The default settings for Ares Galaxy have been set by the Ares Galaxy programming team to be sufficient for the majority of people. So if your needs are similar to those of the average Ares Galaxy user, you probably won’t have to change anything at all.

However, there are quite a few different scenarios in which you’ll want to change these settings. Maybe you’re on a limited connection or on an old machine that has trouble handling multiple simultaneous connections, or maybe you’d like to contribute as much as you can to the network by uploading more.

Whatever the reasoning is behind your wanting to change the default transfer settings, you can easily do so, and you’ll find out exactly what does what below.

Finding The Transfer Settings

The settings we’ll be talking about here are in the Transfer tab in your Control Panel. To get there, simply open Ares Galaxy, click on ‘Control Panel’ and then click on ‘Transfer’. The screenshot below should make finding them pretty easy for you.

What The Settings Mean

Let’s go through the settings one by one and give some examples in which cases you’d want to change these:

• The port number is similar to a phone extension for your computer. Your machine’s position in the wider network is determined by your IP address, but all the different applications on your pc each connect with the outside world through a number of ports, of which some are fixed, but many (among which Ares) can be set to anything you want. In most cases, you won’t have to change this at all, but if it turns out you’re having connectivity problems, you may want to try putting in a different number here. Just stay away from the important ones, which you can easily find by Googling ‘TCP UDP Port Numbers’.
• Transfer percentage and Confirmation when cancelling are purely ‘cosmetic’ options that have no deeper effect on your transfers. 
• The transfer settings are split into three parts. The first two determine how many separate uploads you want to allow and the second one determines your maximum amount of simultaneous downloads. When your transfers exceed these numbers, they will be put in the queue. Whether you want to tweak these settings or not will depend on your connection. A fast connection enables you to crank this up, and a slow connection will force you to tone it down.
• The bandwidth settings consist of a bandwidth limit for your upload and your download. Again, you’ll want to change these if you are on a slow connection. However,  since most people are on high-speed broadband nowadays, you can most likely just leave these at 0 – which signifies that there is no limit at all.
• The download folder is where your finished downloads go after Ares Galaxy completes the transfer. This is probably the most common thing to have to change in the transfer screen, particularly if you’ve partitioned your hard drive and you have a specific folder for downloads and media files already.

Pretty easy right? Now it’s up to you! Tweak your settings and have Ares Galaxy your way!

With Ares, you get to download whatever you want and as many things as you want. There are no seeding requirements, no limitations on the amount of content you can download, no speed limits, and not any other kind of constraint. With Ares Galaxy, you’re in charge and you’re free to do as much or as little with our software as you please.

Unlimited Downloads For You And For Everyone

Whether you use Ares to download through the Ares network or through the BitTorrent network, there are no requirements with regards to seeding, downloading or otherwise giving back to the community whatsoever. So if you want to download terabytes of data without giving anything in return, you’re allowed to do that.

Of course, that would be a little selfish and if everyone were to do this, the whole network would collapse and no one would be able to download anything! So we do urge you to seed (leave downloaded files where they are and upload them to others who want them) at least some files to the wider network. After all, if all you do is share a little bit of your bandwidth, that’s an amazing price of having access to virtually every digital file the entire world has produced at your fingertips!

No Speed Limits

Ares doesn’t throttle your download speed or puts a cap on how fast you can download if you haven’t uploaded a certain amount of files. Ares Galaxy will download at the maximum speed your internet connection allows for, providing there are sources to download from who in unison are able to max out your connection.

If you have a broadband connection, it’s very easy to reach amazing speeds that are unheard of with direct downloads from eg RapidShare – particularly if you’re using Ares to download torrent files. If this is not the case for you and if you consistently experience very low download speeds, there might be something wrong with your setup. Please consult this blog for help on this matter by typing in your query in the search box at the top of this screen.

Free Premium Features

What sets Ares Galaxy apart from similar software is the sheer amount of premium features included in the package. For example: among other things, Ares offers a handy media library to organize your files, a chat function with hundreds of channels where people from all over the world discuss anything and everything, live radio and TV streaming and an integrated media player.

All this and more is also guided by the general Ares philosophy of limitless freedom. We guarantee that none of these premium features will ever cost any money to use and that we will never put caps on any of them. They’re there to be used by you, so we hope you use them as much as you want.

The Ares Way

The Ares Way is simple: download as much as you want, however you want it, for free! Join us now and enter a world of P2P downloading unlike anything else on the market today!

Ares – 100% Free Download

Ares Galaxy is so easy to use and so quick to install that we are confident that it takes less than five minutes for anyone to start downloading with this piece of software! No matter what your competence level with computers is, installing Ares with our free download and learning how to use it will take you less time than it does to make an omelette.

In an age of Google, Facebook and Twitter, that might not sound quite as impressive as it used to, but we feel it’s still pretty amazing. Even someone who is terrible with technology is able, with Ares Galaxy, to gain access to the entirety of human knowledge, entertainment and art as it exists in downloadable form via the Ares network and BitTorrent – and all it takes is five minutes!

Step 1: Put The Ares Free Download File On Your PC

Click on the download button at the top right of this window or go back to the main website and click on the big green button.

With a common broadband connection, the file transfer should take less than 20 seconds (but on an ancient dial-up, you might be in for a short wait). When the transfer completes, it should be either somewhere on your PC, or the installation might begin automatically.

Time estimate: On a typical standard connection, this step can easily be completed within 20 seconds. But because there are still a few dinosaurs out there on a dialup line, let’s average it out to one minute.

Step 2 (if applicable): Execute The Installation File

If for some reason the file did not open an installation menu, you should do it manually. The download should appear in some window in your browser (the program you used to visit this website and download the file – if you’re totally unsure, you’re probably using Internet Explorer and you should look at the Downloads window).

Time estimate: This step is either unnecessary, or it takes about as much as a double click takes. However, some people may have trouble finding the file they just downloaded, so let’s give it another minute, with a total elapsed time of 2 minutes.

Step 3: Finish The Installation

Installing Ares is extremely straightforward and all that is expected of you is to click ‘next’ a few times. All the default options should be good. You are recommended to read the terms and agreements, but in practice, we know that only a tiny fraction of our users actually do this.

Time estimate: Less than one minute for most users. However, some of you may want to change some options and read the terms and agreements. So let’s give it another minute. So now 3 minutes have elapsed in total.

Step 4: Start Searching And Downloading

Ares should have popped up automatically, leaving you ready to start downloading. If it didn’t open automatically, you’ll have to click on the Ares shortcut icon on your desktop or in your start menu.

No registration is necessary (but if you want, you can create a profile). Just click on the Search tab to start searching for something to download. Then double click on something you want.

Time estimate: A few clicks and you can start searching for something to download. But you should have at least 2 minutes left on the clock, so just take it easy and feel good about yourself. You’re now a part of the Ares Galaxy network.

We’ve added some great new features in our latest update to Ares Galaxy, among which the ability to watch live TV and listen to live radio via a handy menu in your screen tab! Discover here how to use these new features and turn your Ares Galaxy into your personal, full-fledged entertainment hub.

Making Sure You’ve Got The Latest Version

If you’re still running an older version of Ares Galaxy, you’ll be able to download from the Ares and BitTorrent networks as usual, but you won’t have access to the latest new features. At the time of writing (mid April, 2013), the latest version is 2.2.4.3048. So if your version number is lower than this, you’re still running an older version. In that case, simply download the latest version from our website and update.

Streaming Live TV Via Ares Galaxy

Thanks to high speed unlimited broadband, streaming live TV via the internet has become very popular with a large part of the internet population and we decided to integrate this into Ares Galaxy. What’s more, we’ve created a handy little list of channels for you to choose from so you can easily enjoy the best the internet has to offer with a minimum of effort on your part.

You can find this list under the ‘Screen’ tab at the top of your Ares screen. Whereas this used to bring up just the video window, now you’ll find the list of free streaming channels on the left hand side of your screen. This list is divided into two parts: the bottom part consists of internet radio stations and the top part of live TV channels.

Choose Your Favorite And Watch Whenever And As Much As You Want

We’ll go through the different channels and stations in these lists at some other time, but for now, simply browse the list and look for something interesting. For example, in the next screenshot, you can see the free extreme sports channel RedBull TV in action in Ares Galaxy.

To start watching, click on a channel that interests you and select ‘Open/Play’. The buffering will start immediately and if your connection is fast, it will begin playing very quickly. And if you want to watch the channel in full screen, you can! Just click on the video window to maximize it.

There are no limits on the amount of time you can spend watching any of these channels, though you should keep in mind that if you’re on a limited bandwidth connection, this will count as if you were downloading the stream to your hard drive. But if you have unlimited bandwidth, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from watching live TV straight from Ares Galaxy 24 hours per day and 7 days per week!

We’re very excited about this new addition to Ares Galaxy, and we hope you’ll enjoy watching these streams (entirely free of charge!) as much as we did creating them. Over time, more channels will be added until you won’t ever feel the need to turn on your actual TV anymore. Now that’s progress – the Ares Galaxy way.

Downloading and installing Ares Galaxy on your computer is not difficult. But for those who are still not sure how exactly to do it, here’s a handy little guide to follow.

1. Download Ares Galaxy From Ares-Download.org

If you want to join the millions of people who are already enjoying unlimited free high speed downloads from the Ares and BitTorrent networks, you first need the Ares download, which is available from this very website. The link to the file you need is on the right side of your screen as you can see on the following screenshot.

Clicking on the marked link in the screenshot will bring you to our download page. Next, you have to click on the big green button.

1. 2.       Run The Install File

Clicking on that button will start the download of the AresSetup.exe file automatically. An .exe file is an executable and will execute the install procedure for Ares Galaxy on your system. When the download has finished (which shouldn’t take more than a couple of seconds unless your pc is very old and very slow), click on the file you’ve just downloaded to run the setup.

1. Install Ares Galaxy

Depending on your system settings, you may get a request to run the file as an administrator and an additional request to accept the license agreement.

Technically, you’re required to read this entire agreement, but in practice, hardly anyone ever does that. If you’re wondering what’s in it, it tells you all about the rules Ares Galaxy is subject to and details your rights as a user. It of course mentions how you’re not supposed to use it for any illegal activities and then goes on to explain the GNU license, which is the open source agreement under which we distribute Ares Galaxy to our users.

Again, these are a bunch of legal requirements that probably don’t really interest you, but you’re free to browse and read the whole thing and we recommend that you at least skim it. But if you want the short version, it basically says: don’t download things that you don’t have rights to and don’t try to sell Ares Galaxy to others. Ares is free to download and free to use, and it’s not allowed to repackage the program. So don’t put it on the market as your own product and attempt to get rich off the work of the Ares team.

1. Finish The Ares Installation

After you consent to the licensing agreement, our installation file will ask you where on your computer you want to install Ares Galaxy (the default options are fine for 99.9% of our users, but you can change it if you want) and whether you want to take advantage of some extra opportunities. How you proceed from here is entirely up to you.

Once you’ve made your decisions, click ‘Next’ a few times and Ares will install itself. This too shouldn’t take more than a few moments and should end with a screen that looks like this.

1. 5.       Run Ares Galaxy

That’s it. Ares Galaxy has now been installed on your system it. To run it, double-click on the Ares icon that should be on your desktop or on the shortcut in your windows menu (though it should open automatically after installation). You can start downloading immediately. Easy as pie, isn’t it?

Are you still a stranger to our free Ares Galaxy download? Here are 10 reasons to nudge you in the right direction and convince you to join our hundreds of thousands of happy customers.

1. 1.       Ares Galaxy Is Free

Our program is 100% free. It has always been free and it will stay free forever. So you really have nothing to lose. Download it and check it out. If you don’t like it, uninstall it. You can’t argue with the price!

1. 2.       Ares Is An Open-Source Project

Ares is not run by a giant monolithic corporation that cares nothing about their customers. Instead, it is a project of love of a team of committed programmers and designers who have made their product – along with the source code – available for free.

1. 3.       Searching Is Easy

Thanks to the integrated search function, you can quickly look for what you want in the Ares network without having to use dedicated websites on the internet.

1. 4.       Fast Downloads

You can easily max out your internet connection with Ares Galaxy. Our program doesn’t cap your download speeds in any way, so your download speed is only limited by your own connection and those of your sources.

1. 5.       BitTorrent Integration

Ares Galaxy doubles as a high-quality torrent client with all of the functions and features of a uTorrent or a Deluge. Think of it as getting access to two excellent P2P networks (the dedicated Ares network as well as the gigantic torrent community), all with one sleek little program.

1. 6.       Play Audio And Video Files

You can watch or listen to the files you have just downloaded right inside the Ares Media Player. You can even preview files as you’re downloading them to make sure you’ve got the right file.

1. 7.       Listen To The Radio

Listen to your favorite internet radio stations while enjoying all the other features with the integrated radio player. In addition to just listening to the stations, you can also save what you’re hearing to a file so you can listen to it again in the future.

1. 8.       Chat And Communicate

In addition to the core P2P activities, Ares Galaxy can also be used as a communication tool and chat program. Several hundred channels are active around the clock and feature people from all over the world talking to one another about absolutely everything. Ares also allows you to connect to your chat partners directly and browse their shared files.

1. 9.       Decentralized P2P

Ares Galaxy doesn’t have any central servers, nor does it rout all traffic through one particular node. As a result, the network cannot be shut down, as has happened with old rivals like Napster and KaZaa.

1. 10.   Just Download Ares Galaxy Already

We know this is supposed to be the tenth reason, but if the previous nine reasons haven’t convinced you yet, we’re not sure what will. So just download it already and give it a whirl. Free downloads and a plethora of other features, We’re sure you’ll love it no matter what we say!

Some say that file sharing is antisocial behavior because it is similar to stealing. But how is it stealing when my copying of your digital information does not impact your consumption or enjoyment of that information? And if file sharing is not stealing, then is clearly not antisocial either.

We believe that file sharing should not only be socially accepted, but that it improves us as human beings by making us more altruistic and generous, and more open-minded and cosmopolitan.

Rivalry: Why Digital Are Different From Physical Goods

A physical good can only be used or consumed by one person (or in some cases by one group of people).  If you have an apple and I take it from you and eat it, you are left without your four o’ clock snack. But what if there was a way for both of us to have an apple?

That way exists and it’s called the digital revolution. There is much value in digital information, and we all perceive this value subjectively. In this sense it is exactly the same as physical goods. Crucially though, digital goods are non-rivalrous. This means that I can consume an exact copy of your digital ‘apple’ without you experiencing any discomfort or problems in consuming yours.

Now, of course the debate goes much further than this, but for the purpose at hand, this should suffice to support our claim that file sharing is not in essence an antisocial act in the sense that it does not take anything tangible away from the original owner of the information.

Ares Galaxy Depends On Everyone Helping Everyone Else

If people were to suddenly stop sharing digital content with one another free of charge, then Ares Galaxy would quickly collapse. Really, the only reason why it exists is because of the hard work of every person who is involved in a long chain that begins with the content creator and ends with the content consumer.

In the middle are the many people whose hard work is so often underestimated: the uploaders and the seeders. Without their sacrifices of time and bandwidth, no one would be able to download anything on Ares Galaxy!

Yet, the Ares and BitTorrent networks have been going strong for years now and everyone has access to the world’s information at the click of a mouse. All thanks to the anonymous benefactors in the middle.

Ares Galaxy Expands Your Mind

There is another way in which Ares Galaxy makes us better people: by giving us access to a world that is much bigger than our immediate physical surroundings, to ideas that differ from the ones we grew up with and to cultural and academic knowledge that is far removed from what we are used to.

This kind of open-mindedness that we are now taking for granted would have been impossible to conceive of just a few decades ago. But today we are all growing up as citizens of an interconnected world. And part of this spirit of cosmopolitanism is thanks to P2P-services like Ares Galaxy.

Linux, Android, Firefox: just a few examples of how open source software has taken the world by storm, up to the point that it has become virtually impossible to browse the internet without using or coming into contact with open source services or products.

The ascent of open source has many underlying causes, but clearly one of the most important determinants of its enormous success is its philosophy and ‘business model’ which we will briefly discuss shortly. Although less commonly known than the three open source giants mentioned above, Ares Galaxy is another example of how open source software can climb mountains and reach great heights.

Ares Galaxy Has A History And Future Of Open Source Success

After an early stint as proprietary software, Ares Galaxy became 100% open source in 2005, right at the dawn of its popularity peak. Still, even in the beginning, Ares’ open source routs were obvious to all, having emerged as a Gnutella network spin-off three years earlier.

Throughout its relatively short history up to the present, Ares Galaxy always remained true to its open source roots. The source code was freely available under the GNU General Public License and of course it has never been necessary to pay a cent to enjoy sharing files with the Ares free download.

So, even though Ares Galaxy is many times smaller than Linux and Android when it comes to popularity or importance in the grand scheme of things, theirs is essentially the same success story as Ares’, but told in a different way.

Why Open Source Paves The Way For Continuous Innovation

Proprietary software producers can be absolutely brilliant and they deserve all the money they earn with their hard labor. Still, a quick look at how Firefox revolutionized the market for internet browsers or at how Android has successfully taken on Apple’s hegemony in mobile operating systems should tell you much about the tendency of open source methods to upset the status quo with rapid innovation.

For open source developers, the users of the software are considered co-developers. This is why all source code is freely available. The essential idea in the open source philosophy is that knowledgeable users are best suited of all for reporting bugs, adding features and submitting additions to the program.

This ‘splendid cooperation’ of developers and users/developers ultimately leads to a product or service that is continuously evolving along the needs and requirements of the user base itself.

Unlike traditional companies, the innovative spirit of open source creators does not tend to peter out once a certain critical mass has been achieved, they never become estranged from how their products are perceived by the users and they never become blinded by success.

In short, open source is not just an alternative mode of production, it is a philosophy in itself, a way of thinking, and – dare we say it – a way of life that is perfectly suited to the fast-paced and quickly-changing preferences of 21^st century consumers.

The native Ares network is great for downloading a few songs or videos on the go, especially considering the integrated search feature. But nowadays, everyone uses torrents to download the big files. Indeed, torrents have become ubiquitous on the internet and you’ll be lost without a good torrent client.

There’s no shortage of torrent clients online. Apart from the big three (uTorrent, Vuze and Deluge), there are hundreds of other clients all vying for your attention. Unfortunately, many people seem to forget that Ares Galaxy has evolved far beyond its original capabilities and can play the part of torrent client extremely well nowadays.

Most among you have probably downloaded torrents before, and I suppose you can stop reading this right now if you already know how to use them. However, there are still a great many people for whom torrents are something new and unknown. If you feel as if I’m speaking directly to you now, then read on and discover how to use Ares Galaxy to get your hands on those sweet torrents!

A Short Introduction To Torrents

First of all: what exactly is a torrent? To put it in as simple terms as possible, a torrent file contains information. This information directs your torrent client towards certain people who have certain files and allows your torrent client to download from these people and store a copy of the files in question on your hard drive.

So from your perspective, a torrent file gives your torrent client (which can be anything, but we’re focusing on Ares Galaxy here) the necessary directions to start downloading a file that you want.

Where To Get These Torrents

Torrents are available all over the internet. Plenty of organizations have made giant collections of books, videos, lectures, music, and other digital information legally available via their own torrent trackers and of course there are also plenty of illegal trackers who proudly display less than kosher content for download.

Obviously, we can’t spell out to you where exactly you should go, because there are so many of them. Nonetheless, none of the most famous legal trackers should be hard to find if you know how to use Google (neither are the illegal ones to be frank) – hint: try adding the word ‘torrent’ to something you’re looking for on Google.

Once you’re browsing a collection of torrents, all you have to do is find one that contains some files you want.

How To Use Torrents

If you have a torrent file which has interesting files you’d like to have, you might be wondering what to do next. If you download the torrent file, you’ll discover it’s only a few kilobytes big and doesn’t really do anything by itself.

What you need to do is open the file with Ares Galaxy. You can do this either by dragging the torrent file into your Ares Galaxy window, or by right-clicking on it and selecting ‘Open With…’. In the following dialog box, choose Ares Galaxy (you may have to browse for it), check the box next to ‘Always use…’ and you’re good to go!

And that’s it! Ares Galaxy will now connect to the tracker and then to the people who are sharing the files and it will download them to your hard drive automatically. Have fun torrenting!

We are living in a learning economy, where information is king and education is a prerequisite for success. Hundreds or thousands of dedicated websites, computer programs, apps, college courses and books have been created to fill the increasing demand for ever more specialized knowledge.

Today, we’ll talk about how you can use Ares Galaxy to become more successful at life, by using it as a tool for studying and learning valuable skills.

Specialization In Human History

One of the cornerstones of human development is specialization as a result of the division of labor. When early man discovered that he could greatly increase his productivity by working together with others and specializing in a specific task, rather than each doing his own thing in isolation, the stage was set for the dawn of humanity.

Over the millennia, we evolved to become ever more specialized, and the progression of human knowledge meant that the work we were performing became increasingly complex. The complexity of the knowledge required for specialization meant that we needed more and more education.

Long story short: in order to be successful in 21^st century society, we have to dedicate ourselves to an extremely specific set of skills and excel in it. It’s much better to master a tiny niche, than it is to be jack of all trades (and a master of none).

To attain this specialization, we have to spend years learning, reading, studying and improving ourselves. According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of ‘The Tipping Point’, it takes about 10.000 hours to become an expert in something.

Learning With Ares Galaxy

Before discussing the obvious, let’s talk about a more fundamental aspect of Ares Galaxy.

Ares Galaxy is a portal to the world. It is a way to interact with hundreds of thousands of people who have all connected with one another through the free Ares download. You can communicate with all these people through the chat and listen to online broadcasters via the internet radio feature.

All contact leads to exchange of knowledge, so in this respect, Ares Galaxy allows you to profit from the knowledge and experience of others by the sheer virtue of allowing communication on a global scale.

But, more obviously, Ares Galaxy’s main focus is of course P2P sharing. Though we usually view Ares as a way to get our daily entertainment fix, it could potentially be life-altering software for you, thanks to its learning opportunities.

You can easily download and share tutorials, textbooks, science books, lectures, and much more, by simply looking for them in the search or adding torrents to your Ares window. The amount of information on the internet is gigantic, but, as statistical guru and political predictor Nate Silver would say: it’s very difficult to find ‘signals in the midst of all the noise’.

Authors and professors have already organized the best learning material – by distilling signals from all the noise – for you, and others have made it available on Ares Galaxy. What are you waiting for? Get our free Ares download now and start learning!