APNet Closes; Alternatives For Public PreDB and Torrent Races

July 03, 2010 by sharky

What was once a popular hotspot for scene info regarding pred scene releases, DDL-Blog races and an indexer of torrent races - the era of APNet has come to an end. Also known as anotherp2p-net on the IRC circuit, APNet’s owner has cited lack of time coupled with financial issues in relation to the server it’s hosted on - both are said to blame for APNet’s demise. RIP APN; listed below are some alternative public IRC (and web) preDBs that scene freaks should find useful.

g2×3k’s Pre.Mirrors

  • Network: (P2P-NET) - irc.p2p-network.net
  • Pre channel: #gp.pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: #gp.race (hotlink)
  • Other channels: #gp (main chat); #gp.topsites (bot is currently down)
#gp.pre #gp.race

G2×3k’s pre is much more thorough than their trace; the latter includes just five popular private trackers (SCC, TL, DH, TV and ST). But this one has an ace in the hole: databases are mirrored from IRC to HTTP in real-time. While currently classified as "in beta", g2×3k recently launched a web-based version of the service found at http://layer13.ath.cx which includes pred releases and torrent races.

The pre page also shows if a release has made it to a torrent tracker (if it’s been ‘raced’ or not as seen in their trace link). Here listed scene releases contain additional information about each; which includes screenies, online nfo details and other tidbits. With luck, hopefully Layer13/g2×3k doesn’t traverse down the same path as Previndico - a site that went offline for reasons unclear.

P2P-NET.eu

  • Network: (P2P-NET.eu) - irc.p2p-net.eu
  • Pre channel: #pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: #tracers (hotlink)
  • Other channels: #Pre.Search (pre search); #pre.spam (pred ’spam’ releases); #TR.Chat (Torrent Race search & chat); #Tracers.Spam (Torrent Race spam); #P2P-NET (main network chat); #Help.

Hands down - P2P-NET.eu has established itself to become the most popular public IRC network for scene release announces. When FSF introduced P2PNET in 2008 it was just a fledgling newcomer, but since then it’s proven itself to become the go-to IRC network for info about scene releases. Whether it be pred releases or private trackers that race them; you’ll find it all on P2P-NET.eu. At any given time there are upwards of a thousand members sitting in the #pre channel; 700 in #tracers; 500 in #pre.search; 500 in #tracers.spam. Frankly you can’t find a more complete IRC network than what P2P-NET.eu has to offer.

OMGWTFHAX

  • Network: (omgwtfhax.net) - irc.omgwtfhax.net
  • Pre channel: #pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: #trace (hotlink) & #Trace-Spam
  • Other channels: #Pre.Search; #Pre-Spam (info/genre announces); #Trace-Chat
  • Release-specific channels: #BTN-Pre (TV); #Pre-Apps; #Pre-Games; #Pre-Movies; #Pre-Music; #Pre-XXX

Open to all (identify/reg not required), omgwtfhax is the official home to BTN and a few other trackers (XTC, PiN, Vibes.fm). Here lies an entire gamut of scene release info and supporting channels - followers can use commands in the #Trace-Chat channel (for stats & search). Available commands include:

  • !s <releasename> — displays the torrent race stats for a chosen scene release
  • !site <sitename> — shows the stats for an individual tracker (# of uploads/torrents, wins, win %)
  • !dwins (day wins), !wwins, !mwins, !ywins <sitename> — shows only ‘wins’ for a tracker
  • !dstats, !wstats, !mstats, !ystats <sitename> — #1, 2 and 3 positioning for a tracker
  • !last10, !last10spam <sitename> — displays the last 10 known releases as indexed by a chosen tracker (use !last10spam to show only scene-spam releases)

Corrupt Network

  • Network: (Corrupt-net.org) - irc.corrupt-net.org
  • Pre channel: #pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: #DH.Tracer (hotlink)
  • Other channels: #Pre.Search; #pre.spam (info/genre/delpre announces)

Corrupt-Net is the home of private trackers DigitalHive and Fux0r.eu. Open to everyone (no need to register), there’s a popular #pre channel (100+ users online) as well as a public tracer which boasts more than 30 trackers.

SpiderNet

  • Network: (SpiderNet.org) - irc.spidernet.org
  • Pre channel: #pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: none
  • Other channels: #pre-stuff (chat)

SpiderNet doesn’t offer any torrent/tracker related services (ie. no trace) but it does contain a very thorough pre announce complete with nuke & unnuke. Available commands (in #pre) include !pre, !pred, !last, !dupe, !grp, !nfo, !sect, !count. Also has a web-based version of the prefeed found at http://pre.scenedb.org.

PTNET

PTNet.org is a Portuguese Pre indexer that covers just about all genres of scene releases. To use this service, you’ll first need to register and identify yourself (using a valid email address; which is also necessary to manually confirm the nick/account). PTNet’s #pre is not always online, but when it is it also announces nukes and unnukes. Common commands are !pre, !dupe and !stats.

ZEnet

  • Network: (ZEnet.org) - irc.zenet.org
  • Pre channel: #Pre (hotlink)
  • Tracer channel: none
  • Other channels: #PreChat

ZEnet’s pre is quite satisfactory, although it lacks the bells & whistles found on other networks. Users are able to employ commands !pre and !dupe for scene release searching (in #PreChat). The pre is also mirrored on the web at http://pre.zenet.org.

PirateNET

  • Network: (Pirate-Net) - irc.pirate-net.info
  • Pre channel: #pre (hotlink) and #pre.spam
  • Tracer channel: #tracers (hotlink) and #tracers.spam
  • Other channels: #Search (pre search); #pre.spam; #pre.info

Pirate-Net began as P2P-NET.in back in October 2009. Their #tracers isn’t nearly as reliable as some of the other networks (in that it only lists a handful of trackers - TL, DH, MAT, ST, NT - nor would it be considered to be all that accurate). Worth checking out is the #pre.info channel which displays info about pred releases (genre, filesize, # of files, etc).

Other pre channels can be found through http://searchirc.com/irc-pre-1



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