Many times we see a video uploaded by a friend or family member to Facebook and would love to be able to embed it elsewhere or to simply download a copy to save for personal use.

Facebook obviously doesn’t offer either of these options and so people have to figure out a way to do it on their own.

The easiest method I’ve come across so far is by using a Firefox add-on called Facebook Video 2.1.8, and with it I’ll show you step by step how to get started downloading video from Facebook in no time at all.

STEP #1

Firstly, you must use Mozilla’s Firefox Internet browser.

STEP #2

Secondly, install the Facbook Video 2.1.8 add-on for Firefox.

STEP #3

Now find a video you want to work with. We’ll go over the three options which are to embed, download, or convert to other formats.

Notice the options available before installing Facebook Video 2.1.8.

Now notice those available afterwards.

Embedding and Customizing Video

If you want to embed the video on a another website simply select the “Embed this Video” link on the right and then copy and past the code wherever you choose. Note that you can also customize this code by selecting the “Customize Code” link and entering desired width and length dimensions.

Downloading Video

Select the “Download Video” link. The video will then open up as an .mp4 object, filling the window in its entirety. Now select “Save Page As” from the File tab in the Firefox menu and choose where you want to save it on your PC.

Converting Video

To convert the video to another format select “Convert Video.” You’ll be taken to the Zamzar free file conversion website where you can then choose the format you want to convert it to: 3gp, .avi, iPhone, .flv, .wmv, or even .flac, .mp3, or .wav if you just want the audio from the video. Enter the email address of where you want to receive the converted file and press “Convert” to complete the process.

With NFL preseason well underway it’s important that football fans know how to tune into their favorite games, especially you fantasy football fanatics like myself out there.

By following the 3 easy steps below you can watch out of market games that may not be popular enough for broadcast TV, or games that aren’t televised in local markets due to blackout restrictions (especially with the economic downturn).

(UPDATED August 14th, 2009)

1. GO to MyP2P

This is the place where all of the available NFL games will be listed by date and time with links to connect to the live streams for each of them.

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2. PICK THE GAME YOU WANT TO WATCH

As you can see in the picture below I’m about to select the Redskins vs Cowboys game.

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3. SELECT A PROGRAM TO WATCH IT WITH

There are basically 3 different programs you’ll need to install to make sure that you’ll be able to watch every available game, for it sometimes varies according to each broadcast.

Here they are:

• TVU Player
• TVAnts
• SopCast (WINDOWS ONLY) – (Direct link > http://www.sopcast.references.tv/d2/SopCast-3.2.4.zip)

Here in the picture below I chose the easiest stream of all which uses good-old-fashioned Windows Media Player. The quality of streams varies so you may want to test out a few before you kick up your feet and grab a cold beer. Each stream has a different bitrate quality and rating as voted on by active viewers to help you decide.

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Enjoy, and “Go Raiders!”

(This one’s for you Darren!)

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jared@zeropaid.com

This is a follow up guide to one from a few days ago in which I discussed what Usenet newsgroups are and what’s needed to begin downloading content from it. In this guide I’ll walk you through one of the programs, called a newsreader, that allows you to “read” newsgroup articles.

The newsreader we’re going to use is Alt.binz, though there are many others to choose from. The process will be easy and straightforward, doing only that which is necessary to begin downloading in its most basic form. A more advanced user guide will follow this one.

Setup

1. Select “setup” from the main tab menu.

2. Select “download” from the setup menu.

Here it’s important that you decide where you want your downloads to be saved in. You’d be surprised how many people have downloaded stuff and then are unable to find it.

3. Select “connection” from the setup menu.

Choose a desired a maximum download speed. If you’re unsure how fast your connection speed is you can check it here. Keep in mind you may not want to max it out so that you can still browse web pages, etc..

4. Select “servers” from the setup menu.

Here you need to enter the details of your newsgroup service provider. As you can see in the example I entered my info for Giganews, including username and password, and selected “apply.”

5. Finish by selecting “add as primary.”

Downloading

So we’ve got the newsreader ready to download content, all we need to do now is go out and find some.

I mentioned a number of sites before. The only we’ll use here will be NZBMatrix, on which I found the .NZB file for an old Charlie Chaplin movie, “The Kid.”

1. Select “connect” from the main tab menu.

A message that says you are “connected & authenticated” should then appear in the bottom of the window.

2. Select “NZB” from the main tab menu and open the .NZB file associated with whatever you’re trying to download.

You will then see your download begin.

Where Do I Find Stuff to Download?

Here’s a list of Usenet indexing sites again that is by no means complete:

• Binsearch.info (free, no reg)
• MerlinsPortal.net (free, reg)
• Newzbin.com (paysite)
• Newzleech (free, no reg) – considered the best free site around
• Ngindex (paysite)
• Nzb.to (free, reg)
• NZBIndex (free, no reg)
• NZBMatrix (free, reg)
• NZBs (free, reg)
• NZBs’R’US (free, reg)
• Nzbrus (free, reg)
• Prettyboo (free, reg)
• YabSearch (free, no reg)

Stay tuned for additional guides in which I discuss more advanced user techniques for Alt.binz, as well as review some of the sites listed above.

jared@zeroapid.com

Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications still in use, having been first conceived way back in 1979 by a pair of Duke University graduate students to basically post messages as a sort of public bulletin board system.

As I’m sure you’re aware it’s evolved greatly since then, a way having been devised to encode data into the same ASCII character set used to previously post simple text messages.

See in the diagram below how the process works, moving from the original content file, be it a .ISO, .AVI, .XVID, file etc. to the final, encoded pieces ready for upload to a newsgroup server. A newsgroup describes the hierarchies that messages are posted in, of which there are 8 major hierarchies referred to as the “Big Eight” (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk).

Now to access newsgroup servers and to “read” or download messages or content we first need to do a few things. It’s pretty straightforward, and may actually cause some of you to switch over from BiTorrent considering the security issues associated with the oftentimes open nature of a BitTorrent swarm.

1. Usenet Newsgroup Service Provider

Some ISPs offer very basic access for free. However, many ISPs in the U.S., such as Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, and AT&T, have stopped offering any sort of newsgroup or usenet access.

Prices range from $3 to $30 p/mo, each service having a variety of pros and cons to take into consideration. Some have data caps others offer transport layer security (TLS) encryption. Data retention, the number of days articles are stored on a news server before being deleted must also be considered.

The one preferred by most is Giganews, myself included, for it has more data, or “binary retention” (365), available than any other Usenet provider. It even boasts that Usenet members upload more than 5TB of new discussions and content on a daily basis.

Others include:

• Binverse
• PowerUsenet
• NewsDemon
• Newshosting
• NewsgroupDirect
• UseNetServer

For a review of different sites, pricing, etc. visit Anchordudes and Newsgroup Reviews.

2. Newsreader

A newsreader is an application that allows you to “read” newsgroup articles on Usenet. There are several types, of which the text type, like Outlook Express or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, is only usable for reading/posting text, and others like the binary grabber type, such as Grabit or Newsbin, which are for downloading binary content.

Alt.binz (free) is the one I’m currently using, but there are a number to choose from. Some are free and some require purchase, the pay ones offering advanced features, upgrades, etc..

• Newsbin Pro ($35.00)
• Newsleecher ($19.99)
• Grabit (free)
• Pan (free)
• Xnews (free)

3. Usenet Indexing Sites

Now we need to be able to find content in the newsgroups to download. The easiest way is to use Usenet indexing sites which do just that, indexing newsgroup posts so that you can browse or search by keyword for a particular piece of content.

Some, like Newzbin for example, are private and require an invite, and some require basic registration.

• NZBMatrix (free, reg)
• Binsearch.info (free, no reg)
• MerlinsPortal.net (free, reg)
• Newzbin.com (paysite)
• Newzleech (free, no reg) – considered the best free site around
• Ngindex (paysite)
• Nzb.to (free, reg)
• NZBIndex (free, no reg)
• NZBs’R'US (free, reg)
• Nzbrus (free, reg)
• Prettyboo (free, reg)
• YabSearch (free, no reg)

(There’s also a program called NZBLeecher which allows you to search multiple indexing sites simultaneously)

What now?

So you’ve done all three steps, have begun browsing for content, and now want to know what to do. All you have to do is configure the newsreader to connect to whatever newsgroup service provider you’ve chosen, presumably a subscription one, with the login information they send you after registration. The last thing to do is to simply open the a .NZB file associated with the content you’re trying to download.

I’ll go over this process with more detail in my next guide, and will show you step-by-step how to configure a newsreader and download content.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

There are many audio files available for playback on the venerable MySpace site yet, very few are available as downloads. There’s a number of ways to bypass this problem and I will cover two of best the methods here for you to use, the first being the easiest.

METHOD A – FreeMusicZilla
METHOD B – Audacity

FreeMusicZilla

1. Download and install FreeMusicZilla.

2. Open FreeMusicZilla, visit the desired MySpace page, and play the song you want to download. It will then automatically grab whatever music track you selected (FreeMusicZilla also works for Pandora, Last-fm, eSnips, MOG, iJigg, and IMEEM)

3. Select the grabbed music track and press the DOWNLOAD button. Your download should then begin. Make sure you begin downloading the track before the “Leech Timeout” counter runs out otherwise you’ll have to refresh the page.

EXAMPLE:

In the picture below I used the MySpace page of my buddy DJ Destructo Bunny. He’s a local up and coming hip-hop artist and I urge you to show some support if you like what you hear by either buying a track or two or by trying to check out one of his upcoming shows.

NOTE: FreeMusicZilla places your downloads in the location “C:downloads” by default.

Audacity

1. Download and install Audacity.

2. Now we need to install a LAME MP3 encoding driver so you can save tracks in the .mp3 format.

First download the driver, which you can do here. It’s in ZIP file format, so for those of you who are unfamiliar with what ZIP files are, there’s a guide here at Zeropaid you can take a look at.

Now drag and drop the driver in the location shown below, “C:WINDOWSsystem.”

3. Select “Wave Out Mix” as the audio recording device.

EXAMPLE:

Now it’s time to find some audio tracks to rip.

A good friend of mine is the lead-singer for a band called The Wagon here in San Diego and has been kind enough to allow me to use his band’s music on MySpace for this tutorial.

The image below is of the band’s page. Notice how the top two songs are available for download and the bottom two are not. We’re going to rip the second song from the top titled “End of Summer,” a personal favorite of mine not to mention timely with Summer drawing to a close.

Now with Audacity and the MySpace page open, click the “record button” on Audacity as shown below and then quickly press the “play button” on the End of Summer track. The track should begin to play and thereby be displayed as eloquent peaks and valleys of music in the Audacity track window.

When the song is finished playing press the “stop button” on Audacity. This will of course stop the recording and allow us to go back and edit the song.

The reason we need to edit the song is because there will be periods of silence in both the beginning and end of our recording. This silence is the delay in reaction time it took for us to both start and stop the process.

Using the scrollbar on the bottom of the track window, scroll back to the beginning of the recording as pictured below.

Using the mouse place your cursor as close to the beginning of the song as possible, then click and drag it all the way to the left and release. We have just selected the silence in the front of the track, which we will now discard by pressing the “delete button” on your keyboard.

Now we need to do the same thing for the end of the recording. To do so simply scroll to the end of the track and then select and delete the silence as you did with the beginning of the track. It’s that easy.

From the “File” tab select “Export as MP3″ as shown below.

It will then prompt you to select a name to save it as, which in this case will be “End of Summer.”

After clicking on the “Save” tab, it will then ask you to “locate the LAME MP3 encoder” we just installed.

Hopefully you remember where we just put it but, just in case I’ll show you where to go.

Once this is done it’ll begin to encode the track and turn it into an MP3, the music file type necessary to play on your iPod or whatever media player of choice.

And with this ladies and gentleman the track is ready to go.

Admittedly, configuring the Audacity program to perform as necessary initially takes a little while, but once this is done future recordings or “ripping” of audio files will be a breeze.

Everybody in the BitTorrent community is always looking for ways to optimize their download speeds. One of our members here at Zeropaid even compiled a guide on how to “Improve BitTorrent Download Speeds” which is arguably one of the most detailed of its kind.

Yet, rarely do we hear from the people behind the BitTorrent clients themselves, the ones who can give an insider’s perspective on how to get the best speeds possible.

So it was nice to read a recent post on the Vuze blog which gives six simple tips for optimizing your BitTorrent download speeds courtesy of Olivier Chalouhi, co-founder and CTO of Vuze. The questions were a response to an inquiry from my buddy Big E over at TF.

“The Low Down on Downloading”

1. Seed. Downloading speeds will be sub-optimal for everyone unless everyone plays their part and seeds. Private tracker sites are a great example of how the overall speed of the swarm increases when everyone is seeding and downloading in equal measure. So, play your part in seeding and tell others to as well.

2. Be connectable. Make sure you’re not “fire-walled” by opening up your incoming ports or by enabling UPnP in your router otherwise you’ll be leaving bandwidth on the table.

3. Manage your upload speed. It is all about striking a balance. You don’t want the upload speed to be too high, nor do you want it to be too low. Ideally you want to set your upload speed to be 80% of the maximum possible line speed.

4. Select the right torrents. Your download will be faster if you choose to download a torrent where there is a good balance of seeds and peers. For instance, Vuze ranks its search results according to the number of seeds and peers to make this easier.

5. Be realistic. Check the swarm average and if you’re already above average, then you just need to be patient. If you’re below average, go back and check some of these other things I’ve mentioned.

6. Get a Friend Boost. I wouldn’t be a Vuze developer if I didn’t give a plug for the Friend Boost feature we recently developed ☺ When you create a network of Friends on Vuze, you agree to seed content to each other on a preferential basis. That is, if one of your friends has a torrent that you want, you will be able to directly use a portion of their bandwidth to get it. In most cases this will increase your download speed.

“Obviously ways in which to actually implement some of these tips will differ from client to client,” Chalouhi continues. “If you want to find out how to do it on Vuze, you can check out our wiki.”

Happy downloading!

CONTINUED READING:

Azureus – A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent Downloading

Creating torrents with Azureus

Advanced Azureus Techniques

Top Azureus Plugins Revealed

For those of you in the BitTorrent community who regularly seed and leech a number of different torrents simultaneously it can sometimes be frustrating to have to sort through them all to find ones from a particular site or ones of a particular content type.

The most common scenario is the incessant seeding of torrents for BitTorrent tracker sites that are fairly share-ratio demanding like Waffles.fm or BiteMeTV. This practice can then make it occasionally difficult, though not impossible, to find recently downloaded content.

In short, it’s nice to have a way of organizing your torrents so that they are readily accessible, and so I decided to create this quick guide for uTorrent users.

I chose LegalTorrents as my demonstration tool for obvious reasons and will guide you through the process of organizing your torrents below.

Organizing by Content Type

Choose the desired torrents and then “right click” to select “New Label…”

Type the name of the label you want for the given torrents. In the example shown below I chose “Audio Books.”

Organizing by BitTorrent Tracker Site

Now you can apply and sort your active torrents by as many labels as you wish. Listing them BitTorrent tracker site can surely come in handy when you want to quickly see which ones you’re seeding on Waffles.fm for example.

Here I chose “Legal Torrents.”

So there you have it, a quick and fairly painless way to organize all of your active torrents.

(jared@zeropaid.com)

It’s no secret that Comcast and other ISPs are actively throttling BitTorrent, but how to circumvent the practice is always subject to debate.

Some find protocol header encryption fairly successful, others use TOR or an SSH or a VPN Tunnel to disguise their traffic. Using TOR for file-sharing is discouraged by many who think it should only be used for academic or freedom of speech concerns and not to download a copy of “The Love Guru.” But, as is usual, Linux users have OS control options that just aren’t available to Windows and MAC users.

For Linux users can apparently block the fake reset packets most commonly employed to throttle BitTorrent by employing a simple rule found in the Linux iptables.

From TuxTraining:

If you are using a Red Hat Linux derivative, such as Fedora Core or CentOS, then you will want to edit /etc/sysconfig/iptables. First, make a backup of this file. Next, open this file in your favorite text editor. Replace the current contents with this, substituting 6883 with your BitTorrent port number:

(Note: the values state, reject, dport and tcp-flags begin with a double dash )

*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
#Comcast BitTorrent seeding block workaround
-A INPUT -p tcp –dport 6883 –tcp-flags RST RST -j DROP
-A INPUT -m state –state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
#BitTorrent
-A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 6883 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m udp -p udp –dport 6883 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

Reload your iptables firewall with service iptables restart. You should now see a great improvement in your seeding.

If you are using Ubuntu or another non-Red Hat Linux derivative, then place the following in a file and execute that file as root.

#!/bin/sh
#Replace 6883 with you BT port
BT_PORT=6883
#Flush the filters
iptables -F
#Apply new filters
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
#Comcast BitTorrent seeding block workaround
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport $BT_PORT –tcp-flags RST RST -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
#BitTorrent
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport $BT_PORT -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m udp -p udp –dport $BT_PORT -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

If you are using Gentoo or another distro, it is important that your iptables rules includes this line, feel free to change the port number (or make it a range of ports).

-A INPUT -p tcp –dport 6883 –tcp-flags RST RST -j DROP

Your firewall is now configured and you should have great upload speed now. You will have to run this script every boot, by the way. One easy way is to call the script at the end of /etc/rc.local.

Let me know if you find it successful.

(jared@zeropaid.com)

Even for the file-sharing veterans out there it can oftentimes be difficult to figure out exactly what you’ve downloaded and what they’re purpose is.

For BitTorrent users, .nfo and .sfv files are a perfect example.

In any event, “Miniver,” a member here at ZeroPaid, has taken the time to give the rundown on just about every conceivable file type you’ll encounter while using P2P or file-sharing programs.

1. COMPRESSION FILES
2. MULTIMEDIA
3. OTHER

Compression Files
.rar, .zip, .ace, .r01, .001

These extensions are quite common and mean that your file(s) are compressed into an “archive”. This is just a way of making the files more compact and easier to download.

To open any of those archives listed above you can use WinRAR (USERS GUIDE) or PowerArchiver.

If those progams aren’t working for you and you have a .zip file you can try WinZip, or 7-Zip.

If the two first mentioned programs aren’t working for you and you have a .ace or .001 file you can try Winace (Trial version).

.cbr, .cbz

These are usually comic books in an archive format. a .cbr file is actually the same thing as a .rar file and a .cbz file is the same as a .zip file. However, often when opening them with WinRAR or WinZip it will disorder your pages. To display these archives properly it’s often best to use CDisplay.

Multimedia Files
Video
.avi, .mpg, .mpeg, .divx, .xvid, .wmv, .asf

These files are usually movies or TVshows, or a host of other types of media. They can be viewed using various media players including Windows Media Player, but I suggest using Zoomplayer, BSPlayer, VLC media player or Media Player Classic. Also, you’ll need to make sure you have the right codecs to play each individual file. Codecs are a tricky business sometimes so to help you out with your file and what exact codecs it needs try using GSpot. It tells you what codecs you need. Then just look on the net to find them.

**Read more in our guide to audio & video codecs**

**Also read “MPEG Deconstructed”**

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The user-friendly installation is fully customizable, which means that you can install only those components that you want.

There are three versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack: The Basic version, who fits on a single floppy disk, contains only the most essential codecs and related tools. The Standard version contains everything what is needed to play all the commonly used formats. The Full version contains even more codecs and also has encoding support.

K-Lite Codec Pack 2.27 Full (8.14 Mb)
K-Lite Codec Pack 2.27 Standard (4.35 Mb)
K-Lite Codec Pack 2.27 Basic (1.33 Mb)

**Also recomended is Ace Mega Codecs, it contains just about every codec you’ll ever need and then some**

Alternately you could download codecs individually, here’s a few.

ffdshow (Recommended! (plays many formats: XviD, DivX, 3ivX, mpeg-4))
XviD codec
DivX codec
ac3filter (for AC3 soundtracks, aka “5.1″)
Ogg Vorbis (for .OGM files)

.mov

These are QuickTime files. There are alternatives to the original program, if like me, you don’t like it. Check out Quick Time Alternative or Media Player Classic which can play these files so long as you have the codec already installed.

.ra, .rm, .ram

These are RealPlayer files. I’m not a big fan of Realplayer. It installs lord knows what on your system and never really goes away when you want to uninstall it. Still if you insists you can get the player here. There are however alternatives to the original program, check out Real Alternative and Media Player Classic.

vcd / svcd

These can be a pain on some peoples setups, but more so, on your stand-alone DVD player. Not all dvd players will play vcd/svcds, and some will play vcd but not svcd. There is a searchable database for dvd player compatibility here.And a list here.

For working with disk images of vcd/svcds (.bin/.cue, .iso, .ccd/.img/.sub) see the cd image section below.

.vob, .ifo, .bup (Video_ts folder)

Usually these files will come all together in one folder called video_ts. This is a direct backup of a dvd’s file system. Use Nero to burn them onto a dvdr by selecting “dvd video” from the dvd menu.

Audio
.mp3, .mp2

Play them with WinAmp or your favorite audio player. Most new dvd players support the playing of mp3 cds. Making mp3 cds lets you put 100+ mp3 files on a cd for playing on your dvd player, computer, or portable mp3 cd player. However, they will not work on a regular cd player.

.ogm, .ogg

Ogg Vorbis media files. You can find out more about them and download applications Here. This filetype is another encoding format that can be used for various media. Any new version of WinAmp will also do.

.ape, .flac, .shn

These are music files which have been compressed using lossless codecs. This means that all of the original sound and frequencies have been retained. Most audio codecs, including the mp3 format are lossy codecs which discard certain frequency ranges in favor of smaller file sizes. For the free lossless audio codec or flac see here. For Monkeys audio codec or ape see here. For Shorten or shn see here.

CD Image Files
.bin and .cue

These are your standard images of a CD, and are used quite alot these days. To open them you have a couple options.

**Read more in our guide “What are BIN, CUE, and ISO files?“**

You can burn them using Nero (USERS GUIDE), DVD Decrypter (USERS GUIDE), or Alcohol 120%, but this proves to be soooooooo problematic for a lot of people.

You can also use Daemon Tools (USERS GUIDE), which lets you mount the image to a “virtual cd-rom”, so basically it tricks your computer into thinking that you have another cd-rom and that you’re putting a cd with your image file on it into this virtual cd-rom, it’s great cuz you’ll never make a bad cd again.

Alcohol 120% also sports a virtual cd-rom feature. Finally, if you’re still struggling to access the files contained within any given image file you can use CDMage to extract the files and then burn them, or just access them from your hard drive.

You can also use VCDGear to extract the mpeg contents of a SVCD or VCD image file such as bin/cue.

.iso

Another type of image file that follows similar rules as .bin and .cue, only you extract or create them using WinISO or Isobuster. Sometimes converting a problematic .bin and .cue file to an .iso can help you burn it to a cd. Examples of programs that burns iso’s are: Nero (USERS GUIDE), and Alcohol 120% but there are many, many more!

.ccd, .img, .sub

All these files go together and are in the CloneCD format. CloneCD is like most other CD-Burning programs, see the .bin and .cue section if you’re having problems with these files.

.cdi

These are Discjuggler image files. Alcohol 120% is able burn these. Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% can mount them.

.nrg

Another type of image file created with Nero. As far as I know these are not mountable, except maybe by Nero. These are also apparently only usable by the version of Nero that created them. I don’t recommend using these, as I’ve had nothing but problems with them.

.mds .mdf

These are media descriptor files created with Alcohol 120%. They are mountable using either Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%.

.bwt .bwi .bws

I haven’t really encountered these much, but some people still use them. These are Blindwrite image files. Bur with Alcohol 120% or mount with Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%.

Other Files
.txt, .doc

These are text files. .txt files can be opened with notepad or watever you default text editor happens to be, and .doc are opened with Microsoft Word. Be careful when opening .doc files from unknown sources, they may contain macro viruses.

.nfo

These contain information about the file you just downloaded, and it’s HIGHLY recommended that you read these! They will usually contain information regarding: the particular release group, the release date, the encoding method used (xvid, divx, vcd, svcd…) and format (ntsc/pal) for movie files; any cracks, keygens or cd-keys for applications and games; and various other pieces of important information. They are plain text files, often with ascii-art. You can open them with Notepad, Wordpad, Damn NFO Viewer or UltraEdit.

Unfortunately Windows uses this extension for it’s system info program so simply double-clicking on the file probably wont work.

On Windows Xp

Right click on the .nfo file and select “properties”
click the button marked “change”
click “select the program from list”
click “ok”
select the program you would like to deal with this filetype
check the box next to “Always use the selected program to open this type of file”
click ok.
Now any time you double click on a .nfo file, it will open correctly.

.pdf

Adobe Portable Document Format

Like Microsoft Word documents these can contain text, pictures and formatting. Unlike Microsoft Word documents, they cannot contain viruses, and cannot be modified easily. Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader or FoxIt.

.jpeg, .gife .tgae .psde .png

Basic image files. These files generally contain pictures, and can be opened with Adobe Photoshop or whatever your default image viewer is.

.sfv

Checks to make sure that your multi-volume archives are complete. This just lets you know if you’ve downloaded something complete or not. You probably will only need to use this file type if you are downloading off of newsgroups. Because most releases come from the newsgroups, these files tend to show up on file sharing networks. You can open/activate these files with SFVChecker (Trial version) or HKsfv for example.

.par
.par2
.p** (where the asterisks are numbers)

These are parity files, and are often used when downloading from newsgroups. Parity files are usually posted along with the original files, with an index file at the beginning of a post and different sizes of volumes at the end of a post. These files can fill in gaps when you’re downloading something from a newsgroup and get corrupted or missing parts. Open them with QuickPar.

[Hat tip to Miniver]

**NOTE: If after reading this you still don’t know how to use a file with a particular extension, please feel free to ask about it in this thread in the ZeroPaid forums. You can also check here.**

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/software/A_Handy_Guide_to_Downloaded_P2P_Files’;

There’s a wide range of ways to circumnavigate the censors on your network, be it the Torpark browser, proxy servers, or anonymizers, but none are as simple and virtually guaranteed to work as is Psiphon.

Developed in a basement lab at the University of Toronto, a team of political scientists, software engineers and computer-hacking activists, or “hactivists,” collaborated to created this powerful tool to allow Internet users to circumvent censorship of the Internet.

“Governments have militarized their censorship efforts to an incredible extent so we’re trying to reverse some of that and restore that promise that the Internet once had for unfettered access and communication,” said Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab where Psiphon was developed.

Now most who read this are likely to have less than such idealistic notions of circumventing government censorship, but the problem is nonetheless the same – beating network censors.

The guide that follows will explain Psiphon in more detail as well as walk you the process of installation and setup step by step.

How Does It Work?

How Do I Set It Up?

How Do I Connect as a User?

How Anonymous is Psiphon?

Can the Use of Psiphon Be Detected?

How Does It Work ?

Psiphon turns any Internet-connected PC into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages for users that connect to it.

It works like this: A user outside a censored country or network downloads and installs the Psiphon program. This administrator running the Psiphon node, or “Psiphonode Administrator,” is responsible for creating and managing user accounts and running the Psiphon server on his PC. He is the one that creates accounts with usernames and passwords that he then distributes to those whose web traffic he wishes to route through his PC.

Users log onto the Psiphonode PC through an encrypted connection, using it as a proxy to gain access to censored sites and material. There is no connection between the psiphonite and the requested website, as psiphon transparently proxies the request through the psiphonode’s computer allowing the psiphonite to browse blocked websites seamlessly.

Each Psiphonode is completely decentralized and independent of all others, so that even if your IP address, i.e. your Psiphonode address, is blocked, simply install Psiphon on another PC with a different IP address to continue using.

What’s nice too is that it requires NO SOFTWARE INSTALLATION on the part of the “Psiphonites,” or Psiphon users. They simply connect to a unique web address that is a composition of the Psiphonode’s IP address, connection port, and Psiphonode name.

The best method is to set it up and run on your home PC for personal use while at work or school.

**NOTE: REQUIRES NO SOFTWARE INSTALLATION ON PC YOU WISH TO BROWSE WEB WITH**

How Do I Set It Up?

1. Begin by downloading and installing Psiphon.

2. Open and select the “Setup” tab as shown below.

3. “Update” your external IP address.

4. “Test” to make sure that port #443, which it is set to run on by default is available.

**NOTE: You can change the port number in the settings menu if you so desire.**

NOTE: You can choose to change the port it uses for whatever reason. Also, if your PC’s connects to the Internet via a router you need to “forward the port” selected here.

5. Next choose a name for your Psiphonode.

6. Finish the setup by selecting “OK.”

7. It’s then time to create user accounts, which we will do so by selecting the “Add” tab.

8. Start by creating a username and password. The remaining options are for your own informational purposes only and are not required to create a user account.

9. Lastly, select “Start” to begin running the program.

How Do I Connect as a User?

1. To connect as a user, or “Psiphonite,” start by typing the Internet address that the Psiphonode Administrator sends to you.

It will be as follows:

http://(IP address):(port)/(node name)
EX: http://78.125.52.425:443/NEWPORT

The Psiphonode Administrator will see the following after you successfully connect.

2. Type your username and password in the login boxes provided and then click “Submit.”

You should then be connected and able to navigate to pages and sites of your choice.

Here’s a few examples:

You can even bookmark pages if you so desire using the “Add Bookmark” button as shown below.

How Anonymous is Psiphon?

The traffic between the Psiphon Administrator and the the user is completely encrypted however, the Administrator can view the logs of the user’s web traffic. So don’t use it to check out anything you don’t want the the Administrator to see, i.e. porn and what not.

Can the Use of Psiphon Be Detected?

Unless the attacker has the private psiphon URL it cannot be easily determined that psiphon is being used.

From the site:

From a technical perspective traffic between the psiphonode and the psiphonite is identical to normal HTTPS (encrypted) traffic. Although many sites only use HTTPS during the login process many sites, such as email providers and banking services, use HTTPS for extended periods of time, as does psiphon. The differences are that psiphon uses self-signed certificates and connections to home computers, rather than signed certificates and domain names.

NOTE: There’s also a great slideshow available that will help better visualize how Psiphon works and what it’s capable of.
DOWNLOAD PSIPHON NOW