Q: How can I change the maximum speed of uploads and downloads?
　　　　A: Through the Max U/L or D/L KBPS settings to the right of the transfer panes. This setting applies to the total speed of all transfers of that type. The default is 0 - unrestricted.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: How is the wishlist used?
　　　　A: Entries in your wishlist are search terms that are sent every once in a while to poll for possible results. You can add new wishlist entries directly from the search window by using the ’Add to wishlist’ button or manually at the wishlist window, which you can open from the toolbar. You would typically use the wish list to find stuff you’re seriously interested in getting but can’t otherwise find. Don’t forget to remove the search term from the wishlist after you’ve found what you were looking for, or you’d keep getting results. You can only remove wishlist entries at the wishlist window.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why are most of my downloads “remotely queued“ and what can I do to help that?
　　　　A: Your downloads get remotely queued when you try to download from someone who is already uploading to as many people as they can. The best way to avoid getting queued in the first place is to pick users who aren’t busy. These will be marked in black in the search results window (as opposed to gray).
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: How can I change my username?
　　　　A: From the ’Connection’ menu, first make sure you’re disconnected using the ’Disconnect’ button, then use ’Login as...’ to input a new user name and password.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I can configure my router/firewall, any ports I should forward/open?
　　　　A: You can forward/open ports 2234 and 5534 for better client performance.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I just installed Soulseek, but whenever I try to log on I get a “wrong password“ message, what’s going on?
　　　　A: Most likely you’ve picked a username already used by someone else. Please use Connection->Login as to pick a different username until you find one that’s available.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why do some of my transfers fail?
　　　　A: This is the nature of peer-to-peer and networking in general. File-sharing systems are extremely volatile in general and Soulseek is no exception. You will definitely have a harder time behind a router or a firewall.
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why do all of my transfers fail?
　　　　A: There are a few possible reasons for this. First, make sure you have enough free space to download. Then, make sure that your assigned save folder in the file sharing configuration exists. Even if it does try selecting a new save folder. If all your transfers still keep failing, this might be a networking issue. If you’re on Windows 95 or Windows 98, check the next question for tips on that.
　　

　　Q: After using Soulseek for a while, I can’t seem to do anything else with my Internet connection. Websites won’t load, ftp clients won’t connect, etc
　　　　A: This seems to happen a lot on older versions of Windows. Win2k and WinXP don’t exhibit that problem. If you’re using Windows 95 or Windows 98, you can improve your situation by editing the appropriate registry key. Here are more detailed instructions courtesy of user 111110101011:
　　　　first, launch regedit: Start > Run > regedit Navigate with the left window in order to find this : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \System \CurrentControlSet \Services \VxD \MSTCP\ At this point, you have to create a new string value (not a key), with the right window of regedit, right click with the mouse then name it : MaxConnections assign its value double clicking on it, enter this: 1024 Close regedit, and restart your computer.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why do I keep getting disconnected?
　　　　A: The server is probably overloaded (at the time of writing it is over 300% over capacity).
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I forgot my password, how can I get it back?
　　　　A: There is no way to retrieve lost passwords since Soulseek doesn’t associate usernames with email addresses. Please switch to a different login to keep using Soulseek.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I can’t log on at all! When I try it says the server may be down.
　　　　A: In all probability the server is down. We often experience bursts of growth in usership that create new problems and difficulties that force us to shut the server down. Check out the messageboard for possible updates or just try logging in later.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I can’t log on at all! When I try it says it can’t retrieve server information/the server list is empty.
　　　　A: The server list is retrieved from www.soulseek.org using Internet Explorer’s backend. If you can browse www.soulseek.org then in all probability you should not be getting this message. If you can’t, resolve the browsing problem to be able to log in.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: My downloads are going way too slow! why?
　　　　A: The person you’re downloading from may be uploading to a number of other users in parallel, they may have set a rather low upload speed limit or may just have not had a lot of bandwidth to begin with. Use the upload speed column in chatrooms and search results for a half-assed estimate of users’ upload speeds.
　　　　

　　Q: Why can’t I browse some people’s file list?
　　　　A: Again, the nature of peer-to-peer. Not every person can browse every other person. Everything from routing problems to firewalls (usually firewalls) can stop two users from creating a connection over which to transfer data. Not being able to browse other users is extremely common (and unavoidable). This is much more true if you are yourself firewalled or behind a router.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why can’t I browse my own files?
　　　　A: This is normal if you’re behind a firewall or a router.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I use a proxy to connect to the Internet, does Soulseek support that?
　　　　A: Not currently. Proxy support is planned, but not in the near future, sorry.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I started Soulseek and my user list/download queue were gone. Why?
　　　　A: Sometimes, when Soulseek is forcibly shut down (often as part of a reboot), its configuration files get corrupted. This may result in the loss of your user list, your download queue or other bits of information. Unless you’ve backed up all the *.cfg files in the soulseek installation folder, there is no way to restore this information.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why does my Soulseek client keep having short, frequent freezes?
　　　　A: This is fairly common when sharing large numbers of files. Try sharing less if you’re having this problem.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Why does Soulseek take so much memory? Anything I can do to help it?
　　　　A: Soulseek is admittedly quite a resource hog. If this is a serious problem for you, you can help clear some of the memory used by restarting the client every once in a while.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Can I run my own soulseek server?
　　　　A: For a very long time, we gave people the freedom of starting their own servers. It was never seriously taken advantage of. The only people interested in using Soulseek wanted to use it for electronic music, and for that purpose it was better for everyone to stay on the same server. The reason we’ve decided not to let users do that for now is the new download privileges system, which is what we depend on to encourage people to donate. This would be very hard to manage across multiple servers. Also, now that we have chatrooms and a decentralized network, it becomes much more feasible to support greater numbers of users on one server. We may very well start allowing people to run their own servers again in the future. This is just not the right time.
　

　　Q: My download privileges were just activated! Can I start enjoying them right away? Would downloads I queued before the activation be automatically moved ahead?
　　　　A: Since the server gives users the list of download privileged users when they log on, users that logged on before your privileges were activated would not queue your files in the described fashion. Because of that, it usually takes a few hours until everyone recognizes you as download privileged. Also, files that were queued before the activation would not be moved ahead unless the uploader closes the client and restarts it later on. What all this means is the first day of having download privileges is somewhat of an uneven experience.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: I’ve had my download privileges for a while now, but there is still the occasional user that queues my downloads at the end of the their upload queue.
　　　　A: Only clients of version 126 and later support preferential queuing to download privileged users. That does mean well over 95% of everyone using Soulseek right now, and that percentage will just increase. Still, there always seem to be a few users that never upgrade unless they have to, but those are pretty rare.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: Is there any way to know what the status of my download privileges are?
　　　　A: If you’re using at minimum version 136 of the client, you can always use Options->Check Privileges Status to see how much privileges time you have left, or if you have them at all.
　　　　
　　　　
　　　　Q: What if almost everyone made donations and they all had download privileges? Wouldn’t that make the system useless?
　　　　A: If that ever had a chance of happening, yes. Less than 0.5% of all Soulseek users have made a donation so far. At worst (at best), I don’t see more than 2% of all users donating on a regular basis considering our track record.
　　　　
　　　　Q: Is that fair? What if I can’t make a donation because I’m poor/young/don’t have paypal/living in a geographically remote location?
　　　　A: The actual effect on non-privileged users in the system is negligible simply because only a microscopic fraction of all users have download privileges. But even if that wasn’t the case, we needed to find a way to get financial support so that we could keep developing and operating Soulseek. Turning Soulseek into a subscription service would have killed it. Using advertising, especially the more profitable type that relies on installed spyware would have made Soulseek a lot less pleasant to use. We have been asking for donations for a very long time, but the response was laughable. By offering download privileges we not only motivate a lot more people to make donations, as is evident by the dramatic increase in donations since we started offering them, but we also provide fair recompense to people who genuinely want to help out. All at virtually no hassle to the average Soulseek user.