Using forum search when making a download post
From Wiki
Hopfully download posters read this and reduce the number of duplicates posted on the forum. We all know the "check a link exists" search function isn't reliable. It should be used after the following options are exhausted.
Megaupload and Rapidshare links are nice and easy.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ABCDEFGH
is a typical Megaupload link. Using the standard search you look for the ABCDEFGH.
http://rapidshare.de/files/1234567/Download.rar.html
is a typical Rapidshare link. We use the standard search for the 1234567. Using this method it should be 100% if used properly.
Many are links to official demo version and a link to a crack or serial. For the demo link you have something like
http://www.lavavosoftware.com/download/LavavoCDRipper.exe
We use the standard search and use lavavocdripper as the search. Notice we don't use the exe or any other part of the link. You try to identify a part of the link that is not common and is 4 or more characters.
For many crack and serial sites they use codes like
http://www.freeserials.com/serials/download.php?id=4008&char=R
so we use 4008 in the search. It fits our 4 character minimum.
Some people post stros. We have a few things we can use for the search providing they are 4 or more characters. You can use the stro user account name, stro user password and stro port. Works well, especially with stros with random generated passwords. They're less likely to have two or more hits for different hosts. Main one that is a problem is account "leech" or similar. Appears to be common.
What about pubs? You pick out a part of the tag that is 4 or more characters exluding punctuation. Make sure your part of the tag is a whole "word".
The _ character is not treated as a punctuation character but more like a letter. The search looks for whole "words" and does not find partial matches. One example is
http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/indesign/win/cs2/InDesign_CS2_Tryout.exe
InDesign_CS2_Tryout is treated as one word so you need the whole "InDesign_CS2_Tryout" if that is your search otherwise removing a character or more will yield no results.
If all that fails you're stuck with using IP search or looking for the download and comparing links.
