More Awesome Than You!

Here is an exceedingly "dumb ass" type of question... what does it mean to have an arrred game? And if it is what I think it is, where can I find them? Any help greatly appreciated XD

ARRRR, matey!  An arr'd game is pirated.  Download µTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com) and find any game you want at www.thepiratebay.org.  Installation instructions are in the FAQ:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7437.msg208008.html#msg208008

That's what I thought they were but wanted to be sure XD

Yet another dumb newb question... what does it mean by "legally backed up" in the FAQ? As in truly is legal for us to be using this or...? :P Just want to know what I'm getting myself into

It is, technically, illegal to pirate a game .iso you have not paid for. However, EA sucks rocks.

Mkay... let me rephrase that LOL... what is the likeliness of getting caught in using this 'legal backup'? XD

Thanx for the help, btw. I love this site. What got my hooked was the Sim Store thread, so thanx for the tight knit community and whatnot

Make sure you have a good firewall, and never, ever allow anything you've pirated to connect to the internet.  Do not expect the game company to provide you with technical support.  Also, make sure you turn on the encryption protocols to "forced" in the preferences section of µTorrent, and you should be fine.  Have fun!

BastDawn, why should we turn on the encryption protocols to "forced"? I'm curious. I did it, because I trust what you say. It's been disabled in the past when I've downloaded stuff. I bet that's not a good thing.

It's the most paranoid response, and thus the best.  It also makes it difficult for your ISP to figure out what you are doing.  Your privacy is too important to allow anything less.

Thanks for the tip. I had mine set to 'enabled', but if you say 'forced' is better, then forced it shall be.

Not that I download much in the way of torrented games, but whatever.  ;)

There's an option in preferences called 'randomise port on each startup' - would someone be kind enough to explain that (this stuff I am not savvy about)?  Is it good to use that randomise option? 

Yes, if you have an ISP that's smart enough to slow traffic on the standard torrent ports.  However, you have to be sure your router has Upnp enabled, so it'll know to pass torrent traffic through to the new port.

Right next to that drop-box is a check box that says "allow incoming legacy connections". Should we uncheck this box since we are being as paranoid as possible?

I did, and my torrents didn't slow.  So yes, uncheck it.

Thank you, and while I'm being paranoid but not doing anything, is the firewall that comes with windows (xp on my desktop) good in your opinion?

The encryption protocols can also help alleviate traffic shaping imposed by some ISPs (here's looking at you, Comcast...). Depending on your ISP and setup, Encryption == More Quicker.

I just picked a random port for each of my PCs, that seems to work fine. I don't have Upnp enabled. I read somewhere having Upnp enabled was not such a good thing, but I can't remember why.  :D

A Flash script can easily hijack your router, if you have UPnP enabled.

http://www.gnucitizen.org/blog/flash-upnp-attack-faq/
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205800419

Prescription: Turn off UPnP on your router. Disabling Flash is also a good policy; if you use Firefox, install the FlashBlock extension, or other equivalent.

From the little I know the Windows firewall will block some incomeing stuff,  but it does not block out going stuff -- so it allows things to "phone home".

Comodo Firewall is nice.. bit complicated and can easily lead to you leaving yourself open if you let it default. With it set to paranoid it can be annoying in a different way because you cannot open a single program without it questioning if that is what you ment to do.

Zone Alarm is a old standby if you are looking for basic protection.
Both of the above are free and easily found by a Google search.

I would strongly recommend NOT getting anything with the name Norton on it.

With windows firewall alone you have put on a light coat to go out in zero degree weather...

Unfortunately, that's not always an option -- my DirecTV HD DVR connects to the computers to play audio and video files, but it fails to function if UPnP is turned off in the router. (Or more specifically, the video/audio sharing on the PCs fails if UPnP isn't enabled.)

All I have to add to this is that Comodo, once trained, is highly efficient and only asks for input with installers. I have not had a single piece of malware (okay, to be fair, I've only had two during my usage of PCs, and one of them came from BastDawn's Sims1 site back in the day  :D) since I have used it. Norton did let a trojan slip through and it was suck suck suckety suck. Norton should be boycotted like EA. Do not buy Norton suck.

Since the attacks are delivered through scripts in Flash, it's a good practice to whitelist your script-enabled domains. Again, either FlashBlock or NoScript won't display Flash objects in non-whitelisted sites.

I use McAffee, which comes included with Comcast Internet (though they aren't very public about it). Anti-virus is fine, though I really don't get to test it. I run scans with McAffee, Panda Active Scan, Ewido, and AdAware monthly and haven't gotten anything but cookies come up since I had Vundo almost two years ago. The firewall is great. I have it at Tight security and it is definitely blocking things and very paranoid about changes in Internet software (like MMORPGs). I wouldn't pay for it if I wasn't already, though.

Gah!  I'm so sorry.  My AngelFire site is teh suck.   >:(   I made myself a shiny new site over the weekend; I would have done it much sooner had I known.

Sucks for me.  I don't post much here, for I prefer to watch the roastings from afar.  But I was actually approaching the idea of posting nearly the same question: where does a novice go to brush up their pirate-y skills and stop supporting EAxis?  I finally caved today and got FT, needing to see what exactly I am missing out on.  Damn it all, and was hoping to find a, er, cheaper way to play when AL comes out.

I have Norton, and also a penchant for being attacked by viruses each time I make an attemp at getting my hot little hands on an arrred game.  Suppose I will need to change out my anti virus for something better?   >:(

These are probably two obvious suggestions, but I'll add them anyway: always read the comments on a torrent before downloading. If there aren't any, I usually err on the side of caution and look for a different one. Also, you aren't able to register an ARRR'd game on the official site. I know this sounds so obvious it's redundant, but I've read threads on other websites where people seemed surprised at this. *shrug* The Pirate Bay seems to be a relatively safe site for torrents. I've downloaded a few games and television episodes from there and haven't gotten anything dangerous yet.

Also, I'm interested to hear about other people's experiences with Comodo. I tried the most recent version, and it kept asking me so many questions that I finally had to yank the thing off my laptop. I did like the version prior to that, though.

ETA: I forgot to mention Peer Guardian. I'm not exactly sure how much good it does, but I've been using it for awhile now and haven't run into any problems yet. Link is here: http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/.

Second first -- get one of the free anti-virus programs out there.  Many of us like Avast!, which is free for personal use, not a resource hog, and works quite well.

To start on aaar! skills:  first, read the 'get rid of SecuROM' thread at the top of this forum, then get yourself over to gamecopyworld to get a no-cd.exe for your game and use only that.  Then, look into torrent clients (uTorrent is quite popular), and read the FAQ and general instructions on their website. TorrentFreak also has some good basic info and tutorials on setting up, securing and speeding up the client.  As suggested above, The Pirate Bay is a good source for finding reliable torrents when you're ready.

At least I can say I have my ass covered in regards to the No cd biz, just started with BV.  I get a little squirrelly downloading files from new places and the paranoia kicks in.  I will spend the afternoon today doing some light reading on torrents though, and checking out this Pirate bay.  Maybe I will be swashbucklin' in no time.  Or maybe not.

If the popups really bother you, you can tweak Defense+ to monitor less stuff or you can "permanently" disable Defense+.  Disabling Defense+ will still allow the firewall to function but you will occasionally see a Defense+ as leak protection.

As for my experiences with the Comodo, it works a lot better now then it did when I tried it several times in the past.  My biggest issue with it was that it "forgot" your configuration and it even loses its preset schemes such as "Trusted Application".  They only recently fixed this issue, and the bug still exists in the 2 series IIRC.

Look for torrents by Demonoid, ViTaLiTy, and Reality if you have a choice. Again, read comments. If the thing is a bogus torrent and has a virus, people will complain...loudly.

Another dumb question: Has AL been ARRR'd yet? I've been looking for it but I've only seen things that could be fake... it's only 5 days till release date, I figured there should be somehting by now?

When there is a real Arrr'd AL, perhaps someone will PM me.  I'm too lazy to bookmark.  I am hoping that by the time AL has been taken care of I will have done enough of my research to not be such a pansy about downloading it. Yar.

On that last note, why no pirate emoticon?  One with a little eye patch would do fine.

Yeah, I'm sure someone will be glad to PM you with that.
And include a link for your convenience. Heck, someone will be happy to come right to your house and set it all up for you.

We don't mind doing all the work for lazy people here, no indeedy.

Oh, and someone will get right on that emoticon for you, too.

All it does is talk about how much it sucks. I'm beginning to believe it.

People in the factories can steal it and leak it. Some people have gotten the game early by lamost a week before so it wouldn't surprise me if it was Arrr'd a couple of days before reease date. I know plenty of stores that has it early but just won't sell it till release date. So there you go!

Torrents suck. You need to share with people.

Usenet rules. You don't need to share.

ah yes, here are the big pointy sticks I kept hearing about - craftily disguised as sarcasm.  Mmm tasty.  Good thing my humor had been so obvious, or you'd have thought I actually expected a PM and emoticon.

Alright, so the uTorrent guides have lost me some. Where would I find which port to forward to when downloading one of the sims2 games?

The port that you forward to is the one that you told your BitTorrent client to use.

Doesn't that require a monthly payment? That kind of defeats the purpose for me! People down under are getting the game, hopefully someone will Arrr it and put it up soon!

Ah, the old, "I was joking and you didn't get it!", defense.
When in doubt, go with the classics.

Wow! Bitter much? Calm down... There are private "clans" out there you know? That you can only access their Arrred work with an invite? And if you read my post carefully you would see that I pointed out that I've seen a couple of files come and go 'cause they're FAKE! There was this one that kept on getting reposted and I was wondering if the size is inaccurate because they uploaded The sims 2 All-in instead or just the ep. It just seems to be another fake though.

Anyways, people are starting to get the game early so hopefully someon will ARRR it soon.

*pokes virgali for not only playing that Drag Cave crap, but hiding it behind a tinyurl*
I'm getting sick of AdBlocking it.

I totally forgot it was there and I was too lazy delete it when I realised it was still there. I don't come here often and even when I do I rarely post so if you've been seeing them all the time then it must've been from other people.

I didn't "hide them" behind a tiny url, what's with you people and you're weird assumptions about people? When I first got them you could choose between 4 codes and one of the four is a tiny url. I used the tiny here so I could fit all 4.

So I guess those are prohibited now too? I'll take them out no worries...

@Tasha I do know what bitter means and when I see people reacting like you did on something so insignificant I do see them as bitter. That was simply overreacting and not necessary.

Anyways off to delete my dragons. As I predicted (since this has been the case with every expansion) some people got the game early (Australia) so hopefully someone will put it up soon.

Lies and propaganda. All the people claiming to "have it early" are EAxis company plants trying to stir up some last-minute guerrilla advertising. Also, all Virgalis suck.

They posted pics Pes... nevermind. I just got really excited about trying out the witches since I liked the vampires so much. I also build appartment like buildings occassionally but they were never really practical since they were made belief and not the real deal. I once had a sim exiting his appartment, take an elevator and go to the landlord's chambers to wash a plate! ::)
So I'm waiting impatiently for the Arrred version.

The reason I don't buy  the games anymore is al because EA and its stupid Securom Policy. I've bought all the EP's and Stuff Packs besides Ikea. I finally "woke up" and decide thy won't get anymore of MY money! Especially since they made it pretty clear with Sims 2 shop thing that unless the sales go down they will be keeping on doing thins their way.

/rant I'm off to worship the Gods of Metal \m/

Waah waah waah. Sheesh. I was poking. Way to take things much too seriously and get all emo about it.

Apartment life is now available for download on torrent & warez forums by reloaded.

edit: Any RS or MS subers can get it at projectw/warezbb or other warez forums

No seeders in the swarm for AL...stuck at 5% with the other 300 schmucks...

No-cd.exe is up on gamecopyworld for those who buy it.

How can you do that for Azureus / Vuze?

I have no idea.  Go to their websites and find out.

I didn't take anything too seriously. I simply pointed out that your assumption about me "hiding" the url is wrong that's all. I couldn't care less and I took them out. lol Seriously and calling me "emo" what are you 13? I don't listen to the music neither do I wear the style just so you know.
@Tash in that case you were being a bitch then. Ok Now I understand sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. I am just surprised that people still don't realise there's a long chain of events leading to the games being delivered to the stores in the first place. So your comment about looking up for a torrent of a game that hasn't been released yet doesn't sound too smart now does it?

Seriously I didn't come here to start up a fight or to act superiour to anybody. If you got ofended by anythign I said then my bad sorry. If you think me responding to you and explaining to claims you've done about me in your post is "whining", well you are intitled to your opinion. It doesn't bother me. ;D

Anyways it seems that the game is finally ARRRed. I'm waiting to see if people will post more comments about the torrents, they seem legit to me tho...
Eddit: nvm I didn't pay enough attention and the post that said it's been posted! Thanx  ;D

I arrred AL last night from isohunt.com, (Reloaded). Very well seeded and no viruses, good serials and a no CD crack included. I use Prevx and AVG Free Antivirus and neither of them made a peep.

I use Vuze and no problems, knock wood. Isohunt has a secure site you can use too, but I always use Vidalia and Privoxy.

I would feel guilty about it if SecuROM on BV hadn't cost me a couple hundred bucks and two weeks to get my computer straightened out.  >:( Screw EA.

Encryption on Vuze?  Just go to the Options page, expand Connection, and click Transport Encryption.  Check "Require Encrypted Transport" and set the Minimum Encryption Level to RC4.  Apparently "Plain" is incompatible with microTorrent (Their documation is horrible compared to Azureus so I'm not sure) and it only encrypts the header so don't bother using it.  If you want to allow non-encrypted connections select the applicable box, and if you're super paranoid check the "use cryptoport" checkbox so the data will always be sent to you fully encrypted.

One last thing, you need to be in Intermediate mode or Advanced mode to configure Transport Encryption.  If you selected Beginner, just run the configuration wizard again and select Advanced this time.

baas to aggie and the #grahs for pointing out that TPB's RELOADED is there and working like a treat - it DLed in great time for me, lots of seeders.

Thanks very much for this info.  :)

Well, now I am back to wanting to try it so I can get my lil hands on AL. I am good to go on the actual pirating part, but I don't want to download until I know for certain SecuROM is gone... I tried following Venusy's tutorial and I see numerous questions ahead... I think I'll ask my first one and see whether or not I am stoned or if I get an answer LOL

In the first one it asks me for a computer specific code (#1, * Part 2 ripped from a website) and I am so clueless on how to find the registry. I have downloaded all of the software that is listed on the page, but me being a minimal computer nerd, I don't know if "run" is the same as "command".  So basically, how do I find the code, how do I get to the registry, and is run the same as command?

Also, if there is someone who would be willing to walk me through the process this one time on AIM, I would be so super greatful. Seriously, I'll name my first **sim** child after you and make a shrine in his/her home XD

What are you talking about, you mean you want to be sure your computer is free of SecuROM or you want to be sure the download of AL is free of it? If you think you have SecuROM then go through the process described in the SecuROM thread here. As for AL, just torrent it and install as usual, then don't launch the game after installing, choose quit. Go to your mounted disc and choose Explore, and you should find a folder that says Crack. Inside will be the cracked Sims2EP8.exe file, replace the one in your newly installed AL folder (C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSBin) with that one and run the game from that file. No SecuROM! It only gets loaded when you launch the game from the original Sims2EP8.exe.

Look for a Reloaded torrent.

Sorry I wasn't clear  :-[ I was trying to say that the SecuROM threads were not making sense to me since I'm kind computer illiterate once it gets to registries, etc. but I had someone point out that all I need is a CD crack. I was also saying that I wanted SecuROM off my computer before I put on an arrred files, but with a CD crack there is no need to remove it (as far as I've been told).

So I am now getting a CD crack sometime tonight and I am downloading an EP over the course of the day (though it may take several nights of leaving the internet running and torrent working its little butt off XD) Thank you for the help!

The no-CD crack is only for keeping SecuROM from installing itself in the first place.  If you already have SecuROM on your computer, you still have to remove it, or there's no point in using the crack.

This is explained pretty clearly in the first post of the "How to get rid of SecuROM, NOW" thread.

Boo.

My Google-fu and search-fu are weak.  ;D  So at the risk of getting poked with pointy sticks -- where can I find a safe arrr'ed copy of H&M?  I read in this thread to search the Pirate Bay, and to look for versions by Reloaded, Vitality, etc., but could not find any by them. :-\

You can usually tell from the comments whether a torrent is trustworthy or not.

This is true, I rarely download something with no comments on it.  Also, the only site I truly 'trust' is Demonoid.  I haven't personally had that much experience with Pirate Bay.

The only ones I can find on Pirate Bay with any *useful* comments make it clear they have worms/viruses.  I thank you for restraining yourselves from poking me with pointy sticks, though my next question will probably earn those.  Is anyone here willing to share? *ducks

In the meantime, I'll take your advice and search Demonoid, though I must say I'm getting mighty discouraged from the fruitless Google searches.  I'm on the verge of giving up my would-be pirating career already, and I've been at it less than five hours.  ;D

Edit:  If anyone cares (and I'm guessing no), I found nothing on Demonoid.  I've given up my budding pirate career for now as well (except for the Booty, naturally).  Life's too bloody short.  ;D

I usually get the EP or Stuff Pack right after it comes out. That way there's lots of seeders and it doesn't take forever for it to download. I downloaded AL right away but I still haven't installed it.

I can't help you with H&M, I got it from a friend.  Good luck.

Try one of these, TorrentReactor, bitdig, usenext. TorrentFinder helps a lot.

If you still can't find a working torrent for H&M, you can always pick one of those torrents that has all EPs and SPs and download only the file you need. You can select which files you want to download and which to skip in your torrent client.

I did try TorrentReactor, etc., etc., but didn't know I could choose which file to download in the complete ones (although their weren't a lot of useful comments in those either).  Really, thanks for the tips everyone -- I'll keep them in mind if I decide to restart my pirate career.  ;D

My patience is minimal (too much going on in RL), so I finally caved and bought it.  ::)

Okay so, own computer, encryption on, watch the comments, make sure the firewall and antivirus are on. I'm still a little scared to do this since it's the school network I'm connected to, but do you think I'm ready?

(I'd wait until November when I'll be home for a bit, but apparently AT&T is testing bandwidth caps too...)

As long as you have protocol encryption on, you should be fine on the school's network.

Awesome.

I'm a long time lurker, and am finally getting the guts to start torrenting. My only problem is that I have an ARRed copy of Windows XP, thanks to my ex, and because of that I  do not have ServicePack 2, which means I cannot download the Comodo Firewall, amongst other things. Any suggestions on some good firewalls that don't require me to have SP2 or a way that I can obtain SP2? Sorry for all the questions, I'm a little stupid when it comes to these kinds of things.  :P

http://www.heise.de/ct/projekte/offlineupdate/download_uk.shtml

Try this, it may help.

Thanks so much, I'm trying it now  :) I'll update and let you know if it works or not.

EDIT: Nope, unfortunately it didn't. Looks like I'm going to have to contact the ex :P

A proper Arr'd copy of Windows should have no problem getting service packs. Sorry to ask a stupid question but have you -tried- downloading the service packs through windows, or are you assuming you can't get them? If it doesn't work you need a better copy. Since I'm feeling helpful, here ya go: Link to Torrent (http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4131038/Windows_XP_Professional_with_SP2_ISO__Pre-activated__and_key_inc)

I haven't used that specific copy, I don't remember where I got mine, but according to the comments there the activation is already included with the install, so it shouldn't turn up as non-genuine. If you have to go hunting or you don't like the linked one, any copy that's pre-activated should be fine, and the ".iso" format is the easiest to get burned onto a disk. (Other formats sometimes require a specific burning program, which you could also Arr, but I'm reasonably sure you can use .iso with the basic programs everyone tends to have.)

I don't think it's possible to update your current installation with the new disk, but I'm not very experienced at all in that regard, so maybe someone else will chime in. But I do know that if you backup your files, reformat, and reinstall, this will take care of it.

No, I've tried to download them, and can't. I'll try torrenting that tomorrow and see where it gets me, but I'm not too computer literate, even when it comes to something as simple as re-installing windows. But thanks everyone for all the help, I greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: I actually was able to get Service Pack 2, thanks to some savvy friends, since it turns out I wouldn't have been able to use Daemon tools without it XD

Edit: Found a more appropriate place to post about this. Apologies for the necromancy.

hello from from the NECROMANCER
HEHEHEHEHE *(evil laugh)
did you think this (http://www.cyberbazaar.info/2009/05/sims-3.html) is an arrrrrrrrrrrrrr game ?
if is it so don't touch it .. i willn't  just 'cause i've ordered it from play.com :P

You give us a link - many hours after we've already had links to better known sites posted - and then tell us not to touch it?  I've never heard of cyberbazaar, so I prefer to use one of the already posted links to mininova or demonoid or TPB.

People who have downloaded it already and have played it are discussing it in the TS3 thread, and the consensus seems to be "fugly piece of crap that is not worth paying for".

one things for sure, it's a peace of crap.... crap :-\