Napster or Napigator
Written: Aug 01 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Endless choices to download
Cons: Often slow, lost connections
|
|
|
| jpmcgurk's Full Review: Napster |
Napster is one the best applications available on the web, and frankly, will change the way that users communicate data and share information with one another. Although the process itself of downloading audio files is at times slow, the concept of using millions of hard drives as a "central server" is revolutionary, and will not be squashed regardless of what the government feels that they have the power to do.
So there's my schpeel, now for my review on the service itself. Connecting for the first time is painless, and you will be up and running in no time at all. It does matter, however, what type of connection you are using. I connect on a dedicated DSL line, and have not experienced much difficulty in the way of line speed or large file download problems. It isn't the fastest service in the world, but that also depends on the connection rate of the individual that you are downloading from, and other variables that are not exclusive to the Napster service. I think that the service is great for listeners, being able to sample songs before they buy the CDs (yeah, right)!
The service itself is getting better all the time, with thousands of new users added daily. Searching by song title or artist, while being able to decide which users to survey based on connection speed is great (downloading from a user with a T1 is much faster than, say, a 56k connection). There are also chat areas where you can go into a certain group based on genre, and survey each individual users library, assuming that by being in that area, they will have a library attractive to you.
Drawbacks include speed and reliability of connection.
These are not exclusive to Napster, but in any case affect the user's experience. It is advisable to always, when you have the option, download from a user with a broadband connection which is indicated by a green dot. Red and Yellow dots indicate dial-up connections and tend to be slow. You have the option of only seeing search results of users with At Least the connection you specify. Also, higher "Ping" will result in a faster download. Connections are often lost, either by an individual logging off the service, or a failed connection. This can be annoying when you are near completion of a download.
All in all, a fantastic service. Napster is also banned from many college campuses because of mass downloading by students clogging servers. If this is the case, you can use Napigator, which is compatible, and the government isn't trying to shut it down!! In my opinion, file sharing is here to stay.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jpmcgurk
|
|
Location: Sandy, UT
Reviews written: 63
Trusted by: 25 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.