Frequently Asked Questions

• What is an RSS feed?
• This RSS feed is a simple list of new content to this site that your browser or feed reader will automatically check for updates. Then that list will be accessible from, ususally, your browser toolbar as a dropdown menu. Since the RSS feed is just a small text (xml) file, it doesn’t use as much bandwidth to check as would visiting the site periodically to check for new content. Each item link in the feed’s list will open the location on dhammatalks.org where you can download it. If ever the link automatically begins a download of the item, that fact will be clearly and expressly made.
• How do I subscribe to the RSS feed?
• If you use Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers just left-click on the “subscribe” link and everything should be straightforward. Google Chrome doesn’t have an RSS feed reader, but you can get an add-on that will work from the app store. What Google wants you to do, apparently, is to right click on the RSS subscription link, copy the link address, and paste it into the Google Reader. That is also the same procedure for anybody who uses a specialized feed reader, but then you will know more about how to proceed than I do. This feed is RSS 2.0 but also has the codes that ought to enable it to work with “atom” readers as well. If this feed does or does not work with atom based readers please let the site administrator know.
• I’m having trouble downloading files.
• Some people have downloading problems — with the large .zip archives, especially. This is somewhat normal. Internet connections are often interrupted and resumed, and some download manager applications are better than others at picking up a download where it left off. As a result, especially with very large files, the download can result in a corrupted file. One way of verifying that your download is uncorrupted would be for dhammatalks.org to publish an md5 hashsum for every available .zip archive and you could check your downloaded file against it. Fortunately, with .zip files there’s a simpler way: If the file unzips without an error message, the file is uncorrupted; if the file won’t unzip or you get an error message, the file is corrupted, and you should download it again. If you keep getting corrupted downloads, try using a different internet browser, e.g. if you’re using Firefox, try with Chrome, or vise versa. Also there are many free, quality download managers available, either as browser add-ons (Down-them-all, FlashGot) or stand-alone. These tend to do a more robust job of resuming interrupted downloads and stitching the pieces together. Some even have download accelerator features.


• If you try to download something and get a “404 Content/Page Not Found” message, please contact the site administrator to report the bug.
• Should I download the .zip archives?
• The entire-year and entire-month .zip files are large and may take a long time to download depending on your connection speed and the traffic on this site. Entire-month .zip files are typically 150 MBs, and entire-year .zip files can range from 500 MBs to 2 GBs. Out of courtesy to others, please only download one or two of these files simultaneously. If your operating system doesnʼt have an archive manager installed by default to unzip the .zip archives, you can get 7-zip or PeaZip from Download.com.
• What happened to the .oggs?
• The .ogg download page has been deprecated. The website analytics show the ogg downloads are at best 2 percent of the mp3 download statistics, and in many cases much, much smaller. While we strongly support the principles of generosity and the free sharing of skills in the free software community, the overriding goal of this site is to make the Dhamma available to all in the most straightforward, least confusing way. The ogg-vorbis archive of Dhamma talks prior to June 2011 will continue to remain available here: deprecated ogg-vorbis download page.
• How do I find a specific talk by its date?
• On the newest talks, the day-date is provided. Until the day-dates are applied to the older talks, after finding the correct year and month, just hover the mouse-pointer over the names of the talks in that month. The file-name will appear at the bottom of your browser. For example, “110131 Effort in Time.mp3” indicates 2011, January, 31. Note: Make sure the “status” toolbar in your browser has not been de-activated. For the oldest talks (pre July 2003) there is no day-date as the file-naming convention relates back to an esoteric cassette-tape numbering system that did not preserve the day the talk was given.
• Why do the talks appear in a scrambled order on my device?
• If you are having problems with the Dhamma Talk audio files appearing in the proper order on your iPod or other audio device, the site administrator has recently updated all the audio files with corrected tag information that should resolve the problem. If you do not know how to re-tag the audio files yourself with iTunes, Windows Media Player or another tagging program, you may wish to download the Dhamma Talks again.
• What do “NR”, “(oly)”, “(sony)” & “SF” mean in some talk titles?
• Please note that mp3 files with an “NR” or “(oly)” notation indicate recordings of somewhat lower audio quality -- “NR” for applied “Noise-Reduction” and “(oly)” for “Olympus”, an inferior recording device at the monastery. “(Sony)” is similar to “(oly)”, but the audio quality is much more acceptable. The “SF” audio quality is fine; it only indicates that the talk was given away from the Monastery at Abhayagiri Monastery in the SF Bay Area.
• Which is the correct e-book format for my e-reader: epub, mobi, or pdf?
• The pdf format is the old standard and should be supported by all devices. The primary disadvantage of pdfs relative to epubs and mobis is you cannot enlarge the font and without pushing the text off the screen. The epub format works for all* e-readers, such as Android, iPhone, iPad, Nook, Sony, Adobe Digital Editions, et. al. *But not Kindles! Kindles use the mobi format.
• I want to read the e-books on my desktop or laptop computer. So which format should I get?
• Epub. First of all, the epubs look better and are closer to the author’s original formatting because because of strengths in the epub format itself and because these e-books are created originally as epubs. The mobis are, frankly, one-button-push conversions using Calibre, and it’s a credit to Calibre that they come out looking as well as they do. Secondly, the Kinde-for-PC app for computers is crippled somehow and won’t render Pali diacriticals even though the actual Kindle device will. Thirdly, the epub is a free, open-source format, i.e. in the public domain, whereas mobi is a proprietary format owned by Amazon.
• I don’t have an e-reader yet. Which should I get?
• The epub versions of these e-books look nicer and are closer to the author’s original formatting. If that’s important to you, don’t get a Kindle.
• Is there any free software so I can read e-books on my computer?
• There are a number free reader apps. Purely for reading epubs AdobeDigitalEditions has a slick interface. Calibre is a more comprehensive option which allows for converting to other formats. There are also a Sony Reader app and a Nook-for-PC app. These might be of interest if you also have one of those devices for purposes of syncing. Kindle-for-PC reads mobis but is not recommended. Accesstoinsight.org has a nice help page regarding this subject as well as recommended apps for Android, iPhone, etc. If your computer doesnʼt read pdfs you can download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Or you may wish to download a less bloaty pdf reader like Sumatra from Download.com.
• How can I get paperback versions of these books?
• Please see the book request page for instructions. Please do not contact the website administrator via email to request books. Such requests will be disregarded.