How To Have Fun And Keep Safe When Using Peer To Peer Software by
Terry Brazil
Start Enjoying Peer To Peer Software All Over Again
As you may have found out by now using peer to peer software can be very fun
and good way to get your favorite music, movies, games, and whatever else you
want to download. I am sure that you have also heard though that using peer to
peer software can openly invite computer problems like adware, spyware, trojans
and viruses. Not to mention some files may be illegally distributed and could
cost you some very hefty fines. I however want to show you how to safely use
peer to peer software just the way it should be.
The Problems With Public Peer To Peer Software
There are several problems that need to be addressed with public peer to peer
software. The biggest of them is that they are not monitored. As soon a free
peer to peer software program is released it starts building up steam and more
and more users join. Some of these users sole purpose in lives are to make
others miserable. People will put things like trojans, spyware, adware, and
viruses in their files and then distribute them to others. This causes a huge
chain reaction as it spreads throughout that particular peer to peer software
community. This completely ruins it for everybody.
Here Are Descriptions Of What These People Put On Your Computer
Trojan: A destructive program that masquerades as a true application. Unlike
viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as
destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that
claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your
computer. These are installed once the file is open and starts every time you
turn on your computer. These programs can even allow someone to take complete
control of your computer.
Spyware: Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's
Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising
purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of
freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet;
however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware
applications do not come with spyware. Once installed, the spyware monitors
user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background
to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and
even passwords and credit card numbers.
Adware: A form of spyware that collects information about the user in order to
display advertisements in the Web browser based on the information it collects
from the user's browsing patterns.
Viruses: A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without
your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate
themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a
copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a
simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and
bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable
of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.
As you can see you would never want any of this stuff on your computer. These
are the most common reasons peoples computers crash and need to be reformatted
resulting in the loss of valuable data. There is really only one way to avoid
this happening to you. That is to join a private peer to peer network. Many of
the people that want to such destructive things will not bother going out of
their way or paying to do so. Why would they ever want to do that when there
are millions of people to wreak their havoc on much easier.
The Shinier Side Of The Peer To Peer Software Coin
As you very well know peer to peer software is not all that bad. There is no
other way out there to get the music, movies, games, or whatever else you want
on demand. To buy all of the things the average user downloads in a month would
run literally into the thousands.
Peer to peer software is also the best way to insure that you get the titles
that you want as quickly as possible. When downloading strait from the web or
even on IRC for that matter you may have to wait weeks if not months to see the
most newly released products. With peer to peer software everybody works
together so that you can get the newest titles as soon as they are available to
the public and sometimes before they are.
Speed is also a major plus for peer to peer software. If you where to download
a product from the web you may have to settle for a speed allot slower than you
connection will allow you to or even worse you may have to wait just to get
that slower connection. When you use peer to peer software you can utilize the
Subscriptions of everybody else on the network that also has that file. That means
instead of downloading the file from one place you are getting it from several
hundred places. You will never have to worry about the file being inaccessible
because a site is down or a person turned their computer off.
Search speed is just another major factor when you become a downloading freak.
When using web pages and Subscriptions like IRC it can take quite awhile to find
what you are looking for. You have to jump from site to site or server to
server depending on what you are using, just to see what they have available
for you. Then like mentioned before you have to deal with slow speeds and
possible a waiting period. Some IRC servers even require you to upload a file
to the server before you can even download anything. With peer to peer software
you can download anything without having to bother with uploading anything, it
is all done automatically.
With all public peer to peer software applications you have to worry about a
variety of other things such as amount of files, audio quality, video quality,
legal issues, and possibly the biggest of all no tech support. These public
peer to peer programs don't offer tech support even though they are still
making money off of it by means of advertisements. They would simply be to
swamped with the amount of users they get.
5 Steps To A Safer Peer To Peer Software Experience
1) When installing your file sharing software, do not allow it to scan your
hard disk for media to share. If you do this, it may end up sharing out every
single song, video, picture, etc. it locates, regardless of whether it is
copyrighted. This is a very important, especially if you have ripped your CD
collection on to your PC. 2) Once you have set up the software, configure it to
use a new folder as your shared folder. It may be worth putting some freeware
items in the shared folder to make it look like your are not a 'free loader',
e.g. the latest copy of Winamp, OpenOffice, music made freely available by the
author, etc. depending on your uplink bandwidth. 3) If the file sharing
software offers the ability to disable the browsing of your shared files make
sure is checked. While this does not prevent your file sharing software from
sharing out files, at least it prevents nosy people from remotely checking what
you have shared out. 4) Periodically check the list of items your P2P
application is sharing. Most P2P clients can view a list of shared items and
this way you can make sure that you are not sharing out content that should not
be shared out. 5) If you download something that you are not fully sure is free
of copyright protection, immediately move it out of your shared folder once the
download has complete. By default, file sharing software automatically shares
any downloaded content, so just be warned. Some file sharing software such as
eMule and BitTorrent clients even share out partially downloaded files.
Final Words And Recommendations
First off when using any peer to peer software I strongly recommend using a
program like Peer Guardian. You can get Peer Guardian at
http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
. This software gathers a large list of computers you many not want to have
access your PC (RIAA, MPAA etc.) and blocks them from connecting to your PC (to
browse your shared files, see what you are downloading/uploading etc). It isn't
a 100% safe of course, as the lag between them changing there IP and
PeerGuardian updating to block it would allow them time to theoretically
connect to your PC if they really needed to, also not every single "anti-p2p"
IP is known, so it does not leave you completely safe either way. However, for
most P2P users it is still well worth having providing you update often. It
does however slow down your PC when it is running, so I would suggest disabling
it to start automatically with windows and run it only when you have P2P
applications running.
Second off join a private peer to peer software group. This highly reduces the
risk of getting files that have trojans, spyware, adware, or viruses in them.
It is still possible but a lot less likely. You are also a lot less likely to
be caught downloading something you shouldn't since it is a private group and
not just everybody access it. Overall these groups are the closest thing you
will ever see to safe havens for peer to peer software users. I recommend
iMP3Download (check it out at
http://www.guruofinfo.com/Recommends/imp3download/) because of it's
large amount of files. There are over 14 million mp3's as well as millions of
games, movies, and software. It also gives some killer speed this group reaches
speeds about two hundred and fifty times faster than kazaa and is completely
spyware and adware free. They also give 24 hour tech support so you know there
is somebody there if you have problems.
About the Author
This article originally posted on
http://www.guruofinfo.com where
you can find the solutions to your problems.
iMP3Download -
http://www.guruofinfo.com/Recommends/imp3download/
|
