Download with Direct Connect tutorial part 1

Direct Connect is a P2P protocol maybe less known of ed2k/kad and torrent but enough used.
To use it we need a client, the choose for this tutorial is Apex DC++, a program for Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2003, or Server 2008 with many features that allows to download using Direct Connect and ADC (Advanced Direct Connect, considered as successor) protocols.

From download page you can download 32 or 64 bit version (based to operating system), then launch setup. Optionally in customise page you can download translations, icons, emoticons, themes.

Once installed, at first run, we must allow internet access if we have Windows firewall active (or in a similar way if we have other firewall installed) and the program shows as in photo 1.

Here on Settings we must define some “parameters”, let’s see the main ones.

In General you can define personal info and line speed (upload).

In connection settings and particularly in Incoming connection settings choose “Direct connection” if it’s used a direct internet connection (without any software or hardware firewall active; just if you have a simple modem), otherwise “Firewall with UPnP if our router supports universal plug and play, otherwise “Firewall with manual port forward” (in this case you must specify TCP and UDP ports we desire then open them in the router, port range 1024-6000 is suggested), last option (if previous don’t works), not suggested because it has some limitations (passive can download only from active, active can download from both active and passive), “Firewall (passive, worst case)”, this is the passive mode.
Choosing “Firewall with UPnP” or “Firewall with manual port forward” you can check if your connection is working properly by clicking the link.
The option “Don’t allow hub/UPnP to override” if enabled ApexDC++ will only use the settings which you have entered. If this is not enabled your UPnP device can/will change these settings dynamically to try and attempt to get the best performance.
The option “Update IP on DHT firewall check” if checked will do the job of Get IP address button at program startup.
In “Outgoing connection settings” leave default “Direct connection” option if you don’t use SOCKS5 proxy.

In Downloads you can specify default directories for temp and completed downloads and limits (max simultaneous files, etc…).
Pressing “Configure Public Hub Lists” button you can add other hub lists. An hub is like a server where users are connected.
Once started the program all the hubs will be automatically downlaoded based on the lists you have defined; here there are some sites you can find the lists (generally are in XML format or compressed BZ2):

BestHubList
DC++ Resources
DC++/oDC Hublist

You can “directly” contact an hub by typing the address in the format dchub://hubname in the main program window under File -> Quick connect.

To avoid “leechers” various hubs requires that you have a minimum Mb/Gb shared and with quality (no installed programs and incomplete files).

In Sharing you can choose what you want to share (the program will take a while to index them).

In Slots you can define how many users can download from you for every hub.

In Appareance, over various settings, we can load and use a language file for Apex DC++.

Once you press OK if everything is fine the program will automatically connect to a list and to some hubs (photo 2): in the left part you can find a window chat (here generally there are also hub rules), on the right part you can find the users list,on the down part the download/upload activity/detail if running and at more down level the various tabs with the hubs connected.

In the second and last part of this guide will be shown the interface and the main features oft he program and how to start to download!

P.S: in addiction there is also an official pdf guide available at this address