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General - Top


I've lost my user name or password! Can you send it to me?

Please use this form to have the login details mailed back to you.


What's a "passkey"?

A passkey is a 32 characters key associated with your account that uniquely identifies you as a user. When a .torrent file is downloaded from your account, the passkey is automatically added to the announce URL in the .torrent file.


So, what's MY ratio?

Click on your profile, then on your user name (at the top).


Why is my IP displayed on my details page?

Only you and the site moderators can view your IP address and email. Regular users do not see that information.


Help! I cannot login!? (a.k.a. Login of Death)

This problem sometimes occurs with MSIE. Close all Internet Explorer windows and open Internet Options in the control panel. Click the Delete Cookies button. You should now be able to login.


My IP address is dynamic. How do I stay logged in?

You do not have to anymore. All you have to do is make sure you are logged in with your actual IP when starting a torrent session. After that, even if the IP changes mid-session, the seeding or leeching will continue and the statistics will update without any problem.


Why am I listed as not connectable? (And why should I care?)

The tracker has determined that you are firewalled or NATed and cannot accept incoming connections. This means that other peers in the swarm will be unable to connect to you, only you to them. Even worse, if two peers are both in this state they will not be able to connect at all. This has obviously a detrimental effect on the overall speed. The way to solve the problem involves opening the ports used for incoming connections (the same range you defined in your client) on the firewall and/or configuring your NAT server to use a basic form of NAT for that range instead of NAPT (the actual process differs widely between different router models. Check your router documentation and/or support forum. You will also find lots of information on the subject at PortForward)


Why can't my friend become a member?

There is a user limit. When that number is reached we stop accepting new users so no new members can join. Inactive accounts are pruned all the time, so keep trying. (There is no reservation or queuing system, don't ask for that.)


How do I add an avatar to my profile?

First, find an image that you like, and that is within the rules. Then you will have to find a place to host it, such as Photobucket or ImageShack). All that is left to do is copy the URL you were given when uploading it to the avatar field in your profile.


When are accounts auto-pruned?

  • Unparked accounts are pruned when 28 days have elapsed since the last recorded activity. Parked accounts are pruned when 56 days have elapsed since the last recorded activity. Also note that we regularly clean out accounts with very low share ratios.
  • Inj. Reserve accounts are pruned after 4 weeks
  • Accounts with nothing uploaded/ downloaded are pruned after 4 weeks



    • What are the different user classes?

      Inj. Reserve   LightWeights with a ratio below .50 & who downloaded more than 1 GB for 1 week (7 days) will be warned to correct their ratio. They wll be able to seed/leech 2 torrents. If they don't fix their ratio after 2 weeks they will be automatically demoted to Ink. Reserve and limited to 1 torrent max. Ink. Resreves will have 2 weeks to increase their ratio or their account will be disabled.
      LightWeight   The default class of new members.
      MiddleWeight   When you've been a member for 4 weeks and have uploaded more than 50GB and have a ratio of 1.05 or above, you will automatically become Middleweight.
      Star   Has donated money to and is immune to automatic demotion.
      HeavyWeight   Same privileges as MiddleWeight. Immune to automatic demotion.
      All Star   Same as MiddleWeight and is considered an Elite Member of . Is also immune to automatic demotion.
      All Pro   Customised title.
      Referee   Can edit and delete any uploaded torrents. Can also moderate user comments and disable accounts.
      Network Executives   Can do just about anything.
      C.E.O   The Grease in this machine!



    How does this promotion thing work anyway?

      MiddleWeight   Must have been be a member for at least 4 weeks, have uploaded at least 50GB and have a ratio at or above 1.05.
    The promotion is automatic when these conditions are met. Note that you will be automatically demoted from
    this status if your ratio drops below 0.95 at any time.
      Star   Just donate. The Gb's are auto added to your account after your donation. There is now no need to PM anyone
      HeavyWeight   Assigned by Network Executives at their discretion to users they feel contribute something special to the site.
    (Anyone begging for HeavyWeight status will be automatically disqualified.)
      All Star   Appointed by Network Executives/C.E.O.s.
      All Pro   Conferred by Network Executives/C.E.Os at their discretion (not available to LightWeights or MiddleWeights).
      Referee   You don't ask us, we'll ask you!


    Stats - Top


    Most common reason for stats not updating

  • The user is cheating. (a.k.a. "Summary Ban")
  • The server is overloaded and unresponsive. Just try to keep the session open until the server responds again. (Flooding the server with consecutive manual updates is not recommended.)
  • You are using a faulty client. If you want to use an experimental or CVS version you do it at your own risk.



    • Best practices

  • If a torrent you are currently leeching/seeding is not listed on your profile, just wait or force a manual update.
  • Make sure you exit your client properly, so that the tracker receives "event=completed".
  • If the tracker is down, do not stop seeding. As long as the tracker is back up before you exit the client the stats should update properly.



    • May I use any bittorrent client?

    No. We only allow certain clients, mostly in their newest versions. Recommended clients are utorrent and Azureus / Vuze


    Why is a torrent I'm leeching/seeding listed several times in my profile?

    If for some reason (e.g. pc crash, or frozen client) your client exits improperly and you restart it, it will have a new peer_id, so it will show as a new torrent. The old one will never receive a "event=completed" or "event=stopped" and will be listed until some tracker timeout. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.


    I've finished or cancelled a torrent. Why is it still listed in my profile?

    Some clients, notably TorrentStorm and Nova Torrent, do not report properly to the tracker when canceling or finishing a torrent. In that case the tracker will keep waiting for some message - and thus listing the torrent as seeding or leeching - until some timeout occurs. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.


    Why do I sometimes see torrents I'm not leeching in my profile!?

    When a torrent is first started, the tracker uses the IP to identify the user. Therefore the torrent will become associated with the user who last accessed the site from that IP. If you share your IP in some way (you are behind NAT/ICS, or using a proxy), and some of the persons you share it with are also users, you may occasionally see their torrents listed in your profile. (If they start a torrent session from that IP and you were the last one to visit the site the torrent will be associated with you). Note that now torrents listed in your profile will always count towards your total stats.

    To make sure your torrents show up in your profile you should visit the site immediately before starting a session.

    (The only way to completely stop foreign torrents from showing in profiles is to forbid users without an individual IP from accessing the site. Yes, that means you. Complain at your own risk.)



    Multiple IPs (Can I login from different computers?)

    Yes, the tracker is now capable of following sessions from different IPs for the same user. A torrent is associated with the user when it starts, and only at that moment is the IP relevant. So if you want to seed/leech from computer A and computer B with the same account you should access the site from computer A, start the torrent there, and then repeat both steps from computer B (not limited to two computers or to a single torrent on each, this is just the simplest example). You do not need to login again when closing the torrent.

    Uploading - Top


    Why can't I upload torrents?

    You probably do not have your bitTorrent client setup correctly. Make sure you have used the tracker's announce url and the information areas are filled in correctly.

    1) This is a guide explaining how to upload torrents using the BitTorrent client Azureus.

    • Download Azureus from here: 'Azureus.'
    • Go to the preferences (Azureus->Preferences).
    • In the "Server" page change the "Incoming TCP listen port" to a non Peer-to-Peer port (6879 will work).
    If you have a firewall make sure this port range is open in both directions.
    • Time to create a torrent to upload (File->Create a Torrent).
    • In the "Announce URL" put "".
    • Click the "Browse" button and find the file you want to share then click "Next".
    • Check to see if the right file is selected and click "Finish".
    • Voila, the torrent will be created where the file is.
    • Login to the site 'fullcontactzone.tv' and go to the "Upload" section.
    • In the "Torrent file" area click the "Browse" button and find the torrent file then click "Open".
    • In the "Torrent name" area type the name of the file if the name on the torrent is not descriptive.
    • In the "Description" area type a thorough description of the file. Make sure the description is complete and includes all relevant information. DO NOT POST SERIALS/CRACKS.
    • In the "Type" area choose the type of file by clicking on the pull down menu. Make sure the file is under the correct type. • Right now, you have to upload an .nfo file as well. Easiest way to make one is to create a new .txt file, fill in the information and then rename it to .nfo.
    • Check over the following steps and if everything is correct click the "Do it!" button.
    • Time to seed the torrent: download the torrent off the site, click "Open"(File->Open->.torrent File), and find the downloaded torrent. You will not be able to seed the torrent created by the client because of the passkey that needs to be embedded in the torrent.

    It will take a couple minutes for your torrent to appear in the "Browse" section.


    What rules must I follow to keep my upload rights?

    • All uploads must include a detailed description.
    • No nasty files!
    • All files must be in a legitimate format so they are functional.
    • Pre-release stuff should be labeled with an *ALPHA* or *BETA* tag.
    • Make sure not to include any serial numbers, CD keys or similar in the description (you do not need to edit the NFO!).
    • Make sure your torrents are well-seeded for at least 24 hours or until there are at least 3 seeders other than yourself.
    Also, you should have at least 1MBit upload bandwidth for files bigger than 1.4GB (2CDs).
    • Do not include the release date in the torrent name.

    If you have something interesting that somehow violates these rules, ask a mod and we might make an exception.


    Can I upload your torrents to other trackers?

    No. We are a closed, limited-membership community. Only registered users can use FullContactZone. Posting our torrents on other trackers is useless, since most people who attempt to download them will be unable to connect with us. This generates a lot of frustration and bad-will against FullContactZone, and will therefore not be tolerated.

    Complaints from other sites' administrative staff about our torrents being posted on their sites will result in the banning of the users responsible.

    However, the files you download from us are yours to do as you please. You can always create another torrent, pointing to some other tracker, and upload it to the site of your choice.

    Downloading - Top


    Why did an active torrent suddenly disappear?

    There may be three reasons for this:
    (1) The torrent may have been out-of-sync with the site rules.
    (2) The uploader may have deleted it because it was a bad release. A replacement will probably be uploaded to take its place.
    (3) Torrents are automatically deleted after 3 days of inactivity.


    How do I resume a broken download or reseed something?

    Open the .torrent file. When your client asks you for a location, choose the location of the existing file(s) and it will resume/reseed the torrent. If you set a "default download locations" you may have to open the torrent with "no default save" in utorrent.


    Why do my downloads sometimes stall at 99%?

    The more pieces you have, the harder it becomes to find peers who have pieces you are missing. That is why downloads sometimes slow down or even stall when there are just a few percent remaining. Just be patient and you will, sooner or later, get the remaining pieces.


    What are these "a piece has failed an hash check" messages?

    Bittorrent clients check the data they receive for integrity. When a piece fails this check it is automatically re-downloaded. Occasional hash fails are a common occurrence, and you shouldn't worry.

    Some clients have an (advanced) option/preference to 'kick/ban clients that send you bad data' or similar. It should be turned on, since it makes sure that if a peer repeatedly sends you pieces that fail the hash check it will be ignored in the future.


    The torrent is supposed to be 100MB. How come I downloaded 120MB?

    See the hash fails topic. If your client receives bad data it will have to redownload it, therefore the total downloaded may be larger than the torrent size. Make sure the "kick/ban" option is turned on to minimize the extra downloads.


    Why do I get a "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted" error?

    Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.

    FCZ does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).

    The blocked ports list include, but is not neccessarily limited to, the following:

    Direct Connect
    411 - 413
    Kazaa
    1214
    eDonkey
    4662
    Gnutella
    6346 - 6347
    BitTorrent
    6881 - 6889

    In order to use use our tracker you must configure your client to use any port range that does not contain those ports (a range within the region 49152 through 65535 is preferable, cf. IANA). Notice that some clients, like Azureus 2.0.7.0 or higher, use a single port for all torrents, while most others use one port per open torrent. The size of the range you choose should take this into account (typically less than 10 ports wide. There is no benefit whatsoever in choosing a wide range, and there are possible security implications).

    These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker. Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact it should increase your speed with torrents from any tracker, not just ours). Your client will also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports. If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.

    Do not ask us, or in the forums, which ports you should choose. The more random the choice is the harder it will be for ISPs to catch on to us and start limiting speeds on the ports we use. If we simply define another range ISPs will start throttling that range also.

    Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in your firewall, should you have them. See the Why am I listed as not connectable? section and links therein for more information on this.


    What's this "IOError - [Errno13] Permission denied" error?

    If you just want to fix it reboot your computer, it should solve the problem. Otherwise read on.

    IOError means Input-Output Error, and that is a file system error, not a tracker one. It shows up when your client is for some reason unable to open the partially downloaded torrent files. The most common cause is two instances of the client to be running simultaneously: the last time the client was closed it somehow didn't really close but kept running in the background, and is therefore still locking the files, making it impossible for the new instance to open them.

    A more uncommon occurrence is a corrupted FAT. A crash may result in corruption that makes the partially downloaded files unreadable, and the error ensues. Running scandisk should solve the problem. (Note that this may happen only if you're running Windows 9x - which only support FAT - or NT/2000/XP with FAT formatted hard drives. NTFS is much more robust and should never permit this problem.)


    How can I improve my download speed?

    The download speed mostly depends on the seeder-to-leecher ratio (SLR). Poor download speed is mainly a problem with new and very popular torrents where the SLR is low.

    (Proselytising sidenote: make sure you remember that you did not enjoy the low speed. Seed so that others will not endure the same.)

    There are a couple of things that you can try on your end to improve your speed:


    Do not immediately jump on new torrents

    In particular, do not do it if you have a slow connection. The best speeds will be found around the half-life of a torrent, when the SLR will be at its highest. (The downside is that you will not be able to seed so much. It's up to you to balance the pros and cons of this.)


    Make yourself connectable

    See the Why am I listed as not connectable? section.


    Limit your upload speed

    The upload speed affects the download speed in essentially two ways:
    • Bittorrent peers tend to favour those other peers that upload to them. This means that if A and B are leeching the same torrent and A is sending data to B at high speed then B will try to reciprocate. So due to this effect high upload speeds lead to high download speeds.
    • Due to the way TCP works, when A is downloading something from B it has to keep telling B that it received the data sent to him. (These are called acknowledgements - ACKs -, a sort of "got it!" messages). If A fails to do this then B will stop sending data and wait. If A is uploading at full speed there may be no bandwidth left for the ACKs and they will be delayed. So due to this effect excessively high upload speeds lead to low download speeds.
    The full effect is a combination of the two. The upload should be kept as high as possible while allowing the ACKs to get through without delay. A good thumb rule is keeping the upload at about 80% of the theoretical upload speed. You will have to fine tune yours to find out what works best for you. (Remember that keeping the upload high has the additional benefit of helping with your ratio.)

    If you are running more than one instance of a client it is the overall upload speed that you must take into account. Some clients (e.g. Azureus) limit global upload speed, others (e.g. Shad0w's) do it on a per torrent basis. Know your client. The same applies if you are using your connection for anything else (e.g. browsing or ftp), always think of the overall upload speed.


    Limit the number of simultaneous connections

    Some operating systems (like Windows 9x) do not deal well with a large number of connections, and may even crash. Also some home routers (particularly when running NAT and/or firewall with stateful inspection services) tend to become slow or crash when having to deal with too many connections. There are no fixed values for this, you may try 60 or 100 and experiment with the value. Note that these numbers are additive, if you have two instances of a client running the numbers add up.


    Limit the number of simultaneous uploads

    Isn't this the same as above? No. Connections limit the number of peers your client is talking to and/or downloading from. Uploads limit the number of peers your client is actually uploading to. The ideal number is typically much lower than the number of connections, and highly dependent on your (physical) connection.


    Just give it some time

    As explained above peers favour other peers that upload to them. When you start leeching a new torrent you have nothing to offer to other peers and they will tend to ignore you. This makes the starts slow, in particular if, by change, the peers you are connected to include few or no seeders. The download speed should increase as soon as you have some pieces to share.


    Why is my browsing so slow while leeching?

    Your download speed is always finite. If you are a peer in a fast torrent it will almost certainly saturate your download bandwidth, and your browsing will suffer. You can use NetLimiter to limit your upload/download bandwidth.

    Browsing was used just as an example, the same would apply to gaming, IMing, etc...


    My ISP uses a transparent proxy. What should I do?

    Caveat: This is a large and complex topic. It is not possible to cover all variations here.

    Short reply: change to an ISP that does not force a proxy upon you. If you cannot or do not want to then read on.

    What is a proxy?

    Basically a middleman. When you are browsing a site through a proxy your requests are sent to the proxy and the proxy forwards them to the site instead of you connecting directly to the site. There are several classifications (the terminology is far from standard):

     Transparent   A transparent proxy is one that needs no configuration on the clients. It works by automatically redirecting all port 80 traffic to the proxy. (Sometimes used as synonymous for non-anonymous.)
     Explicit/Voluntary   Clients must configure their browsers to use them.
     Anonymous   The proxy sends no client identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header is not sent; the server does not see your IP.)
     Highly Anonymous   The proxy sends no client nor proxy identification to the server. (HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR, HTTP_VIA and HTTP_PROXY_CONNECTION headers are not sent; the server doesn't see your IP and doesn't even know you're using a proxy.)
     Public   (Self explanatory)

    A transparent proxy may or may not be anonymous, and there are several levels of anonymity.


    How do I find out if I'm behind a (transparent/anonymous) proxy?

    Try ProxyJudge. It lists the HTTP headers that the server where it is running received from you. The relevant ones are HTTP_CLIENT_IP, HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR and REMOTE_ADDR.


    Why am I listed as not connectable even though I'm not NAT/Firewalled?

    The Fullcontactzone tracker is quite smart at finding your real IP, but it does need the proxy to send the HTTP header HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR. If your ISP's proxy does not then what happens is that the tracker will interpret the proxy's IP address as the client's IP address. So when you login and the tracker tries to connect to your client to see if you are NAT/firewalled it will actually try to connect to the proxy on the port your client reports to be using for incoming connections. Naturally the proxy will not be listening on that port, the connection will fail and the tracker will think you are NAT/firewalled.


    Can I bypass my ISP's proxy?

    If your ISP only allows HTTP traffic through port 80 or blocks the usual proxy ports then you would need to use something like socks and that is outside the scope of this FAQ.

    Otherwise you may try the following:
    • Choose any public non-anonymous proxy that does not use port 80 (e.g. from this, this or this list).
    • Configure your computer to use that proxy. For Windows XP, do Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings, Use a Proxy server, Advanced and type in the IP and port of your chosen proxy. Or from Internet Explorer use Tools, Internet Options, ...
    • (Facultative) Visit ProxyJudge. If you see an HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR in the list followed by your IP then everything should be ok, otherwise choose another proxy and try again.
    • Visit hopefully the tracker will now pickup your real IP (check your profile to make sure).

    Notice that now you will be doing all your browsing through a public proxy, which are typically quite slow. Communications between peers do not use port 80 so their speed will not be affected by this, and should be better than when you were "unconnectable".


    How do I make my bittorrent client use a proxy?

    Just configure Windows XP as above. When you configure a proxy for Internet Explorer you're actually configuring a proxy for all HTTP traffic (thank Microsoft and their "IE as part of the OS policy" ). On the other hand if you use another browser (Opera/Mozilla/Firefox) and configure a proxy there you'll be configuring a proxy just for that browser. Most torrent clients nowadays also allow to be cofigured for the use of a proxy.


    Why can't I signup from behind a proxy?

    It is our policy not to allow new accounts to be opened from behind a proxy.

    Further Help - Top


    What if I can't find the answer to my problem here?

    Post in the Forums, by all means. You'll find they are usually a friendly and helpful place, provided you follow a few basic guidelines:
    • Make sure your problem is really not in this FAQ. There's no point in posting just to be sent back here.
    • Before posting read the sticky topics (the ones at the top). Many times new information that still hasn't been incorporated in the FAQ can be found there.
    • Help us in helping you. Do not just say "it doesn't work!". Provide details so that we don't have to guess or waste time asking. What client do you use? What's your OS? What's your network setup? What's the exact error message you get, if any? What are the torrents you are having problems with? The more you tell the easiest it will be for us, and the more probable your post will get a reply.
    • And needless to say: be polite. Demanding help rarely works, asking for it usually does the trick.

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