File sharing program came to worldwide prominance with the release of Napster in 1999 by Shawn Fanning. Napster allowed people to share mp3 music files over the Internet. Since then a host of other file sharing programs have been released which allow users to exchange not only mp3 music files but images, movies and any other data files. Napster was quite a small program that only allowed users to download mp3 files, with later programs such as audiogalaxy and kazaa allowing users e to exchange different types of files. These files includes images, movie files (mpeg, avi), software files and much more. One of the major problem users have experienced with file sharing programs has been adware/spyware. Some of the most notable file sharing companies have secretly installed adware/spyware programs with the installation of the main file sharing program. Viruses are another problem area, with many downloaded files including them. Luckily many file sharing programs are now stating they include no adware/spyware, and have facilities so you can scan every downloaded file for viruses. Next was the crackdown on file sharing by record companies and the 'Recording Industry Association of America. They cited that downloading and uploading copyrighted materials without permission, violated international copyright infringement laws.Many users especially in the US have suffered fines or have settled out of court for fines over $2000. This has led to the release of programs like peerguardian which aim to stop organizations and individuals from collecting data about users without consent. Below is a list of some of the most popular file sharing programs available at the moment, because there is an ever increasing amount of these, i've only listed the most popular,
Napster Address of the Napster web site, you can download the program here - http://www.napster.co.uk ----------------------------------------- What users have said. User rating -  - I still remember using this program nearly 10 years ago while at college. It was the first file sharing program ever created, but was shut down because it broke the copyright laws. It got re-released but there is a charge per downloade like itunes i believe. By User - wyz
BitTorrent This program works slightly different to conventional file sharing programs. It allows users to use third party websites and locations to obtain the address of files 'called torrents' which contain all the download information. You easily find these sites by searching for 'torrents' in Google. Address of the BitTorrent web site, you can download the program - http://www.bittorrent.com/ ----------------------------------------- What users have said. No comments yet
Kazaa
Address of the Kazaa web site, you can download Kazaa here - http://www.kazaa.com/ Kazaa has had problems with viruses in the past, but includes a good help file section to help you avoid being infected. Kazaa has become one of the most popular file sharing programs since Napster was closed down and allows users to share audio, video, images, documents and software files. ----------------------------------------- What users have said about Kazaa, User rating -  - This is the second year I have paid for Kazaa Plus and for the first time I wish I hadn't. I have downloaded multiple songs but haven't been able to hear the majority of the songs for whatever reason. I have downloaded the newest Window Media Player; QuickTime, etc. and still cannot hear the songs. I am very disappointed and am considering cancelling my subscription. I would suggest to anyone considering purchase the Plus edition that they first download the free edition to see if they have the same problem. By User - jennifer ------------------------- User rating -  - Can't hear any songs that were downloaded. I gave away $30. All I get is the run a round from what they call customer support. Big Scam!! By User - Brian ------------------------ User rating - - A dangerous program to download, it fills your computer with spyware files which caused me all sorts of problems with viruses. download it if you want to ruin your computer performance and loose your privacy By User - Mad Marl (18/08/05) -------------------------- User rating - - I am very much disappointed with the rate of virus infection l get each time l visit kazaa. it has slowed down my computer,and even the Trojan horse virus l got is causing nightmares to my computer. By User - Mayinj
Limewire
Address of the Limewire web site, you can download Limewire here - http://www.limewire.com/ Limewire is one of the many of file sharing programs that uses the Gnutella protocols. Limewire is however one of the most professional of these programs and have a very professional and informative web site about their product. You can also purchase a wide range of Limewire merchandise at their homepage, due to the popularity of the Limewire logo which is a cool slice of lime. ----------------------------------------- What users have said about Limewire,
User rating -  - This is the best file sharing program i've used so far. I had Kazaa lite ++, and seriously it sucked,, the downloads take ages to finish (or even begin). Limewire pro might take a while for full movies but at least it doesn't include viruses and adwares.
By User - WillPG ----------------------------------- User rating - - Greatest selection very convinient and very efficient website.
By User - heyji ----------------------------------- User rating - - I think Limewire is great you can download songs fast and easy and there is so much to choose from if you want a song you can garentee it's there.
By User - n/a ----------------------------------- User rating - - limewire is the best. I can't i have tried kazza, Imeshand much more software's but the problem was that i can't get a download without geting a virus in my computer, but limewire it has changed my life
By User - maey ----------------------------------- User rating - - I think limewire is the best but i am still not happy with the download speed some people like me don't have unlimited internet so the downloads becomes slow when downloading. If you can keep it fast even if the internet is slow that will be the best software in the world, and trust me it will make you's alot of buisnes because i've worked in buisnes in about 20 years so you can say i'm a profestional at these staugh.
lime wire
By User - David ----------------------------------- User rating - - Installed Limewire yesterday and am very pleased with its ease of use. It seems to have wider search capabilities than kazaa.
By User - Didits ----------------------------------- User rating - - I'm a software programer and iv been using limewire for a few months now, iv experimented with most of the mainstream p2p programs kazza/grokster/shareaza/nabster/winmx ect and limewire pro is by far the best, firstly the download speeds are excelent for both 56k and cable/dsl connections, the network is huge and the GUI is simple yet slick. The only criticism i would have is the free version has adware so DONT use it, get PRO version. If your a hardcore downloader use bitorrent networks as appose to p2p, there far far faster and far larger source for movies/prog/wares. Azureus is the best bitorrent client but its quite complex, not for the newbie.
By User - oisin ----------------------------------- User rating -  - I've been using this software and it is very good.. BUT there are inappropiate movies (XXX) that pop up when you are searching something else the pop up evertime.. this software should get rid of this on the basic limewire and if you REALLY want that perverted crap you should be able to get a specific one for that. Seperate them so normal ppl don't have to read those disgusting titles when all they want is to search for an innocent disney movie!!
By User - Marsha ----------------------------------- User rating - - I'm new to file sharing. I used shareaza for a while but got frustrated with the download speeds (5kb/s). I now use limewire pro and can download at 1.2Mb/s thats as fast as my connection will go.
By User - Chris ----------------------------------- User rating - - I have the free version of limewire, its fast if you download from the right users. Its very user friendly, and the options menu has a whole lot to offer. I had Limewire pro cracked on my old computer, and it was alot more capable of finding whatever it was i needed. And Marsha, Get used to finding porn on limewire unless you configure the options to not return bogus content. Limewire did a very nice job of making this program for everybody, its just a matter of customizing it yourself.
By User - Get those doobs yo ----------------------------------- User rating - - I was originally using Limewire Basic but then upgraded to Limewire Pro. The speeds i got on basic varied from 5 Kb/sto 17 KB/s. On pro the max i have had is 50KB/s. Chris, how do you get speeds like 1.2mb/s?
By User - n/a ----------------------------------- User rating - - Have just started downloading. Limewire suites me, have used Azureus but unable to crack on to any current movies. I do not believe in ,a free lunch, so how can i be so lucky to win anything by visiting a site? WATCH OUT!!! Even dying ain't free, nor is having your computer de buged. I use McAfee site advisor{ IT IS FREE } and has saved my butt many times. Just as AVG has. That right, it is also free. We will keep looking for more file sharers, so lets keep us all advised. Safety in numbers like [Aliens].
By User - Jon The carnival is over
Bearshare Visit Bearshare Home Page - http://www.bearshare.com/ Search for and share all kinds of files over the Gnutella network. Allows you to automatic resume downloads, assures the completion of all requested downloads. This program works with MP3, MPEG, AVI, ASF, MOV, JPEG, GIF, OGG files. The Bearshare download includes adware. ----------------------------------------- What users have said about Bearshare User rating - - Bearshare sucks really bad because it is loaded with Spyware and Ad Aware. Everytime that you download a file you will either end up with a Trojan or some other stuff. This will allow other people to enter your computer and mess it up to the point where you will have no other choice but to reformat. I personally used Ares Full Edition at www.areslite.com and everyday i run a spyware and virus scan to prevent this type of things from happening. By User - Michael ----------------------------------- User rating - - I also had problems with adware being downloaded... now bearshare is erased from my system! By User - Justin ----------------------------------- User rating - - I used this site a couple of times. Downloads music with no problem. But then I ran my spyware and anti virus programmes, and it was full of infections and trojans. have never used it again.
By User - taffboy ----------------------------------- User rating - - I have used bearshare for about 6 months today i had to reformat my computer, thank u bearshare.
By User - n/a ----------------------------------- User rating - - it was ok until i put spyware on that it messed up my computer, had to reformat.
By User - becky ----------------------------------- User rating - - It worked really well for ages and then one day one of the green lights went red and unabled me to download music. if anyone knows how to get this to work please tell me or if anyone knows any good music downloaders please tell me . Thanks :D:D
By User - Sara ----------------------------------- User rating - - The sad thing is that I downloaded it when it said that it was completely free of spyware. It was misleading b/c what it meant was that the pro version was, not the free version. I didn't have to reformat though.
By User - Travis ----------------------------------- User rating - - Same problem as Sara's... no connecivity after 2 months of excellent connection/download??? WTF?
By User - Cale ----------------------------------- User rating - - good to start wiv then after few month certain programmes wouldent open if they did they would close. problem was free version bearshare 1 word now for get it. use Aeris winmx instead far better. i was all day clearing it out of regestry everywhere this programme bearshare is hopless im glad i dident have 2 reformat. but u think the makers of this software would iron out any problems to begin with like.
By User - Paul ----------------------------------- User rating - - ive used bearshare for years and i haven't had a single problem along those line... a few minor spy ware that could have come from anywhere but thats it, i don't know what the heck you people are downloading but you sure know how to mess your computers up.
By User - Adam
----------------------------------- User rating - - Ive had bearshare for 4 months now and i haven't had any problems. Iagree with adam, i've had problems with my computer in the past but no major viuses. I've reformated my computer quite a few times, but never since dwnloaded bearshare, does anyone know anything about the whole bearshare people tracking users of free version down and charging them. I'm quite worried of keeping bearshare. But i think so far its the best free download service i've used.
By User - Teesh
----------------------------------- User rating - - I've just recently downloaded BearShare, having been using Limewire previously. The Download and Upload Speeds are really good, but have found at least 13 adware / spyware or virus's using Norton and Ad-Aware. So be warned when using BearShare to contantly search on your PC for crap!
By User - Adam
----------------------------------- User rating - - Dudes and Dudets, If you are going to do the download thing i recommend spysweeper by webroot. I have filled my hard drive full of wonderful documentaries, and simpsons and never have had to reformat. Yes there is adware but spysweeper will prevent it from causing any problems and leave you enjoy the web as it was meant to be. Talk to your local geek about spysweeper, get it at wally world for about 30 bones and it comes with a one subscription.
Thanks for reading, i was once like all of you.
P.S. just so you all know and dont waste your time morphues sucks, winmx sucks, ares sucks. if you spend the 30 youll thank me
By User - bolt logan
----------------------------------- User rating - - i've had bearshare for 2 months now and it was brilliant at the beginning. Now for some reason, when i search for something no results come up. I've tried modifying my firewall and the search options in bearshare but nothing has helped. I've had this problem in the past but all i did was to uninstall and then install it again and it works fine however this time nothing works. PLEASE HELP !!!!
By User - adnan
----------------------------------- User rating - - I have been using Bearshare version 4.6.0 for a couple of years and it has been great. All of a sudden, I try to open Bearshare and my computer freezes up. After rebooting several times, the same thing happens. I removed bearshare from my computer, and I tried to reinstall bearshare ver 4.6.0 (which I saved), but the installation freezes up. Anybody have any ideas what to do. I really don\'t want to install the newer version because of spyware, adware etc. Thanks.
By User - Rich ----------------------------------- User rating - - i have been using bearshare ages and never had any problems. you are all probably the sort of thick people that see "you have won an iPod! click here!" and go and click on it. then you wonder why your computer is messed up! DERR!! grow up! do you seriously think you win an iPod just by going on a website?? stop blaming bearshare just because you don't know how to use a computer properly!
By User - og ----------------------------------- User rating - - Well i have to say that bearshare is realy fast on both up/downloads, but let me tell you how i got here first. i bought a new dell pc with P4 3GHz HT cpu & 2GHz ram. first i had kazza lite revolutions, i downloaded more than 100G of mixed files never had a major problem wich forced me to format my HD's till i got bearshare 4xx. first it worked for couple minutes then it stopped, the computer froze. i tried everything i can think of from reinstalling, reformat the hard disk, changing the bandwidth on the connection, getting the latest version, upgrading to PRO,using MCAFEE AFTI-VIRUS & PERSONAL FIREWALL 2005 version, to checking my hardware for possible errors.simly all that didn't work i still have the same problem; on the other hand, i found a way to work around the problem but it don\'t work sometimes. i get just one or two downloads at a time.
By User - nu ----------------------------------- User rating - - I have been using bearshare ages and never had any problems. You are all probably the sort of thick people that see "you have won an iPod! click here!" and go and click on it. Then you wonder why your computer is messed up! DERR!! grow up! do you seriously think you win an iPod just by going on a website?? stop blaming bearshare just because you don't know how to use a computer properly! Response : I know how to use a computer properly, and as such I do not use bearshare. There are many other peer to peer programs out there which are less diluted with viruses, spyware and focus on what you want - downloading completely legal *WINK WINK* files without having to worry about it being a virus. Not to mention the speeds on many of these services exceed "bearshare" many times. I would personally suggest going for a flavour of Bit-Torrent, such as Azureus. You can download a *COMPLETELY LEGAL WINK WINK WINK* feature length movie in around 30 minutes in some cases - Try to get that speed with "Bearshare".
By User - Binary ----------------------------------- User rating - - Well, ive only had bearshare for a couple of days. But, its a love/hate kind of thing. I love it because files download fast and i can find bands on there that i could never find anywhere else. BUT, Im having COUNTLESS problems with it. First I had over 70 files of spyware on my computer after installing it (mostly because of that whenU bull), luckily i was able to remove those. Now, everytime i run bearshare, it will run fine for 5 minutes or so then force my computer to randomly restart without any warning, and thats anoying as hell. Im trying to resolve the problem right now and hopefull i will be able to because for that five minutes the program is working it seems great. By User - flood ----------------------------------- User rating - - I've been using Bearshare for years. No other P2P program is as good as bearshare. That's why so many people use it and one can find almost anything with it. That's also why people try to spread around spyware & viruses with it. You just have to use a good antivirus and a good antispyware programs. Also, just ignore files with 700-800k size. I get a lot of warnings but never get into trouble as Avant AV (with 7 shields)and MS (webroot) AntiSpyware keep my PC clean. If you find any other cleaner P2P programs, you can be sure that they are slow or can't find much or doesn't have many useful features so not many people use them with the result that spammers do't bother to work on them to spread malware. By User - AMD-Geek ----------------------------------- User rating - - Anyone touting Bearshare should have their head(s) examined. The software creates one big security breach. And, you WILL have to deal with "back door" viruses and spyware! Those of you who are in denial, and are currently running this piece of crap, better do a spyware/virus scan with a COMPETENT anti-virus spyware program. Spybot is the most popular free anti spyware software. Download it, and run a system scan. If you're running Bearshare, it will identify Bearshare as one big piece of spyware, with good cause. Also, he Bearshare network has 1/100th the file selection of ed2K. The only people peddling Bearshare are the people who are peddling$$ it. EMuleXTreme is the best free program (with the connection obfuscation box ticked, if you're using servers). Most people use this software on KAD only. And, don't share a lot of files. By User - John Sinclair
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