Sites, FLACs and MP3s

[johne_3065]

Q1. I see that a lot of download links here are to Megaupload and Rapidshare. I have tried a number of these, but the downloads are V-E-R-Y slow and a lot of them bomb out part way through. Is there anything that I can do to improve the download speed and success rate for these downloads? I am a cheapskate and have not paid for a premium account on either of these. Does this fix the problems?

Q2. Mediafire seems a very good service and does not seem to have the same problems that I am experiencing with Megaupload and Rapidshare. Files are stored there indefinitely and you can use download accelerators and download multiple files at once. How come Mediafire is not the download service of choice here?

Q3. The MP3s that I have downloaded have gaps when played back. I use Foobar 2000 and still get the mini-gaps. Also when I burn the MP3 to a CD as a standard audio CD using Nero, I get the gaps. Any help to get rid of the gaps would be greatly appreciated. I can see the advantages of MP3, mainly file size, but these gaps REALLY bug me, fusspot that I am.

Anyway, thanks for listening and hope I can contribute here.
Cheers, JohnE