How to Download from Ratio Sites

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What are ratio sites?

Ratio Sites are FTP Servers that are configured in a special way: They require you to upload files before you can download files. The ratio between uploads and downloads is normally expressed by a number like 1:3. This means that you must upload 1 file to download 3 files. There are three variables in ratio sites:

Initial Credit
The term credit is often used to tell how many files (or how many bytes) the user can download before he needs to upload a file. So if your current credit is 5, you can download 5 files before you must upload a file(s) to continue downloading.

The Ratio
As explained above, ratio is between uploads and downloads (e.g. 2:5). For example: if a ratio site has a 1:4 ratio and you want to download 12 files, you must upload 3 files (12 :4=3).

3D-FTP makes these calculations for you.

Counting Method
The upload:download ratio can be calculated from the number of files or bytes uploaded/downloaded. You can normally find the ratio used and the counting methods in the FTP Server welcome message. Current ratio values are also normally displayed in the log file after every file transfer.

Downloading from ratio sites

First connect to the ratio site and find out what ratio it uses and how much initial credit you get. Next open the Ratio window by selecting the Ratio Sites command from the Queue right-click menu. Next:

1.	Add all the files that you want to download to the queue

2.	Add all the upload files that can be used for your credit to the queue

3.	Click the Rearrange button to let 3D-FTP arrange the queue optimally to fulfil the upload:download ratio using the smallest number of upload files and optionally remove useless files from the queue.

NOTICE! 3D-FTP switches to single threaded mode to handle ratio transfers, because many FTP Servers cannot handle multi-threaded transfers when ratio counting is in use. Click the Threads button to switch back to multi-threaded mode after any ratio transfers have completed.

Ratio site options

Access Ratio Site Options by clicking the Options button, which shows these options:

Open as "always on top" floating window
This option allows you to edit queue contents (add and remove files) while the Ratio Sites window is open. The statistics and Queue Status are updated in the Ratio Sites window automatically, so you'll immediately see the effect of changes made to the queue.

Toolbar mode
Opens the ratio window as a small toolbar-type window.

Close on Rearrange
Close the Ratio Sites window when you click the Rearrange button. If unselected, the window stays open and you can "preview" the rearrange effects while continuing to modify the queue contents.