New to beta

[LavCat]

I have now registered and have downloaded the downloader. I plan to try the actual download at work, but the thought occured to me that two gig may not fit conveniently on a CD ROM. Maybe I can figure out how to span the file with pkzip?

Has anyone downloaded on a different machine from the one they use for playing? I suppose I could always install on a machine at work, but the graphics cards are not that great.

Next, does the beta coexist well with DII? Would it be better to do a fresh OS installation? I'd rather not have to do a fresh installation if I could help it.

Third, assuming I get home with the download and get on line, how do I meet up with people? I read Bolty's recent post about the guild, but I think that thread presupposes knowledge that I do not yet have.

Is there anything else that I should know that might save me a lot of grief?


Thanks!

[DeeBye]

I have now registered and have downloaded the downloader.  I plan to try the actual download at work, but the thought occured to me that two gig may not fit conveniently on a CD ROM.  Maybe I can figure out how to span the file with pkzip?

Winzip should be able to span the file over a few CD ROMs. Check Winzip's documentation for details.

Next, does the beta coexist well with DII?  Would it be better to do a fresh OS installation?  I'd rather not have to do a fresh installation if I could help it.

WOW coexists just fine with every program I use, DII included.

Third, assuming I get home with the download and get on line, how do I meet up with people?  I read Bolty's recent post about the guild, but I think that thread presupposes knowledge that I do not yet have.

When you first start the game, type "/join lurkers". This will bring you into the Lurker chat channel. Ask anyone in that channel to induct you into the Lurker Guild. When you are a member of the Lounging Lurkers (or the Horde equivalent), you can use the Social menu for all sorts of nifty Guild-related stuff.

Is there anything else that I should know that might save me a lot of grief?

Yes, watch out for Frostmane Headhunters. They hurt.

[Saxywoo]

I have a utility named "The File Chopper" which will break up any file, and be able to put the pieces back together, though I think that WinZip will allow you to do what you need, I think.... If you're interested in the util, PM me with your e-mail addy, and I'll send it to you.

SaxyCorp

[Bun-Bun]

While this may not apply to you, as you're downloading at work, I figure I should get this out. I was experiencing a slow (20-40KB/s) download, and my router was going mammaries-vertical every hour or so, requiring a reset. I turned off the logging feature in the router and it seems to have cured the problem. When I left for work it was chugging along at 180-200KB/s and had been active for a couple of hours.

It really kinda hurt to leave it with just another 1 1/2 hours to go. :(

Technical stuff: Mac G5 hooked to a Linksys 4-port Cable/DSL router.

[Bolty]

Is there anything else that I should know that might save me a lot of grief?

Well, pick an Alliance character, and pick the non-PVP server (it's just called "beta" at this point). Don't worry about screwing up your character, it's just a beta (and you can't really screw it up permanently, actually, since skill points can always be refunded).

Finally: have fun. The Official Site has a ton of info on it, but it's usually best to get in there, play around for a few hours, and THEN go reading up on things once you have the frame of reference. Before playing, however, read this and this.

-Bolty

[Refrigerator]

...with the downloader.
I have a low speed cable internet connection. I am downloading at around 6 KB/s, even though I have followed the advice regarding the ports (6881-6999). The highest I've seen it EVER was 8 KB/s.
Does anyone know what's going on? I know my connection is "slow" but... should it be THIS slow?

EDIT: Looked back through the archives and saw that this problem is fairly common. Hopefully mine will start moving quickly at some point too. <_<

A side note, it has now managed to hit 10 KB/s!

[--Pete]

Hi,

Sometimes it seems that bittorent just hooks you up with slow feeds. Since you only lose a minute or so restarting, try a restart if you're not getting good speed (on cable, you should be getting as much as 250 kBps). After connecting, give it half an hour or so to come up to speed. And remember the adage about watched pots :)

EDIT: On my download, it took three tries (at less than 10 kBps) before I hit the jackpot. Of course, downloading it to Magi's machine was 250 all the way -- even machines that don't know her like her :)

--Pete

[LavCat]

I found that my upload speed was much higher than my download speed. That seems hardly fair! More time, I suppose, to worry about Frostmane Headhunters.

[Tal]

By the time I had downloaded the beta this last phase on my work's T-1 I had uploaded 6.5 gigs to others. :blink:

[Ruvanal]

This may seem selfish, but try setting your connection at a Modem speed. The torrent downloader is not like the typical download from a ftp site that will just stream the packets to you and let your system just re-request any garbled packets that it needs again (low amount of upload needed from you). The torrent system is constantly sending comfirmation packets upstream for the packets that it does recieve. The downloader is only showing you actual data that you have recieved, not the various confirmation packets that may have been sent to you from whoever is taking your upload. If your upstream load is already maxed with what you are sending out, then there will be problems in fitting your confirmations into the upstream load. Without the confirmations the other end does not send the next portion of its content to you.

You may be thinking "But I have a broadband connection. I should have plenty of bandwidth for the up load portion." The problem is that many of the providers for these cable connections are placing caps on the individual users ability to upload to prevent some user from getting a home account and then trying to run some sort of server out their house instead of paying for a corporate type of connection. Your upload bandwith may end up being not much better than a slow DSL type of connection. The typical user is normally only sending a small number of request packets upstream and then receiving large amount of content from the download portion. As such they would normally never notice there is a difference in the two portions of their service.

The using of the Modem setting may seem greedy, but this version of the Bit Torrent downloader does not have the controls to adjust to help compensate for issue like contolling the upstream portion from getting overloaded.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Basically good advice, but apparently torrent throttles modem connections so that the download is reduced. "Cable - slow" is about the best for most broadband connections. And "cable-fast" is the best I've found for suppling the data to others after the download is finished and my computer is otherwise idle.

--Pete

[Ruvanal]

With a Roadrunner connection, I had the fastest download when it was set at Modem not at the slow cable speed.

Edit: It will depend alot on who you get paired with for your first contact of the download. That is probably why some of the Modem connections may end up slow; you are probably being connected to a slow DSL user. This program is effectively useless to even try using if you only have a Modem connection for downloading the game.

[LavCat]

The biggest problem was figuring out how pkzip spanned files. Then I joined the lurker channel. But have no idea how to tell if anyone else is in the channel. Or how to speak to them if I could.

Since I could not join up with any lurkers, being a human, I went to find a paladin trainer in Stormwind. Did not find one, but it turns out there is a paladin trainer near the spot where I first spawned.

Lots of things to see do in Stormwind if you have the gold which I do not.

Fortunately I was able to make the screen font sizae larger so that I coulraed it. I am level 6 now and am resting at an inn. But I am way too tired to try to omment sany more,


Edit: I was going to correct my spelling and punctuation, but the text speaks volumes just the way it is.

[Tal]

What is your character's name? I'll add you to my friends list to keep an eye out for you to invite you into the Guild. Most of the Lurker's tend to chat in the Guild chat so unless you said something in the lurkers chat then your joining the chat channel may have been missed.

[Bun-Bun]

I know you're not addressing me, but I'd like to stick my oar in, as I'd like to join the guild. My character is Hykim, a Night Elf Druid putzing about at level 7.

Apologies for the interruption.

[Tal]

I'll add you to my friends list :)

[Ruvanal]

You can find some helpful points on the game basics here.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/

And on the chat commands here.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics...hcommands.shtml

There is also a file installed with the game that can help. The file is "ReadMe-ENG.html" and is located in the Readme subfolder in the games installation folder.

Then I joined the lurker channel.

Dis you join lurker or lurkers. Most of us are using the lurkers channel and that 's' will make the difference. But as Tal noted most of the discussions are in the guild chat so even the lurkers channel can be very quite most of the time.

But have no idea how to tell if anyone else is in the channel. Or how to speak to them if I could.

The commands that you would use are '/chatinfo #' for who is in channel and '/# <message>' to send a message to that channel. If you have not exited the two default channels then the lurkers channel should be on number(#) 3 for what you need to type in.

[LavCat]

What is your character's name? I'll add you to my friends list to keep an eye out for you to invite you into the Guild. Most of the Lurker's tend to chat in the Guild chat so unless you said something in the lurkers chat then your joining the chat channel may have been missed.

Thanks, her name is Tribade, human paladin. I wanted to make LavCat, a night elf hunter, but that was not to be. Then I tried a gnome paladin, but she did not have much luck either.

[LavCat]

Thanks, Ruvanal -- I had read everything that I could find on the worldof warcraft site. But I had not read the readme, because I thought it was the same patch note I had read online (it wasn't).

The channel I had joined was "lurkers" with the 's' as per DeeBye's instruction. I also have Dee to thank for the information on how to change the font size so that I could read the screen. I now know (I hope) how to say something in channel, so I will give it a try while my soup is heating.

So many questions, so little time!

[Refrigerator]

Ok, well, an update: It has finally finished downloading, and I've installed it, but I get an error whenever I try to start it up. This error seems to be a little bit similar looking to the one listed on Blizzard's support page, but it's different.

The solution for the other one is to delete all the files out of the WDB folder. But, I don't HAVE any files in there!

I will post a screenshot of it as soon as I can. I'm reinstalling for the third time right now. Any clues on what to do?

EDIT


and here's the whole error log thing too.