The Definitive Guide to Warez and the Scene

Welcome!

First of all, I’d like to tell you, please, do not be afraid to not know things. There is a lot behind how movies and applications reach your desktop, and trust me, I know how sometimes it is all a little too much.

Without further ado, the guide!
A Primer

So, you want to get stuff for free, huh? Don’t know where to start? No problem! That’s what this guide is here for!
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how files are distributed, I first would like to give a few security hints that we should all follow for a safer usage of computers.

The single most important rule of avoiding virtual nasties is the following: Do not, under any circumstance, open .exe files.

Simple huh? You’d be amazed at how many people blindly choose to double click on stuff. If you’re downloading a movie, why should you need to execute a program? Or if you want to see an image? Or a song? The file extension is the most important and definitive aspect of a file, and you should always pay close attention to it.

Back to what matter, eh? So, I’m sure you’re not interested in the history of file sharing, so I’ll just go over some really basic marks in history that you should know and that’ll be the end of it.

Once upon a time, some people got together to trade those huge 5″ disks so that they wouldn’t have to purchase software again. Soon however, technology evolved, and they needed a better medium for files that were bigger. So, they began to use Usenet. Newgroups, or usenet, are basically like a mailing list. Quite simply, servers send e-mails to each other with the text or data. This data is e-mailed across the globe throughout different servers, therefore spreading the bandwidth so that everyone doesn’t have to download the stuff off of the same server. For a time this was good. Soon, they had to evolve to using larger and larger files, and began splitting files in 14 megabyte files as that was the limit on the Usenet protocol.

Needless to say, technology evolved even further, and as such, the medium had to evolve as well. Soon, the files began being distributed in FTPs. These were high bandwidth servers, connected on dedicated lines, able to provide a large amount of files to a large amount of people. Unfortunately, these are rare and die out pretty fast due to the costs of running one.

I’m not quite sure which came first, but I do know that this usually is one of the very first mediums that users come in contact with when looking for warez. Generally when people start looking for MP3s, they download any of the popular P2P file-sharing programs. These were created in order to aid in file distribution costs of running dedicated servers by creating networks where users could share media and not worry about where it’s hosted, as they are downloading directly from other users, thus, Peer to peer (P2P). These are usually quite slow, however, the file availability is great if you’re lucky enough to find a user providing the file that you want.

In order to cope with these costs, there has been a revolution of HTTP services called 1-click hosting. This is basically what a great amount of people download warez from nowadays. Such 1-click hosts would be Rapidshare, Mediafire or Megashares. Due to their popularity, the services are usually limited to free users by only allowing them to download so much in a given time or capping the speed. Rapidshare is the most popular service to date, and inumerous warez users tend to either upload in order to receive the famed premium services which allow them to download without limits. On most services, there is also the ability to purchase premium services so that you may download without being bothered to care about the limits.

Once again, evolution prevails, and a new form of sharing warez is born. This amazing technology is called BitTorrent. This basically eliminates most of the problems with hosting. Aside from needing a tracker to keep track of all the people, all the content is efficiently shared between the users in parts, which allows you to download simultaneously form several people. One of the main features of BitTorrent is the speed at which people allow you to download from them depending on how much you upload back, meaning that you must share in order to get.

Hmm, that was rather long for a primer, eh? Now let us get into the details!
I just want to download stuff! What should I use?

I’m sorry to say, there is no simple answer my friend, which brings us to the next section, but before that, I’ll quickly answer the question:
If you just want to download single songs and an ocasional album here and there, P2P is the way to go. If you want to download full movies or games, either BitTorrent (if you have access to a decent tracker) or HTTP file hosters. If you want to download full albums or discographies, the same as the former. Now, if you want to just download the usual applications or e-books, HTTP file hosters are definately less of a hassle.
The types of warez

So you read the primer and now you’re wondering, where do these files come from and what exactly are they?!?

Do not fret my friend, it will all be explained now.
A brief explanation of the Scene

The majority of the illegal content available on the internet comes from the Scene. The scene is not an organization or a website. It is basically the releases which are put out by groups of crackers (who crack commerical applications) all the way to the guy at your local video store who gets that copy of a new movie to copy and release on the internet before the actual commercial release date.

Basically, the scene has MANY groups, and they each release a certain type of warez. Don’t worry, you need not remember all their names or anything as usually a group will fill in for the other if they screw something up in their release or they miss the date. For example, the popular TV ripper group LOL missed an episode of Prison Break, but another group called XOR released the show on time and with perfect quality. So you see, these groups are competitive to release good stuff for us, that they’ll do their absolute best to get it before the others do and in a better quality. Ain’t that great?

Now, one of the things that eluded me for a while is where they posted all this content! I mean, surely it must all come from a single medium right? And it does. These are topsites. They are uber secret dedicated servers that are hooked up to dedicated connections to some major backbone in order to provide optimum speed. These topsites are then released to other people through IRC, in channels that often change and are password protected. In other words, if you want to get scene releases directly from the people that produce them, you’ll have to have some good friends who are friends with the right people who are friends with even better people and so on. Basically, it’s hard to get access to topsites…

Don’t worry though, most releases are leaked from top sites within hours if not minutes and make their way down the file sharing chain. There are people who are dedicated in providing such content and usually upload to a certain medium almost immediately after it is released on the scene. This means that you will find a movie as soon as it is out on BitTorrent or 1-click hosters not too long after it is actually out. Because of this, the place where you get your warez from really does not make that much of a difference, it is usually the user’s preference.

Got a little carried away there, now let me actually explain a little bit about each type of warez :-p.
Movies and TV

Alright, so you want to watch stuff but don’t wanna fork over the cash for an expensive digital cable subscription or buy/rent movies from a store huh? Yea, me neither.

As you will find out, movies and TV shows will probably be the most shared type of warez you’ll encounter on any medium. As such, I will go over some of the basics of downloading them, their formats and their quality.
Movies and their qualities

So, you went to download your favorite movie, only to find it labeled with a ton of information that you don’t know how you could possibly use. Most of these are describing the quality of the movie. There are a few key things you should look for:

* The codecs
* The source
* The size
* The format

The codecs is what will be the secondary attribute of what determines the actual final quality. Any good ripper will be able to make it into a XviD or DivX which will greatly reduce the size while maintaining the source’s quality. This is what makes you see those little blocks or accounts for a more digitalized audio. Always look for AC3 audio and XviD/DivX video encoded movies.

The source is the single most important thing that determines the quality. There are a few places from which the group may have attained the video and audio. This is what you’ll look for to be able to immediately tell the quality of the movie and to know whether or not it is worth downloading. Listed from best to worst quality:

1. HD - These are actual copies of the huge blue ray/HD discs that are coming out now. You won’t find too many of these (they’re huge, as in, 30+ GB).
2. HDRip - Ripped from an actual high definition source, they are usually 720p and up in resolution. Depending on the movie, the size can go upwards to several gigabytes.
3. DVDR - Copies of the real DVD, but without protection. If you want to save a personal favorite, download this one and burn it on a DVD to later watch it on a DVD player. They are usually 4.3 to 4.7 GBs in size.
4. DVDRip - Ah! What your heart truly desires. DVDRips always have a standard size of 700 MBs. They’re quality is usually perfect, meaning, you will see no little blocks or defects when in full screen in resolutions up to 1280×1024 depending on the movie. If the movie is long (120+ minutes) or if the group wants to release a good quality of the movie, it’ll come on two 700 MB discs. Note that this is the standard size so that you may burn them on regular CDs. These usually come out when the actual DVD comes out for the movie, but sometimes may get leaked way earlier (e.g. Silent Hill). If you want to enjoy the movie, wait for the DVDRip release.
5. DVDScr - These usually are the ones that you see on the televisions on the top of video stores like blockbuster. They’re not the actual retail DVD, which is a little more cleaned up, they’re the version of the DVDs with the anti-piracy warning that rotates around the top or bottom. They’re the same quality, DVDScreeners just have that warning that some people dislike. It may range from a harmless unobtrusive message warning that it is copyrighted, to making the whole screen black and white for a minute or two. Get this if you can’t wait to watch the movie.
6. R5 - These have been popping up lately and tend to have quite a good quality for a pre-DVDRip release. Although rare, these jewels will allow you to see that popular movie without having to wait for a DVDRip to come out. 700 MBs as well. Apparently they are the studio’s version of a TC. They’re rushed out to compete with pirates that make telecines and as such, are of better quality.
7. TC - Telecines are basically digitally copied off the film reel and have a way better quality than telesyncs and cams. TCs also have a much improved audio and can somtimes look a lot like DVDRips if done right. Kind of rare these days though.
8. TS - A better version of a cam. Most of the times filmed from the projection booth and will have a slightly better audio, without the audience’s interference, usually by tapping directly into the audio system.
9. Cam - The lowliest form of a movie. Avoid this is possible. It is basically the recording of a home digital camcorder sneaked into the movie theater. It may contain shadows from the audience as well as their voices. Terrible quality. Only for real enthusiasts. These come out the same day that the movie comes out in theaters.

Whew, that was a lot eh? Now for TV shows, which is a much shorter list.

1. DVDRip - Same as the movies’ DVDRips, they are ripped from the DVDs that come out later after a whole season is aired.
2. HDRip - The most common format of TV shows. These are ripped from high quality HD cable signals. They usually are 350 MBs in size and 175 if it is a cartoon or anime.
3. DVR - These are ripped from regular cable signals, so they unfortunately are not that high quality as HDRips. Although slowly disappearing from the scene, there still are shows that don’t air in HD yet.

If you want to know more about this stuff or if you want a release list of movies and such on the scene, check out VCDQuality.

And that’s enough for movies and TV shows! Whew! Onwards!
Applications

This one is going to be a lot shorter than the last section, don’t worry.

Appz are commercially available programs which you must pay in order to use. Often, these are pirated unless being used in a production environment. This means that if you are going to use a commerical program to make something you’re going to sell, make sure that you buy the program, else you could get into a lot of trouble.

So, there are quite a few types of protections against crackers who try to circumvent the need to buy the program. Do know that most of them just do it for fun or for educational purposes, as should you. If you like the program, buy it. So, here are the common types of protection a program may use and ways to get by them:

* Serial - Easy to bypass, usually the cracker will provide a serial number to activate the program.
* Keygen- If the cracker has any experience, he knows that it is better to provide a key generator than giving a single serial, as it will be harder to ban a large number of serials than a single one.
* Patch - This is known as dirty work as it will actually change the program you want to use in order to skip the part where it asks for activation or registration.

Any one of these can be used depending on the program. If it has a protection scheme such as Armadillo, you’ll usually be better off with a keygen if you can find one. The best way to find these is to find them along with the actual program as there usually will be the need for a new one depending on the program’s version, meaning if a serial works the version 1.0 of a program, it may not always work with the version 2.o. Always use the crack/serial/keygen that comes along with the installer. This way you’re sure that it will work.

Another common release is Windows. With the development of nLite, there have been quite a few different versions of Windows XP. Currently, it is extremely easy to find the original or a modified version of Windows XP to your taste. Some have gone as far even as to put together several versions of XP in a DVD so you can choose which one you want when installing them. Right now, Vista is coming out and you’ll also find a few versions of it. Visit MyDigitalLife if you want to look for ways to bypass Vista’s protection.

I must say, I do think that’s it for appz.
E-Books, MP3s and others

There are other niches of warez obviously, but these aren’t anywhere as complicated as the other few. E-books will either come in PDF or CHM format, MP3s usually are full albums, and games are either rips or full ISOs. Stay away from rips.

There are also web applications called scripts. Just go after the nulled scripts and be careful so that your hoster doesn’t catch you. Commercial templates (TemplateMonster namely) are quite abundant in the warez scene as well.
Choosing a medium and sticking to it

So, after reading all this crap, you’re wondering, ok, but where the hell am I gonna download any of this? You didn’t tell me exactly what to do in the primer!

Quite sorry about that mate, I’ll get right to it. As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, where you download depends on what you download. I’ve already made a list of what you’ll find where, but I’d also like to add that the really rare stuff that you won’t find on warez forums and BitTorrent, you’ll usually find on P2P networks such as Gnutella or IRC channels.
Warez Forums (1-click hosters)

This is probably where you’ll go to find warez from now on. These are huge, and I mean HUGE stockpiles of links and information on warez. You’ll find new and old movies alike. MP3s, Apps, Templates, Scripts and just about anything will be posted in these babies. Finding a good one is kind of hard though, but I’ll make it easier for you and list a few:

* Warez-BB - Once named WarezBB (no hyphen), it separated into two forums, this one being the currently larger one. Ads-free, fast and nice community. It has a VIP section for dedicated posters and reporters which has a good amount of rare stuff (such as invites, accounts and FTPs). If you donate, you’ll also gain access to the VIP area.
* ProjectW - The other forum that spawned from WarezBB, it is the second largest warez forum. It has the same things as Warez-BB, but they both hate each other and are managed by different people. It’s your choice really which one you choose (I picked Warez-BB).
* ForumW - I don’t quite know the history behind this forum, but it has a lot of posts too.
* T-Warez - This is where I go if I can’t find something on Warez-BB. It has a lot of scripts and templates.
* XShareX - Another alternative of mine. Has plenty of scripts and templates too.
* Melonez - This is a rather closed community in which you must post content in order to access better content. I would imagine it has some good stuff for dedicated posters, but I’ve never personally taken the time to find out myself. Stick to Warez-BB if you’re impatient.

There are numerous other warez forums out there that you can find in a single Google search. These are just the ones I think are the best. Do know that all these forums are just indexes of files uploaded in 1-click hosters. As such, people who download from those a lot, tend to have premium accounts, specially for RapidShare.com. Some quick info on RapidShare:
The RapidShare debacle

RapidShare, the “1-klick kostenless hosting” until not too long ago was being hosted at RapidShare.de. Due to recent copyright laws being changed in Germany, they had to move to Sweden and created RapidShare.COM. This website allows you to transfer your premium account from RapidShare.de so that customers don’t actually lose money. The service is still the same, even a little revamped. Don’t be afraid to download and upload off of RS.com, as it is the actual real deal. Many people were displeased with this change, God knows why, so I am just explaining the reason behind the file hosting giant moving.

If you choose to use 1-click hosters as your main source of warez, you may want to look into MegaShares. MS is like RS.com, but it has a lot less limits. Although it is nowhere nearly as popular as RS, it still is quite a good service. If you follow scene releases, you’ll see that there are dedicated uploaders to MS. Almost anything that is scene, you’ll be able to find uploaded there. You’ll be able to find it on RS too, but it usually is more complicated. I highly recommend that if you want to be a dedicated downloader, you buy yourself a link card on MegaShares and download content off people who dedicatedly upload there. Some of these people include ByRoN on Warez-BB, wyop on Warez-BB and aeckz on ProjectW.
P2P Networks

Some people will always tell you that some network is better than the other, so I will just list a few popular ones so that you can choose for yourself. I honestly think that they’re all obsolete, but some people still like them. Here are some good ones that I’ve used:

* Limewire - Has been gaining quite a bit of popularity since Kazaa went under. It really does provide quite a decent speed at times and has a good searching mechanism.
* Ares - Although not always fast (depends on the files), it can help you find things you can’t find in Limewire.
* Shareaza - This butchery of software basically jam packs a whole bunch of networks together. Though it may be slightly useful, I seriously don’t recommend you use it. If you feel you must, then at least don’t use it for Torrent files.
* eMule/eDonkey - Both of these connect to the Gnutella network. Although it has a lot of files, it can be very hard to achieve speeds over 50kb/s.

BitTorrent

Ah! Who hasn’t heard of BitTorrent? They’re even in the news these days. For some reason, the MPAA and other anti-piracy organizations have been going after BT trackers and websites quite extensively for some reason. Having closed down several major BT websites, there are a few that still stand tall in this battle against piracy. The main defender of BT is The Pirate Bay. This website even publicly posts the letters they receive to close down the website as a mockery. Their servers are hidden around the world and they are doing their absolute best to keep them under wraps and running smoothly. As a tracker, it has some good torrents, and some horrible ones too. Nevertheless, let me go into the explanation of what BT is and how to use it before I start reviewing trackers.

BitTorrent is a technology. It allows people to share content without having to upload it to a server. All they must do is “announce” that they have the file, and other people looking for it will be able to connect to you in order to retrieve it. Effectively, this allows the file to be shared simultaneously between a large number of people. For example, Person A send a part of the file to Person B. As he is sending the next part of the file to Person B, Person B send the first part of the file to Person C, thus, allowing the first person to waste less bandwidth while spreading the file even more. This system rewards you for sharing the file by creating a simple rule of, the more you share, the more you download.

Now, if you’ve used or heard of BitTorrent, you’ve probably experienced the most common issue: slow transfer rates. Of course P2P networks are slow as well and FTPs are hard to come by, but come on, wasn’t this supposed to be the revolutionary way of sharing files?!? Why is it so slow if so many people use it? Now, that’s a question worth elaborating upon. Now, if you think that torrents are always like that, then get that idea out of your mind! Torrents can be as wonderful as a high speed dedicated HTTP server. BUT, you must know how to find the right torrents. Most of the time, you’ll see people saying how they try to configure their clients to work better and faster or how their internet connection is at fault, but in reality, most of the time, the problem is the torrent. Quite simply, downloading torrents with less than 50 seeders is a guaranteed slow download. Now of course, this depends on the tracker, but before that, let me explain the main technical problem that users face: port forwarding.

You’ll hear this term a lot on BT support forums as it is inevitably the most common problem that the average user encounters upon trying to use BT. What is it, you ask? To put it quite simply, it means that you haven’t opened the door that allows other people to connect to your computer. Most of the times, it is not because that door is closed to make it harder for you, or as a security measure, it is because you have a router. A router is a device that is in between your modem and your computers. A modem is what connects you to the ISP. Now, the router will be able to split the connection between several computers. Now, although this may be handy, it does pose one problem: How are outside computers going to connect to a single computer inside the network? This is due to there only being one connection and thus, only one IP. Since there is only one IP, there is no way to specify which computer in the network that the router should redirect the information to. As such, when another computer “knocks on the door” of your network, the router will be unable to know where to send the connection to. This, however, can be solved more easily than one would think. Every router has a control panel which you can access, which is basically a website that is completely self-contained inside the router. It allows the user an interface to configure router settings. Through this control panel that the user is able to port forward, or, specify to which computer that he wants the traffic to go to. Now, all you have to do is pick a port, set that in the torrent client and tell the router to redirect all information sent on that port to the computer that you want it sent to. This can be done as computers inside a network are auto-magically assigned an IP that is only valid inside the network (usually beginning with 192.168.). Now, I won’t go into this anymore as there are more than enough resources on the internet to help figure out how to port forward.

So, now comes the most important part of effectively using BitTorrent: finding a good tracker. There are some quite decent public trackers, but the best ones are the private ones. The private tracker used by yours truly is TorrentLeech, and it specializes in scene releases only. If you think this is restrictive, think again, since all the content comes from the scene, it will usually hit TL a lot faster and usually will have excellent speeds. Since TL has strict rules about keeping your ratio up, it has a big problem which is present in most private trackers: overseeding. If you are not allowed to post your own torrents, you will likely not be able to get a good ratio very easily, as is the case on TL. Since it has such exclusive content and thousands of members who are devoted to the scene, they want to get the content early and never risk getting banned. This means that torrents that there will be dozens if not hundreds of people seeding a torrent minutes after it comes out, making it difficult for the slow user to seed at full speed, if at all. This can be solved by donating, but that is a last resort and only if one really thinks it is worth it.

Outside the realm of private trackers, there are public ones such as ThePirateBay that although have a vast user-base, will usually have quite a few slow or dead torrents, as the content is community-maintained. My recommendation to users who can’t get an invitation or don’t want to really watch their ratios as closely, is to use IsoHunt, which is a search engine that indexes torrents from various sites, allowing better choice and availability.
Concluding

Whether you are just looking for episodes of that show that you missed last week or you want to start a collection of warez, I do believe that being informed is the key to having a enjoyable experience. I’ve written this now rather lengthy guide since when I was getting into the whole scene, this guide is exactly what I would’ve wanted to read, rather than looking up things all over the internet and spending hours upon hours of googling. Nevertheless, I’m sure that I still missed something or other, but at the very least what you need to be able to know how to download stuff is there ;). Hope you’ve enjoyed it!

Code:

1.http://forum.andr.net/       2.http://www.warezforum.info/forum/index.php       3.http://www.wtalk.org/index.php       4.http://sharethefiles.com/forum/(Majority movies/TV but they do have subforums for others)