Advanced search With Napster, you can run keyword searches on thousands of music files shared by Napster users. To get to the Search area, click the Search button in the Napster navigation bar. You'll see the "Artist" and "Title" fields in the upper left corner.
Basic search
Here's how to use the basic Napster search options.
- Artist
Use this field to search by artist name. Type a minus sign (-) right before any terms you'd like to exclude from your search. - Title
Use this field to search by song title. Type a minus sign (-) right before any terms you'd like to exclude from your search. - Find It!
Click this button to start the Napster search engine on its search. - Advanced
Click this button to display the advanced search options.
You can search by typing just an artist's name, or you can type just a title. Entering both an artist's name and a title will give you the most precise search results. To exclude titles containing certain terms from your results, type a minus sign (-) right before each term you want excluded. If you want to exclude more than one term, type a minus sign before each of those terms.
For example, entering the search term "Primitive" will return results for Napster Featured Artists Primitive Reason AND Primitive Radio Gods. If you don't want to see results for Primitive Reason, simply type "Primitive -Reason" in the "Artist" field.
Search results
Your search results will appear in the main window. To start a transfer, double-click a file name.
How Napster searches
The Napster search engine looks through the files shared by Napster users currently logged on for files names containing your search terms. Napster first searches files from users connected to the same Napster server to which you were randomly assigned when you logged on. If the Napster search engine finds fewer than 100 matches, it moves on to other Napster servers to search file names there. The search engine stops looking after it has found 100 matches, or after it has searched for 15 seconds, whichever happens first.
Search results data
If you see file names that interest you, take a look at the information in the search results before starting transfers.
Filename
Find the MP3 or WMA file names that interest you. Filesize
This number gives the file's size in bytes. The bigger the file, the longer it will take to transfer.
Bitrate
This number tells you the file's sound quality in kilobytes per second. A higher bitrate means better audio fidelity and a larger file.
User
Shows the user name of the person sharing the file. You can send this user an Instant Message by right-clicking the user name, then choosing Instant Message.
Frequency
The frequency is the number of sound samples per second. The frequency of most compressed audio files is 44,000 kHz.
Length
This number tells you how long the file will play, in minutes and seconds.
Connection
Here, you can see the connection speed of the user sharing this file. If you're using a fast Internet connection, you may get faster transfers from users who have cable, DSL, T1, or T3+. If you're using a modem, you'll get similar results with any speed.
Ping
This number shows the time it takes to send data between your computer and the computer sharing this file. A lower ping time is better.
Once you've taken in all the information and chosen the file you want to download, double-click it. You'll be taken immediately to the Transfer area to watch it download. Interacting with search results
Right-clicking the search results will bring up a menu with these options:
Download
With this option, you can start a file download from the search window. Instant Message
Send this user an Instant Message.
Add to Hot List
Add this user to your Hot List.
Browse Files
Browse this user's shared files.
View User Information
View basic information about this user.
Clear Results
Clear all search results currently in the window.
Advanced search options
The fields that appear when you click the "Advanced" button give you some ways to define your search.
Each search option has two pull-down menus. The first menu lets you define the search options ("AT LEAST," "EQUAL TO," or "AT BEST"), and the second menu lets you set the search value.
- Bitrate
Allows you to filter your search by the bitrate of the files. A higher bitrate means better audio fidelity, but also a larger file that may take longer to transfer. - Connection
Allows you to filter your search by the connection speed of the user sharing the file. Files usually transfer faster from users with higher connection speeds. - Ping Time
Allows you to filter your search by the current ping time between you and a user. - Ping Search Results check box
With this box checked, the Napster search engine will ping the users sharing files with names that match your search terms and display the ping times in the search results. Uncheck this box if you don't want the search engine to ping users.
