where I speak out my mind
personal experience
My take on… DLNext
Apr 11th
Pheww!! It has been months since I posted something here.. Obviously, nothing interesting has really happened, hence the hiatus (pretty lame reason, huh?)
Anyway, in few post backs, I shared my personal experience with Torrent, and the alternative to get around its weaknesses. Here, I am planning to share on something that I just recently signed up. But before that, let me share on the incidents that led me to this. Who knows, you might be having similar scenario as we speak. 
It all started when I was desperate, looking for this particular file from the internet. Thanks to Pakcik Google, I managed to get a working link, but I was turned off when I discovered the file was hosted by HOTFILE. What makes things become even worse; there was no other mirror link and I don’t have the premium account for Hotfile >.< One knows that it is VERY expensive to maintain several premium account at one go. Just thought of sharing with you the fee for one month;
Rapidshare – €6.99 – RM 30
Megaupload – USD10 – RM 33
Hotfile – USD 9 – RM 30
Netload – €8 – RM35
Storage.to – €7.99 – RM35
To simplify thing, you will need to pay roughly about RM 130 per month to maintain the premium accesses to all the filehosting site. That is madness! There is no way that I am going to set aside that amount of cash monthly! Absurd!
My frustration led me to Service Noticeboard @ Lowyat. And this is where I got my solution to this problem; DLNext service.
DLNext service started several months back and I knew it since I was selected to become the beta testers. I found the speed was very stable and lightning fast. However, since I did not have any pressing reasons to get one, I just simply quit after the trial expired. Looking at current scenario, where the uploaders have started to upload somewhere else, there is a need for me to find alternatives to this.
Taken from DLNext page:
DLNext is a transfer/storage script for use on various popular download sites
Supported: Rapidshare/Megaupload/Depositfiles/Hotfile/Netload/FileFactory/Megashares/Storage.to/Uploading.com/Easy-share at the moment.DLNext transfers files from Rapidshare/Megaupload/Depositfiles/Hotfile/Netload/FileFactory/Megashares/Storage.to/Uploading.com/Easy-share to our servers and dumps the file on our server.
Premium users may then download these files from our server anytime later.
They got some pretty good server too..
Server Specification (SV1 & SV2)
# Processor – Phenom II X4 810 (4 x 2,6 Ghz)
# Memory – 8 GByte DDR2 800
# Hard Disk – 2 x 1 TByte SATA II (RAID0)
# OS – Linux Debian 5.0 (codenamed Lenny)
# Webserver – Lighttpd
# Network – 1 GBit onboard
# Traffic – 100 Mbit unmetered
# Server Location – Europe.
And the T&C ( I suggest you to read all of this, before signing up)
Guarantee below : -
# Can download any things, 100% privacy
# No storage days limitation, keep as long your account still active
# Support Forum
# Either HTTP or FTP Download.
# Server is open for public and everyone can join
# Chinese characters are supported
# Pass protection Megaupload can be downloaded.Supported Filehosting : -
# Rapidshare, Megaupload, Netload, Hotfile, Depositfiles, Filefactory, Storage.to, Megashares, Uploading.com, Easy-Share, MediaFire.Traffic Limit : -
# Rapidshare 7GB/Daily Individual
# Filefacotry & DepositFiles (12GB/Daily Shared among all user)
# Megaupload, Netload, Hotfile, Storage.to, Megashares, Uploading.com, Easy-Share, MediaFire (UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD)Range of speed (FILEHOSTING to SERVER) : -
# We cannot guarantee it’ll be HighSpeed.
# Range 300KB/s – 7MB/sRange of speed (SERVER to PC) : -
# Max speed.
# Max concurrent connection: 24 including surfing DLNext & Downloading to PC.Terms and Conditions: -
# No refunds.
# Shared account is allowed. (Not more than 2 user including urself)
# No remote-upload (Permanent BAN)
# No sharing links to non-subscriber (Permanent BAN)
And finally, the package:
DLNext Premium Service PACKAGE
Inclusive: 20GB Storage , Unlimited download to PC , 24 Max Concurrent.
7 days premium account – RM10
1 month premium account – RM30
3 months premium account – RM80
6 months premium account – RM150Additional storage 10GB = RM10/month (At least 10GB)
Why I chose them?
1. He is a reliable service provider; the thread has already reached 142 pages loonoooog…
2. Based on the comments from the users, he has been providing very fast service!
3. There are lots of positive feedback on the server uptime and reliability.
4. For a start, 20GB storage is HUGE! 
5. You gained premium access to SEVEN file hosting under one account; that is RM100 cheaper (and will be way cheaper if we talk about monthts of subcription)
6. Fast transfer speed from Server to PC, i.e. I maxed out my access speed to 1.5 Mbps
7. My good experience during the beta test
8. It uses the famous rapidleech script, which I have been using for quite some time already on my shared server. So, there is almost no learning curve for me
He took about 5 minutes (from the moment I made my payment) to configure my account. Was it fast? ABSOLUTE YES! He then gave me the login server details along with my login details. Without hesitance, I logged into the server:
The login page looks very simple and neat, so you could expect the loading page to be extremely fast.
Above, is the main page of DLNext. Simple, yet informative. And, you doesn’t need to be a TechG33K to get around the interface, as it is very user-friendly and pretty straightforward. Just head to AutoDownload section to dump your links for downloading purpose.
I decided to give try, i.e. downloaded several files from HotFile server. It turned out to be really good; downloading at 6.5 Mbps speed. Very impressive!
And finally, the ultimate test, download speed from the DLNext server to the PC. Let`s see whether it lives up to expectation..
NICE! It almost maxed out my access speed (1.5Mbps).
The Conclusion: The only drawback of this service is you could download one file at a time from RS/MU/HF to the server, but this setback is counter-balanced with lightning downloading speed. So, I have no issue on that. Overall, I am very satisfied with the service. I believe I may terminate my RS premium account later and add 10GB to DLNext storage space to provide some breathing room (buffer). With this sort of speed, coupled with responsive and excellent customer support (did I tell you, he added me into his YM so that I can just ask him question straight away), I believe DLNext is here to stay. I hereby recommend to those who are looking forward to subscribe to any of the filehosting server, to stop and look at what DLNext has to offer. I bet you it is really worth it!
p/s: Oh crap, my 1.5 TB of harddisk is almost full…
Torrent vs Direct Download
Jun 3rd
It has been MONTHS since my last attempt of torrenting.. Ever since Streamyx decided to give hard time to ‘Torrent’ers, I have completely gave up on torrenting, mainly because of the sluggish download speed that I was getting.
Yesterday, the curiosity came…
“Im wondering.. how does torrent perform right now, here.. It is pretty interesting to do some sort of investigation neh.. hehe”
uTorrent was my favourite torrent client, not only because of its small size (read: 270Kb), but it is also not a resource hogger. Once it has been isntalled and running fine, it is time to find the torrent. hehe! EZTV has been known for its good high quality media, and I was using its as my main source of TV series, in the past lar..
The ‘torrenting’ process went smooth initially, with initial rate of 5 KB/s… Although it was kinda slow, but knowing the fact that torrent requires little more time to “warm up” (read: connect to seeds and peers), I left it running for two hours, unattended…
As expected, the speed was still sluggish (barely maintain above 25 KB/s)… even after i have done the portforward and enabling encryption..
And for comparison sake, this is what I have been getting all this while using direct download (DL) links…
Can you guys notice the different in speed??
27KBps vs 177 KBps
It is INSANE, I know.. and, i’m lucky to be able to get excellent speed from DL.. DL enables me to fully utilize my bandwidth to the max, and that`s what I want.. Although, I need to fork out additional money for the premium account, sigh~
Anyway, for those torrent-maniac, don’t just simply be mad and give up, actually there are several ways to work around this… One of my old friends, Tesla did some blogging about that (clue: VPN).. Perhaps, you could run a quick check.. hehe !
Editing PDF, anyone?
Apr 19th
Mrs. J shared a useful tips on how to browse for spreadsheets in her blog. And, I happen to have something to share here too… Read on!
It all started last Friday, when suddenly I received a ‘talian-hayat‘ from my colleague, Azy.
“Aku nak anta NOOP to contractors, tapi masalahnya dalam tue ada costing details.”
“Oh, aku cadangkan ko, scan as PDF then email”
“Tapi nnt besar la plak kan”
“Oh, tak2, ko pakai PDF compact, it should work! Takpe2, nnt aku balik opis, aku tolong k”
“Okeh”
When I got back to my workplace, I found that “scan-to-pdf” approach is no longer practical, as the total page is a whooping 73 pages. And, as far as I know, to be able to edit the PDF, is using Adobe Acrobat Professional.
“Hmm, pc ko ada internet access?”
“Ada2!”
“Cantek, meh ke tempat ko“
Next, with the help of my all-time-favourite-search-engine, GOOGLE, the “search-and-pin” operation begun. Yes, I found not one, but many of them. Unfortunately, all of them are shareware (read: you need to buy it to access full features), which is pretty useless.
I was about to give up, when suddenly I found wikipage that compile all the softwares related to PDF. NICE! It suggests three sites; PDFescape, PDFfiller and PDFVue. Of all three, only PDFVue manages to pass through the proxy.
I was so excited to finally, discover PDFVue; it is user-friendly, working and most importantly, it`s FREE !!
So, friends, if you happen to have a PDF that requires some editing (rotating/deleting page, or even putting comments), I highly recommend PDFVue. What you need to do, is just to upload your PDF file and do the editing online. Right after you save the changes, you can click DOWNLOAD button, and within minutes (well, still depend on how fast your connection is.. ;p), your edited PDF is ready in your PC. There is no need for installation or any sort of payment. Good luck guys, and happy editing!!
p/s: Feel free to give a try on other two, and perhaps you can share your experience here!
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