If you want to get into file sharing, you really need a time machine. Wind the clock back a year, download Napster and Audiogalaxy, and have fun while it lasts. And they were not the only options. Morpheus, Aimster and KaZaA also let users shovel files into a shared folder and download one another's favourite tunes to their heart's content.
Things are different today, and the Recording Industry Association of America must take some credit. Its high-profile lawsuits against Napster, Aimster and MP3.com have made it harder to get music files. The puncturing of the dotcom bubble helped, by forcing the software and service providers to find new ways to make a buck.
Download, say, the KaZaA program now and it comes with Cydoor, an obligatory advertising program. Internet service providers are doing their bit, too. ISPs regard file sharers as public enemies: the "resource hogs" who confused "anytime" services with "all the time". This is their excuse for capping time online, limiting the amount of data transferred, or banning file-sharing services. They use too much bandwidth.
If that isn't enough, kiddies are busy pissing in the pool. File-sharing services are a great way to share viruses, worms and backdoor Trojans without them being blocked by firewalls. None of this makes file-sharing impossible, but it does suggest caution.
Start at Sygate or Zone Labs, and install a free personal firewall. You should also download Lavasoft's Ad-aware, which removes unwanted advertising programs.
Next, try the ad-free KazaaLite instead of KaZaA.
This involves a slightly convoluted two-stage installation, and includes a fake file to tell the software you are running Cydoor. For details, read the FAQ (file of frequently asked questions) at www.geocities.com/poiuyt_1940/KLfaq.html.
KaZaA and Grokster are the leading programs using the Fast Track file-sharing network. The main rival is Gnutella, an open peer-to-peer system. Gnutella users have a choice of more than a dozen client programs including Morpheus, which used to run on Fast Track, LimeWire, and BearShare. LimeWire is probably the leading Gnutella client, though it is ad-supported unless you pay $9.50 to register.
Being written in Java, LimeWire runs on Windows, Mac OS 9 and OS X, GNU/Linux and Sun's Solaris. But Windows users have better alternatives, such as Gnucleus and Shareaza.
Pioneers may also be interested in trying Swapper.net: the first Gnutella client written using the Microsoft.net platform. Although it is small (521K), you have to download the Microsoft.net framework to run it (21MB).
Gnutella has all the right buzzwords on the open source, peer-to-peer front. The problem is it may not work very well. While writing this, I only managed to download one MP3 file with a Gnutella client, and even then it didn't play.
However, if Napster has an heir, it's surely WinMX. It is easy to use, does not have any advertising or spyware companions, and finds loads of files. Alas, it can still be difficult to get them. There are always long queues for whatever you want, and the person sharing it is offline visiting Mars. WinMX also seems to be forcing users to upgrade, but at least the latest software tries to keep your place in the queue.
Fire it up last thing at night, queue a bunch of songs and, with luck, your PC will have retrieved a few by morning. But all these file-sharing programs seem to work at depressingly slow speeds, typically less than 2K per second. Even when downloading a file from multiple sources, they struggle to reach 10K/sec.
It is much quicker to download from people who share music via the web, upload files to Yahoo groups or Streamload, or post them to alt.binaries.sounds. mp3 newsgroups. It may now be better to think of file-sharing systems, and their chat rooms, as a way of finding friendly people with similar tastes, rather than as a source of files.
Add each other to your buddy lists on an instant messaging service such as AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), which lets you share files at higher speeds. I usually get at least 10K/sec and have managed 45K/sec downloads with ADSL.
Following the publicity surrounding the death of Napster, file-sharing services are booming. According to statistics from research firm comScore Media Metric published at Internet.com, KaZaA's average monthly US home user base grew from less than one million in the second quarter of 2001 to 9.4m by the end of last month. Often there are more than 3m people online sharing more than 600m files. It makes KaZaA a good place to start - as long as you remember it's just a start.
