me are looking into this however, so perhaps they’ll come up with something.

Anonymous said...

rapidShare Sux!!! :(

Anonymous said...

Well, it is 2am now in peaceful cold Montreal, which sets the clock a 8am in Switzerland and I'm able to download the famous Marion Brown album. So for Europeans, start your download and leave for work right after. Cheers.

Colin Green said...

So far, so good. I’ve been going through some of the New Links for Old Posts: some files can be d/loaded without a problem, others are subject to file traffic exhausted. I’ve set RS Manager to automatically d/load these shortly after 0.00 CET, and it’s been fine, and have uploaded backups to my RS folders using Rapid Drive, which works rather well.

So, for the time being, it does seem possible to accommodate the cap, but I’ve no idea for how long this will continue.

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

The reason why:"...some files can be d/loaded without a problem, others are subject to file traffic exhausted".

Some re-ups are from Sotise or Kinabalu and some are mine.

SOTISE said...

as for adding contacts to make it possible for them to download ,having experimented i find that as a non paying account holder it is impossible to add more than 2 contacts ...time to seek a viable alternative! ...

any suggestions vis a vis user friendly stable file hosts would be most welcome!!

SOTISE said...

File Dropper, is starting to look good to me.... anyone have any experience with them?

kinabalu said...

I see that the download cap for public and group files has been raised from 30 to 50 gb daily. That certainly helps.