Hotfile.com Hourly Limit Bypass Hack

Updated: 2011-03-06. Please see the changelog below for more information..
So you’ve found yourself wondering why you can bypass the wait timer downloads, but haven’t had any success trying to bypass the HotFile.com hourly limit? This guide is for you. We will quickly go over how the HotFile.com hourly limit works, and then explain how to bypass the HotFile.com hourly limit.

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First, you will need to consider this. HotFile.com uses two methods of limitation for downloading on their site. The first, the download wait timer, requires you to wait a small number of seconds before the download link becomes available for submitting. This is controlled by JavaScript, and can be bypassed using my guide Hotfile.com Timer No Wait Hack.

I will let you know that, again, like the last guide I did, Hotfile.com Timer No Wait Hack, this again is not a simple install-a-plugin-and-push-a-button fix. This guide is written for educational purposes for those users who want to understand how HotFile’s hourly limit system works, and how it can be bypassed.

How to Hack HotFile.com for Dummies ™

The Hourly Limit enforced by HotFile.com does not use solely JavaScript, but relies on server side protection and enforcement of the time limit which is displayed to you in your browser. Instead, HotFile actually records your internet-level IP address, storing this inside of a MySQL database, associating the IP address with the number of files you’ve downloaded in the past 60 minutes.

The Ifthen Logic of HotFile.com – Using HotFile.com’s own logic against itself.

Whenever you request a file, the site’s logic checks the database for the number of files downloaded in the past hour against your internet-level IP address. If the limit has not been hit, you are taken to the download page, and asked to wait through a JavaScript timer. If the limit has been hit, you are shown an hourly timer with a much greater value.

This hourly timer (unlike the standard wait timer) is a passive timer. A passive timer does not actually run any logic programming behind it, as even if you forced this timer to display a different value, you would still not be able to change the core values that actually matter to the page logic, stored inside of the MySQL database.

While we may not be able to change the database’s contents itself, what we can change is our IP address. It is assumed you are already familiar with your internet connection setup and have a decent understanding of the layout of your path to the internet.

Just give me the recipe! I’m gonna’ bake me some downloads!

Step 1: Get your IP

First of all, before you reset your IP, let’s find out what it is, so you can see if you have successfully reset your IP or not. Please visit my IP address detect page here, What is my IP? to get your current Internet Level IP Address. Once you have it, please make a note of it.

My Internet Level IP Address Direct Detect script will immediately show you your internet-level IP address, the one that matters.

Even if we succeed in resetting our IP address, we will still need to get rid of the tracking cookies and server sessions which are stored locally, so that HotFile.com cannot tie our new IP back to our old one via the same cookies or sessions.

Step 2: Clear all tracking files and data.

For FireFox users (v3.5 and newer)
Tools > Clear Recent History, and select at least the appropriate time period from when you first went to HotFile.com since last clearing your cookies / temporary internet data.

Next select at least what is circled in red; Clear at least the cookies and sessions. For the time range (selected in blue) choose appropriate period of time that has passed since you last hit your hourly limit. Take note if the day has changed in the past hour since you first hit your Download Limit. For example, If you hit your hourly limit just before midnight, and it’s 12:42 AM now,that was in the last hour, this would actually be yesterday as the day has now changed since midnight, so select “Yesterday” from the time period, or the equivalent chronological coverage period.

For Internet Explorer users,

From within Internet Explorer (as of Version 8), go to your Menu at the top right of the screen and select Safety > Delete Browsing History.

From the Menu, navigate to Safety and then select Delete Browsing History.

Next a new window will spawn prompting you for exactly what options you want to clear. At least check Temporary Internet Files and Cookies. If HotFile.com is bookmarked as a favorite by you then also select the option Preserve Favorites website data.

Select at least the options circled in red. If HotFile.com is marked as a favorite, select the option circled in blue as well.

DSL (ADSL/SDSL) – Unplug your DSL modem, and your Router. Wait at least 10 seconds, before plugging the power in to your Modem, and then the router.

Cable Modem – Unplug your Cable Modem, and your router. Wait at least 10 seconds before plugging in the power to your Modem, then your router.

FiOS – Unplug the power to your FiOS modem, and your router. Wait 10+ seconds before refitting the power connectors.

Some modems / routers have bigger electrical capacitors, thus hold a charge for longer after being unplugged. You may have to wait an upwards of 10 minutes for the capacitors to drain before you can plug it in for a “cold boot”.

Step 5: Power to Self Test

Now, let’s check that you did get a new IP address. Go back to What is my IP? to check if your IP has changed.

If your IP has changed, great, pat yourself on the back, go back to the HotFile.com download page (* See notes below) and away you go.

If it has not changed, make sure you didn’t skip a step, or forget to reboot one device but not the other, etc.

If you have done all this, please see the below notes in the case your setup is an exception requiring an additional specific workaround.

Troubleshooting and notes

Still having trouble?Things Worth Noting:

It is common for newer Cable/DSL modems to include routers built into them. A good indication of having one, is if your Modem has Multiple Ethernet connections on the back, typically three to five Ethernet connections total.

Many modems which come as part of a VoIP/Internet/TV package will come with Router for the internet, a VoIP transcoder, and TV signal parser, all in one box. Please note that these boxes typically have routers built into them (as indicated by the above stated multiple Ethernet connections), as well as they often contain decent sized battery backups, in order to provide sustained power to the VoIP phone line transcoder as well as to the Internet router in the event of a power loss. You may have to wait a substantial amount of time for the power to drain out completely if you have one of these all-in-one modems due to the huge size and capacitance of the battery.

Each ISP is in control of their own network, and they fully control how often your IP changes, if ever, even if you disconnect / power off your modem and or router for an extended period of time. It could change each and every time you disconnect / reconnect, once every so many days or hours, or even months. If you have a Static IP (often a paid upgrade), then your IP should never change.

*Make sure you don’t refresh the page, but rather retype the URL or copy and paste it back in. Refreshing the page typically re-posts the data, and could re-post any session information or identifiers transmitted via the URL.

There are three types of Internet Level IP Address. Dynamic (DHCP), Dynamic Reserved (DHCP), and Static (Non-DHCP). If your IP Address changes frequently, you can bet you have a Dynamic IP address via DHCP. DHCP Reserved IP addresses are also very common. Currently, comcast gives users DHCP reserved IP addresses for periods of six months at a time, unless the user has specifically requested a permenant DHCP Reserved IP address. True static IP addresses won’t ever change. They’re assigned to you by your ISP, and generally have to be manually set into your router/gateway/firewall device.

If you’re still not getting a new IP Address, go into your router and change the MAC or Media Access Control address of the internet facing interface (Ethernet port usually) for your router. Then reboot your router after applying this change.

Happy HotFile Hacking!

Revisions:

2009-10-01: New IP detection method added, removed the old external one. All images, links, and instructions have been updated accordingly. The new IP Address direct detection script can be found here at What is my IP?

2011-03-06: Additional information was added to help users differentiate in the types of Internet Level IP Addresses there are, and in addition another method of forcing a new IP address. This can be found under the “Things Worth Noting” section.

utama

Thanks a lot!

http://utamaers-no-tama.blogspot.com utama

It works. Thanks!

adrian

I use WiFi to connect to internet, will this method work for me?
Thanks!

Teboho

That’s very cool, but I would like to know if this will work on a corporate proxy. Please assist me.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Teboho

Typically corporate proxies (or gateways) will have a static IP address assigned, and this cannot be changed. Even if it was a gateway with an externally DHCP-assigned IP address, the likelihood that you would have sufficient physical or network access allowing you to force a DHCP release and renew, would be slim to none.

What you will need to do, is research using anonymous proxies in order to route your web browser’s traffic through different open proxies in different netblocks over the internet. This will be your most likely option of achieving the feat of “changing” your IP address.

Coldleng

I tried it, and it didn’t work. I don’t know why. I successfully changed my IP address, but I still have to wait.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Coldleng

Did you save the URL to the file you wanted to download to a Notepad ( .txt) document, then clear all your cookies, and history, close your browser, and re-open it? If you do not kill all active TCP connections to the web server, and clean any and all temporary internet files, including cookies, then it will not work as expected. You must complete these steps to, for it to work.

N. Cini

How can this work with Google Chrome? Also, is there any risk in doing this? Thanks for this!

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@N. Cini
In Chrome, the concept would be the same. Go to the menu, and clear your cache / browsing history. Close the browser down completely, and follow the modem / router resetting instructions.

Resaun

Works like a charm!

Kali

You can try ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew on cmd. It can bypass the hourly limit. You can try deleting browsing history before doing the said method.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Kali,

The ipconfig release and renew will only work if your computer is directly connected to the internet, and not using a NAT Gateway or Router. As the majority of people are connected from their home or office connections and are connected behind a NAT Gateway / Router, it will not work for those users. Your suggestion of release and renew on ipconfig will work only for users who are not behind a NAT device.

GP

How do you reset your wireless internet connection?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

Do you have a wireless router in your possession that you connect to, or are you connecting to a wireless connection that you do not control? If it is your wireless router you connect to, follow the instructions above to reset it. If the router is not in your possession, you will need to get access to it or request that the person who does control it, reset it for you.

Johnny

I tried the following,
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

It worked and i do not have have an NAT connection.

Joe Satriani

Just reset your modem, guys.

Raikut

Wow! Great tutorial and it works.That’s the good part. One can learn also what happens actually. I really liked it. 5/5.

John

How sad. It doesn’t work for me. Well, you see I use a wireless broadband, SunCellular.com.ph. Please help me.

Evan S.

If the IP address changes, will there be any decrease in speed?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Evan S.
Unless your ISP or network administrator has assigned speed limitations based on IP blocks, then no. 99% of ISP’s won’t limit your speed based on IP blocks. Instead they will authenticate with your login, or your MAC from your modem and will limit your speed based on the plan you pay for.

Hitesh Chawhan

Love you man. Great job! It works! I love it.

Ryan

A simpler way is to just switch off your modem and switch it on again. It works for me, and it also works for the megavideo time limit.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Ryan

This can work, however I have seen a few combinations of modems and Internet Service Providers which would lease you an IP address based on the MAC address of either your modem, or your router. Therefore simply rebooting the modem doesn’t work in all cases, as even if you left it unplugged for a few hours, because you have the same MAC address you could even still be assigned the same IP address.

If this is the case, then you can usually change the MAC address from within your router. Look for the “WAN” or “Uplink” connection settings for an option to change your “MAC” or “Media Access Control” address. Just change one of the letters or numbers around and then save and reboot.

Neorronaldo

Hello. document.forms.f.submit(); first time i tried it, it worked for me. After that, it would not work for me. Please tell what I need to do. I have a modem connection.

Chum

Sir, it worked for me yesterday. However now it does not work. What seems to be the problem? Great tutorial though!

Rob

This doesn’t really help if the files you are downloading take up to 15min to download. I mean it sort of does, but you can’t reset your IP until that last download is finished! This is mostly good for multiple downloads that are tiny and take less than 5 min to download.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Rob,
Your observation is absolutely right. This doesn’t work or help everyone. File sizes vary, and connection speeds do as well. You’d have to use your best judgment to determine if it would benefit you in your situation at all, or not at all.

Wassim

It works man! I thought it couldn’t be that simple.
However, I didn’t need to reset LAN connection.

Penguin

How do I change my IP address. I’m using Microsoft Window Vista. I need help bypassing hotfile.com. Thanks.

Wok

Any tips for people with static IPs? ADSL comes included with my apartment, so I really don’t have any hope of changing it.

Walker

You could simply said instead of that wall of text, “guys,reset your ip”

sud007

I tried it and download 3 files. After that it is showing following message. “You are currently downloading. Free users are allowed to only one parallel download.” When i am actually not. I even tried downloading it in other browsers but no success.

Kasun Kapuwatta

Thankyou

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Walker,

I could have, but then people wouldn’t have learned the tech or principles behind it. You can feed a man a fish, and feed him for a day, or you can teach a man to fish, and feed him for life.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Wok

You can always ask to see if they can move you to a dynamic IP. If that is not an option, you would have to use a Tunneling or VPN tunneling service from a third party service provider.

Peter

Going through all these steps, you could rather wait. It is still stupid. The bests way is to get a premium account. It isn’t expensive.

SwitchKitty

@ Peter – It’s a 3-step process, and even if each step took 5 minutes (which they don’t), you’re still saving yourself 15 minutes of wait time for each download.

So, even in that example, you’ve gained an hour of download time for every four downloads, regardless of file size.

With practice and repetition, you should be able to complete all the steps in just over 5 minutes, now saving you nearly 25 minutes per download.

The knowledge Tanner is teaching is free, the time saved is priceless, but if you would rather spend your money, then that is your choice.

Some people may not have the budget for Premium accounts, and are downloading files that can help them.

So calling freely shared knowledge stupid? Sorry, that is just not right…

@ Tanner – Thanks for this. You are helping many people. Keep up the goodness.

Voodoo

Thanks Man, I’ll yry it

Voodoo

Hey Tanner, I Just tried it. It works but I didn’t follow all your steps, I Just turned off my DSL modem and turned it back on, that was all. I’ve tried it many times, and it works fine for me. Enjoy!

Terry

Thanks brother!

Peter from VT

I rebooted my combination modem/router. I then ran the ip release/renew, etc. instructions on your web site after deleting my browsing history/cache/cookies. And after that, I ended up with the same IP address and the same result with hotfile. What next?

ROADJAG

There is an easier way. All you need to do is change your gateways/router/switch IP address. Request a new one from your DHCP server. You could even just spoof your media access control address if you want.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Tanner+Williamson P. Tanner Williamson

@Peter,

It may be that your ISP is assigning you an IP address that they’re reserving for you based on the MAC address of the Internet facing interface on your router. If you had a router that supports it, you could possibly change the MAC address on your router in order to force your ISP to issue you a new reserved IP address via DHCP. Make sure you reboot after doing it.

Needhelpmygoodman

Thanks- this command works. Other website not did it right. Thanks alot. Thanks!