Why don't they just take the leap and become a premium members only site? I've been clicking every two minutes for almost a half hour now, just to download one 16 MB file! And when I finally do get a download slot, I'll still have to wait for the countdown!

Yes, that's nnoying, but other hosters are not any better.
I put the links in my download tool and start the download later. But you need some patience for it.

Other hosters are MUCH better. Mediafire and Megaupload have never pulled this crap. Rapidshare does it all the time. Every few months they go way overboard with this stuff, keep doing it for a few weeks, then finally back off again. Remember the damn near unreadable captcha codes? With the frickin dogs and cats?

People use RapidShare to get points, that's it.

MegaUpload and SendSpace are 100 times better in my opinion.

Oh well, screw 'em. I finally went out and got a free account Rapidshare download manager. Throw the links in, then let the computer deal with the endless retries until it goes through. That's what it's good at.

I made some snaps some time ago. At first 2 examples of Medifire and Mediafire (VTS_03_1) vs Rapidshare (TS2):




And then Rapidshare (Silbermond) vs Megaupload (TS3):



As you can see the MU download of TS2 already failed. The download of TS3 was very slow and maybe failed a little bit later too. That's happens often with download from Megaupload or Mediafire.

And Sendspace and Megaupload made the same sh!t like Rapidshare now!

Hochgeladen mit Irada 1.4e (von 2009-03-09)

not everybody

i didn't say everybody

I get really lousy speeds with Rapidshare these days. They also do this thing lately where you download a chunk, then it sits idle for several seconds, then you download another chunk, etc. So if you look at the download speed your browser says it is getting it actually looks better than it really is. Now that I have a download manager to deal with their BS I don't really care anymore. This is for you Rapidshare:

People use Megaupload to get points and money!

That's right. But when then download at Rapidshare has started the speed is high enough that it doesn't fails. With Mediafire or Megaupload I often have less than 10 kB/s until it completely stopps and the download fails.

What can I say, I've never seen that with Mediafire or Megaupload. Maybe it's geography? Rapidshare is German, you're in Germany?

Rapidshare is Swiss and I'm in Germany.

Anyway, regardless of your experience, mine (and apparently others) is that Rapidshare is hugely annoying for anyone who doesn't have a premium account.

<-- Has a premium account
<-- Has no problem

Me too, on both counts.



I'd say more, but I'm rsing Dexter

I have never had a problem with Mediafire or Megaupload when downloading.

Rapidshare just loves coming up with as many reasons as possible to make us pay. But that is their right.

I use RS because I have over 3000 videos on there. I also upload my videos to Sendspace first using their 'Upload wizard' program because I often upload 100mb+ videos and if you are doing a browser based upload and if your router loses connection (happens sometimes) you need to start the upload again but you don't have to do that with a upload program ( I then remote upload to RS using the SS link). The last time I looked mediafire didn't have any kind of upload manager. Mediafire also used to have a very slow upload speed (which is why I stopped using it). I'm doing a test upload now and the speed still seems slow. I get about 130kbs upload with SS but MF is sitting at about 100kbs.

I have also just done a test 'remote upload' with a file hosted on mediafire and tried putting it on Sendspace and Rapidshare. Sendspace would do it at all and RS did but it was so slow that I could have reuploaded it to RS myself a lot quicker.

So, I won't be using it again any time soon

Megaupload said this to me for a few hours:

Rapidshare is really slow lately. I am halfway through a 123 MB file and have 3 hrs of download left. This is after trying to get a spot for an hour and a half before that. It is so slow as to be of no use.

I think we can safely say RS have probably made there millions and have signed up enuf premium folks now, that freeUsers can go suck it, lol.

Most people can't even download from Rapidshare anymore without getting this message: "Error. This file can only be downloaded by becoming a Premium member. There are no more download slots available for free users right now. If you don't want to become a premium member, you might want to try again later." There is now a wait time on top of the original wait time. As a video uploader, I would not want to use a host that most people can't even download from. Megaupload and Mediafire are the best options right now. Neither service tries to con people into paying for something that they can get for free elsewhere.

Maybe it depends on where you live.
For me Rapidshare is the easiest for uploads and downloads.

to downlaod with rapidshare or megaupload or the videos host than you want, you can try this http://jdownloader.org/home/index?s=lng_en .

Rapaidshare is such a racket! The only reason it's so popular is because those members who upload get credit towards renewing their memberships or more.

The same with Megaupload.

I think it's because rapidshare got a headstart in the filesharing field. They were one of the first to do it right. And now, today, they're trying to take advantage of their popularity by over charging, and making it very difficult for free users to download anything.

I dunno how you can say rapidshare overcharge

It costs 7 euro for a month..not exactly expensive, better value is the 3 month option for 17 euro. When you consider what you can download for that if you have a fast isp then its a bargain..imo.

Why pay 7 euro when you can pay 0 euro? You can get the same features from Mediafire, without any download limits, upload limits, or wait timers for free.

And if Mediafire sucks for you, Megaupload is another fantastic option. Fast downloads, great interface and file manager for uploaders, and it'll automatically make video previews of most clips.

I don't understand the fetish for RS, especially when there are free alternatives such as Sharebee that distribute the file to multiple hosts so a) lessens the chance of a file being taken down and b) people collecting RS points still get the benefit. And I'm sorry - I am not connecting my name to that site through CC number or anything else. Not everyone posts clips from SNL on there.

Regarding the "This file can only be downloaded by becoming a Premium member" error this appears to only happen during daylight business hours in North America. In the evening and early morning, I rarely see the message. It does not mean that the file is restricted - that should be made clear. So either RS has decided to put some sort of timer on it, or lots of people are downloading at work. Either way, it says fail for Rapidshare considering I have never encountered any sort of "download slot" issue with the other major hosts. Download timers, yes - and a few like Deposit Files which can often be more than an hour are ridiculous.

Wow, thanks for this Deep, it's a big help!