New Mac User needs help

[Patdro]

I am new to this site and am very impressed. Sorry to bother you, but if anyone can help i would greatly appreciate it.
there are certain files that are not recognized by my computer and others which seem to download fine. The problem I am having is that some files post as blank page to my desktop and not as a torrent. Sometimes this is accompanied by a text edit full of programmers code. Is this just a Mac issue or am I missing a program to help me open these files.

[bgoode]

When you download a torrent file, you need a program to open it and download the rest of it. There are a few around, Azureus is what I use on OS X. Read through some FAQs on bittorrent to get some more info.

[Patdro]

Thank you for the quick reply. I have the official bit torrent client which will open many of my files. I then use shorten or macflac to get the music. However, there are many files which will not go to the bit torrent client. When prompted to choose an application to open the file bittorrent is unavailable. I will try Azareus and see if it makes a difference. Thank you for the help, please add anything if you can.

[U2Lynne]

Hi Patdro, it might help if you can do a Get Info (apple + I) on these problem files and tell us what 'type' of files they are. We can then help you out. I run OS 10.3.7 and am familiar with Azureus, bittorrent, and tomato torrent.

Can I also suggest you ditch macflac and shorten and grab xACT. It's and all in one application for decoding/coding/extracting/whatever. Scott just put the latest version up on versiontracker, but he also maintains a yahoogroup which is linked in our FAQ.

[Patdro]

The files don't seem to be recognized. They post as blank documents on my desktop and are titled attachment.php and/or attachment 1.php. The info doesn't give any more detail than the extension which is php. I'm lost, but any help is so greatly appreciated.

[U2Lynne]

Go into your browser options/preferences and clear your cache. Then see what happens.

[Patdro]

Cleared my cookies, I hope that is what you meant by cache. The file now downloads and is still a blank document on the desktop, but now is labled with the name of the show. However, when I go to get the info I can now longer find out the type of file or extension. This is what is listed: U21989-12-31 - New Years At T 2. Sorry if I keep bugging you, but your help is appreciated and i am making progress.

[U2Lynne]

No, not cookies. I don't know what browser you use, so I can't tell you exactly how to do it.

OK, are you downloading the torrent file first? And then double clicking on it and selecting a folder to put it in? (And check to see if there are any seeds, if I recall, that U2 one didn't had any so I wouldn't try to download it).

[Patdro]

I'm on IE for mac.

[ffooky]

IE for Mac is bad news for torrent files whether downloading or uploading. Try using Safari or Firefox...99% to cure your problem.

[U2Lynne]

Yep, looks like the file name is too long or something and is getting truncated at the 31 characters. First, I would *strongly* suggest ditching IE in favor of firefox. Tabbed browsing and extensions are where it's at!

But, if not, I would check your File Helpers and make sure it is set up to handle torrent files. Mime type: application/x-bittorent Perhaps set it to open with your bittorrent client and see if that helps out.

[willndmb]

xact will tell you that you used the wrong passwrod when installing, just drag and drop the porgram into you apps folderand it will work

[Patdro]

Thank you all for the help, everything seems to be working much better. This site rocks!!