(1) The first thing you should do is join a room, which ever one takes your fancy . This will help make the network strong and also get a network in place for when we need to act in a concerted manner.
Another benefit of this, is the source of uncorrupted files, that are held by fellow room members.

(2) Install Peer Guardian and make sure it is active and has our block list installed with it, when your using WinMX. This will ensure that you cannot connect to many of the flooders, the Peer Guardian list is updated very regularly, so dont think that its not woth your time . Get it here The New Peerguardian
How To Install Peer Guardian 2
Once you have PeerGuardian set up its vital that you add the current block lists and allows lists we have.  For instructions see Block The RIAA
How To Install Peer Guardian 2
New Peer guardian2 releases are quite regular these last few weeks so keep a eye out..
                                                                   
(3) Use our simple guide to connect to Open Nap , this is always a source of good, non fake files, and trust me it really is easy, as its already built into WinMX. Follow the pictures for easy connection Open Nap.

(4) Another way to get around some of the fakes in your searches is to use a little trick they aren't taking advantage of as yet.  For most files, putting a -c: -user in the second bar of your searches and the artist or title in the top bar.  This eliminates a HUGE majority of the flooding results.  



Then, find a file to download and click on it.  Once you have downloaded more then 3,000 bytes of the file or you are in "que" you can be fairly sure its a REAL file.  Right click the file in your transfers screen, choose "Search For Alternatives".  
That will then return you to your search screen with the artist and title in the top bar and a long HASH> number in the second (that files ID number on WinMX).  As you get more results in that search click on them and add them to your download to increase the number of real users your getting the file from.
For a visual how to on this go to: How to search with HASHES.

(5) Do a "Whois" of the person you wish to download from, BEFORE starting any download, most of the fakers are sharing 3OOO files and have stupidly large amounts of slots open. Or"Browse" them, dont waste your time on these people, a simple check like this will save you much time and annoyance, as well as reducing the load they place on the network. See here for an example of a fake set of files.


 

(6) Right click on your download as your getting it, and select Play, this will allow you to confirm its the correct file. Also if your getting an album wrapped title (ALBW) , you can try opening the track listing once you have a  few % of the download , to check its the right file.  To do this go to your incomplete file and open it with your AlbaWrap Extractor program and it will show you a list of the contents of that file.

AlbaWrap Extractor


(7) When you obtain a real copy of a file that, remember to share it so others like yourself, can aviod having to waste time sorting real from fake.
(Please resist the urge to write "Real" or "Not Fake" in the file name, as the flooders do this too).

(8) If you are experiencing difficulty with your connection please be aware that a patch exists for Secondary network users. This will help filter out a small problem that can limit your room listing and cause you to be disconnected , get it here. KM's Secondary Connection Patch for 3.53

Look for the "WinMX Patch", this will go into your C:\Program files\Winmx\ folder and should be called olepro32.dll .  Restart your WinMX and it will begin its operation without you noticing a thing.

(9) Often when you become aware of the problem of the fake files you already have several of these fakes in your incompletes.  This can create serious problems for your WinMX and has caused some people to have crashes of both WinMX and their system. The best thing to do is to delete all incomplete files with less than 10% downloaded.  Begin using these tips on this page to get new ones. Often times these files automatically find sources when you start up your WinMX and get the same avalanche of users as some searches get, this causes serious problems for your WinMX and often crashes.

It is also advised that you not use the same folder for your downloads to go into as your sharing.  A seperate folder serves two useful purposes.
One, it allows you a "Safety Net" so to speak where you can scan all your downloads with your antivirus, always recommended to be on the safe side.
Two, it lets you have a place to store your incomplete files without sharing them.  Sharing incomplete files is usually not a good idea as it only increases the number of incompletes being circulated across the network, as you might imagine its frustrating to only be able to find peices of a file you want.
To see how to change your incoming file folder click Here.



(10) Some People have reported that changing the "Preffered Peer Cache" setting to one of the other 5 servers, used to connect you to the network, can be beneficial in obtaining a room listing. This also, is found in WinMX Settings, under "WinMX Peer Network", as usual a restart will make this change operational.

(11) ISP blocking. This is a new phenomenon to WinMX also, but the normal ways to counter such problems are to change ports to ones not used by WinMX, (6699 tcp, and 6257 udp are your default ones), not using those ports will give you a good chance to avoid the blocking systems they use.

Your ports can be changed by going into WinMX Settings up top and looking for "Incoming Tcp", and "In/Out Udp Packets". I cant give you much in the way of guidance on what you should use, because the more variation in the ports we all use, the harder it is to shut down our network (pick a number between 0 and 65535) . In most cases I suggest going to lower numbers that are used by things such as E-mail, MSN, web pages, and many other services that it would be wise for the ISP not to block.
List of Ports you may wish to try

Once you have changed the ports restart WinMX for the change to take effect.

(12) Do Not under any circumstances use WinMX to trade Wma format files as these contain identifying information that can lead straight back to your machine. Play safe and rip to mp3s only.

(13) Something a lot of people are overlooking, is that leaving the search box open on one of these flooded titles will drop all your primary connections, by tying up all the network.
Click Stop as soon as the files go over 1000 and refine your search, by bitrate, title , connection type, and use the filter -user as described above. Otherwise your doing their "dirty work" for them.

A few folks have mentioned this aspect of the flooding, so close those search boxes after searching and press Stop quickly if it looks like its going to "avalanche".


(14) Not sure if a file is fake? Never risk downloading and testing it. They could be running a TCP viewer and logging IP's.
When doing a search and getting thousands of results, click the "User" bar in the header of the search window. That will put all users names in alphabetical order. Common sense would tell you that no user, should not be sharing 20+ copies of the same song, regardless of how it is named.
Also watch for the same name and hash with a multitude of connection types. i.e. User name: Disturbed426_89476 should not be connected as DSL, Cable and T1 with the same exact ID.

(15) Your not sure about a video file ? Use Vlc player or Avi Preview to preview the file as its downloading, get them from here:
VideoLan

AVI Preview

(16) Last but not least , it has been noticed that some downloads are Honeypots , this means that you can download the first 2719 bytes and after that you will receive a File Mismatch error.  File Mismatch errors can happen on a real file as well, the key is the low amount of bytes downloaded.  If this happens its also more than likely a fake, best to delete it and start again with a new Real file.



We hope the information in this document helps you, to avoid the masses of fakes and lets you get the files you are looking for.