Download YouTube videos and other flash videos without using java plugin, other software or other web service

Now with Google Chrome browser downloading flash videos is a cake walk. You don't need any other software to get the video URL from cache. Only thing needed further is your bandwidth to download the video.

Steps:
1. Open the desired streaming video for ex. YouTube and just start streaming the video.

2. Now you may close this window or just open the below link in new tab ---
                         chrome://cache

3. Search in the list for your desired video URL. You may need some practice in finding out multimedia URLs. Find sub strings like "videoplayback?" for YouTube URLs. For other websites you may try to find extensions like ".flv", ".mp4", etc.

Sample URL:


http://o-o---preferred---bom04s03---v20---lscache1.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?algorithm=throttle-factor&burst=40&cp=U0hTSFlOUl9JUUNOM19RSFZHOlRjc1IzSnhMTnFE&expire=1343934647&factor=1.25&fexp=920912%2C914076%2C910100%2C913602%2C915507%2C907217%2C919804%2C920704%2C912806%2C924500%2C924700%2C913547%2C904721%2C920706%2C907344%2C912706%2C900816%2C902518%2C909414&id=63b1beb58473c186&ip=117.217.5.178&ipbits=8&itag=34&keepalive=yes&key=yt1&ms=au&mt=1343911519&mv=m&signature=963E8654499228D382D491E65FE0CA25D042C5BA.55F7D4E540F8E6E9081E72CAAABF433E936754B3&source=youtube&sparams=algorithm%2Cburst%2Ccp%2Cfactor%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&sver=3&upn=WZYm_t2__xM&title=desi_boyz

4. After finding YouTube URL, copy the link in notepad and just do two necessary modifications ---
    a.) Remove the sub string "&range=13-xxxxx" from the URL.
    b.) Append the sub string "&title=<your-file-name>" to the end of the URL.

5. Now copy the new URL and open in browser to start video download with desired name                        "<your-file-name>.flv".

6. If you are downloading from other sites like daily motion, Metacafe, Vimeo, video bash, etc. then directly open the cached URL from step 3. Use "save link as" option if necessary.

Google Chrome net-internals, CDN hack using DNS overriding

Ever wondered how to check the URL through which videos are being streamed via flash objects or the URL through which your file is getting downloaded......Well it's easy with Google Chrome Browser.

Just go to the link chrome://net-internals/#sockets while the video is playing in the background and further click on "Flush socket pools" or "Close idle sockets" to get the exact URL you require.
See screenshot for YouTube server.

Now you may use this technique to edit your CDN server for better download speeds. A CDN is a content delivery server which delivers videos from sites like http://metacafe.com via a delivery partner like Akamai. The only interesting part is that the actual server is mostly located somewhere nearest to the user, possibly on his own network. Thus, he may get very high speeds without much contention.

But in some cases the DNS servers are not very effective in resolving the CDN host name to the best possible IP. Consider the case of metacafe on BSNL net connection. The site has a streaming URL of http://v.mccont.com which is actually supported by Akamai CDN.

But due to poor DNS management by BSNL the host name v.mccont.com resolves to an ip address of VSNL network instead of BSNL's own network. So sometimes I don't get the desired speeds due to contention.

Thus, we can bypass this drawback by using static DNS mappings for  hostnames like v.mccont.com.
Follow below steps to implement static DNS mapping in Windows.
1. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ and locate the hosts file. Cut and Copy it to desktop and open it with notepad.
2. Add the following entries to the hosts file. General format is <ip> <domain>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

218.248.44.170 v.mccont.com
218.248.44.170 cdn.blinkx.com
218.248.44.170 av.vimeo.com
#210.212.11.18 cdn.blinkx.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Now save it and again cut and copy it back to its original location.

The mapped ip addresses belong to BSNL's own network so negligible contention is expected.
# means that the line is commented or inactive.

cdn.blinkx.com belongs to http://blinkx.com and av.vimeo.com belongs to http://vimeo.com.
All are supported by Akamai CDN network.

Importance of seeding/uploading in torrents

Most people who are on a limited data plan are frustrated when it comes to uploading or seeding the files they themselves download via torrents. They say that it wastes their limited bandwidth in uploading. This is very unethical in my opinion. This situation is well understood by considering an analogy.

Suppose you are writing an exam and you don't know the answer to a question. What do you do? Of course, you should leave the question in an ideal world. But in the practical world you will mostly resort to copying the answer from your nearby friend or peer. Now imagine that you have copied the answer completely from your good friend who obliged to showing the complete answer to you. Then after some time, while you are attempting another question your other poor friend needs that same answer which you had copied earlier from the previous friend.
What should you do in such a case? Show the answer or ignore him thus saving your time....

The same is with torrents. Remember, if the original seeder had not uploaded the file to you then you too couldn't have downloaded your precious file. Thus, uploading is as important, if not more, as downloading in the peer to peer file sharing world.
So always strive to maintain a good upload to download seeding ratio (0.8 to 1.0+) for each torrent. Give others too a chance to enjoy the P2P world like yourself.

And as far as the limited plan is concerned, switch over to an unlimited plan if uploading bothers you or at least consider the upload bandwidth too in your monthly data consumption. You may consider choosing an ISP which provides free uploads (BeamTele) or that which does not cap upload speeds after FUP (BSNL).
Else you can focus on downloading via LAN DC++ Hubs provided by ISPs like Five Net.
If even this is too much for you then stop using torrents and simply ask your friends for the files you need or use HTTP/FTP downloads.

Simply run u torrent in background each time you sit on your PC and always keep all the torrents in "active" mode. You may set a seeding ratio limit of 1.0 if necessary. This simple step can go a long way in helping the P2P sharing to survive and flourish.

Like they say, "Live and let live!!!"

Cable TV vs DTH

You all know that cable TV provides lesser video quality as compared to DTH. Still people use it because cable TV is still cheaper. But you all may switch to DTH for a much better quality for a small increase in monthly rent of about 50 Rs.

Some misconceptions about DTH :

1. DTH dish antenna is smaller in width than the bigger one that your local cable man has. It is NOT because  the DTH antenna receives lower signal strength than the cable person's. It is so because your DTH dish receives signals from a different frequency band called Ku Band whose frequency is about 2 to 3 times higher than the C Band which the cable man's larger antenna uses. The idea is that, higher the frequency lesser is the diameter of the receiving antenna.

Also, it is this higher frequency of DTH that allows them to deliver over 300 channels per connection which may not be possible with the older cable TV. That's why you get more number of channels.

The local cable person supplies the same signal strength as that of DTH but to a larger number of users. That's why you get low picture quality. Why share your signal strength with 50 other people when you can get the complete strength for yourself via DTH?

2. DTH antennae can't receive any signal during lightning or moderate rainfall.
That's not entirely true. It is not the water drops which hamper the signal but the cloud cover. So all you need to do is wait for few minutes until it rains steadily or a lightening strikes and the signal quality will be back to normal. This is because lightening dismisses the excess electrostatic charge created by thunder clouds.  Besides, this is a small price to pay for the 10 times better picture quality.

If you are really bothered about rain disturbance you may shell out a little more money and go for HD channels which are placed at the lowest frequency group; so you are bound to get the best rain tolerance.

Now you know why HBO sometimes doesn't work while Zee TV works fine on TATA SKY during rains. This is also related to the above rain disturbance concept.

Why compulsory digitization?

Besides, many cable suppliers don't pay the required tax for the number of users they provide service to. They do this by understating the number of TV subscribers to the Government. This is easily possible because no one can know for sure as to how many subscribers receive a particular analog signal. Thus, even though we pay tax we cannot be sure whether it reaches the channel owners because it maybe consumed by the local cable wallah. But this not possible with digital signals due to set top box. That's why the Government's forcing us to switch to Digital systems.

Which is the best DTH?

Videocon D2H may be the cheapest of all but I would recommend TATA SKY because it has got the best package organization of all. Get Dhamaal Mix pack for 200 Rs. PM and get only the best Hindi channels. If you further need English channels then add English Movies complete set for 60 Rs PM extra. If you need Sports or English Entertainment soap operas then they are again bundled into separate add on packs.

Dish TV lures customers by offering more channels at same price, almost double than TATA SKY. But note that many channels that if offers in its "Super Family Pack" at Rs. 200 PM are free-to-air channels. Ex. enterr10, cinematv, 9X, etc.

My friend has taken Hathway DTH for Rs. 270 PM and he gets ALL the available channels including BIG CBS channels which are not available in many cable TV services.
But my question to him would be "Why pay for 300 channels when you watch only 60?"
'Pay only for what you watch and watch whatever you pay for' --- this is the new digital TV mantra.

So guys, I urge you all to go digital ASAP.

Airtel 4G, 3G speed hack via proxy

For those who may be getting lesser speeds on Airtel 4G i.e. less than 40 Mbps, you may try using the below IP proxies for a free speed boost. Also works on 3G networks of Airtel and Reliance.

14.139.225.90:3128
220.225.4.250:3128 --- Reliance

124.124.93.155:3128 --- Reliance communications
14.139.225.83:3128
125.19.212.253:3128 --- Bharti Airtel
202.131.100.202:808

BSNL/MTNL users may also refer to this post or my previous post on broadband speed hack.

Tip: Combine them with a web proxy like http://proxfree.com to access blocked sites.

BSNL slow YouTube streaming problem solved!

If anybody is experiencing slow YouTube streaming problem like
1. The download speed is stuck at 256-512 kbps while your subscribed speed is 1-2 Mbps.
OR
2. You are constantly forced to change to 240p to avoid buffering even though you get your subscribed 1-2 Mbps speed on other sites like dailymotion.com, vimeo.com, speedtest.net, etc.

Solution:
Use the web proxy http://www.proxfree.com/ to get high speeds from 1.5 Mbps up to 4 Mbps.
It also supports https:// for browsing G mail and Facebook.
Use ad block for optimized experience.

Another good web proxy is http://85.31.186.21.

P.S.:
Solution is based on my previous post named "BSNL broadband speed hack".
This proxy server is connected to BSNL via TATA COMMUNICATIONS high speed backbone network.

So high speeds are guaranteed.

Google digging

These search query techniques will help to optimize your Google search experience without leading you to dead links or advertisements.

1. "abc"+"def"
Display the results including BOTH or ALL the keywords.
Ex. bread+butter+wine+shampoo+vinegar+cat+crown+ball+acid+alkali+ip

2. "abcdef ghi"
Search for occurrence of entire sub string or phrase.
Ex. "I am loving it"

3. filetype: <required file type>
Searches for DIRECT links to content of given type.
Ex. filetype:ini ws_ftp pwd
      filetype:doc security


4. site:
Searches for content only within the input domain or website.
Ex. site:telecomtalk.info


5. inurl: , allinurl:
Searches for pattern matches only within the websites' URL.
Ex. inurl:security
site:bsnl.co.in inurl:admin

6. intitle:
Searches for pattern matches only within the website's or web page's TITLE.
Ex. intitle:mobile phones


7. related:
Displays all the related or like sites to the input website. 
Ex. related:cucirca.com

8. Hybrid query to search for HTTP/FTP open directory entries.
Ex. intitle:"index of " kahaani dvdrip

9. inurl:view/index.shtml , inurl:indexframe.shtml
Displays unprotected live camera feed links.