Connecting to a hub

This section explains how to connect to one or several hubs. You can think of a hub as a server which provides you with a public chat room and a list of users that are connected to this hub. You have to connect to a hub in order to search for files or talk to other users on the Direct Connect network. Only users connected to the same hub as you will be visible, which is why you can connect to several hubs at the same time. This gives you a greater chance of finding files you want to download. Note that most public hubs have some kind of criterium that you must meet in order to join. Most often you have to share at least a specific amount of data.

There are also private hubs that doesn't show in the public list. These often require you to have an account on the hub.

Connecting to a public hub

Start by pressing the "Connect" button in the main window, selecting the "Connect" option in the "Actions" menu or simply by pressing CTRL-C. If you're already connected to a hub and want to connect to more than one, press "New hub" first. This will create a new hub tab. Select it and then press "Connect".

This will bring up the connection dialog. Initially, the "Public" tab will be selected. Wait for a moment, a list of public hubs should appear after a while. If it doesn't, something is wrong with the public hubs server and you will only be able to connect to hubs that you know the IP for (including favourites).

To connect to a hub, select it, then press connect, double click, or right click and then choose connect. You can add a hub to your favourites list by right clicking and then choosing "Add to favourites". Different hublist can be used. Visit www.hublist.org for a list of hublist URLs. You may also search the hublist by typing something in the "show hubs where ... contains ..." field.

Using the quick connect

This is very simple. Type in the address for the hub in the field labeled "Quick connect" in the bottom of the dialog and press enter. If you need to specify a port for the hub, do so by typing the address followed by a colon and then port number.

Using the favourites list

Click on the "Favourites" tab. You'll see an empty list and some buttons. Click "New" and follow the instructions to add a favourite. You may also add favourites directly from the public hub list. Selecting an entry in the list and pressing "Edit" will let you specify the values again. "Remove" deletes an entry in the list. Checking "autoconnect" makes dc-qt connect to this hub at startup. A profile can also be specified for each favourite. Double click on an entry or select it and press "Connect" to connect to a favourite hub.

The "Running" tab

This tab provides a special feature of dc-qt and DCTC which lets you connect to a running instance of DCTC. It is explained in the section Advanced topics.

When connecting to a public hub or quick-connecting, you can select the profile to be used from the "profile" drop down box. For favourites, each favourite specify their own profile which overrides this box. Running hubs already have a configuration which can not be changed at the moment.

If you succeeded in connecting to a hub, you should now have a list of users in your main window, and some message in the chat window. You probably got some private message from the hub as well. Proceed to the section Searching & downloading to learn how to obtain some files!


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