I only recently got into the whole MP3 craze. I knew it was happening. But for one reason or another, I never got into it. So my first step was to download and install Napster. Only cow! This is amazing! I can grab any MP3 from any Napster connected machines out there. That is too cool!

So I thought about this technology a little more. Wouldn't it make sense to open this up to all file formats, not just limit the searches to MP3? Someone's got to be doing this. After looking this up on our most trusted and beloved Epinions site, I discovered iMesh. It's a great service with excellent features. But there are obvious shortcomings. Still, it's very promising...

Better than Napster:
- iMesh works just like Napster, except it opens up the searches to just about any file formats: MP3, EXE, JPG, etc.
- During download, iMesh selects 4 or 5 other sources from which you can download the selected file. This allows for fault tolerance. If you are disconnected from one download source, you still have the other sources from which you can download. Napster only has one connection per download. If you are 98% done and you get disconnected, then you only get the 98%. The remaining 2% is missing. To get the 2%, you must redownload the entire 100%.
- It appears the download is faster in iMesh. I can't qualify this since there is no documentation on this. But it does seem like downloading a file in iMesh is noticeably faster than downloading the same size file in Napster.

Napster has it but iMesh doesn't:
- An integrated MP3 player is included in Napster, and not in iMesh. This way, you can listen to the download after you download the file within Napster. However, this might not be a big deal if you have some other MP3 player on your desktop.
- There is a much wider user base in Napster than iMesh, hence the "Napster Community". A wider user base means bigger selection of files during searches. For example, I conducted a search on "Vonda Shepard" in iMesh, it gave me about 20 hits. When I conducted the same search in Napster, it gave me hundreds of hits. In fact, I even had to limit Napster's search so it only gave me 100 hits at a time.
- Napster's search engine is more robust. I can filter my searches even more by the type of connection the source user is on and even the ping (the speed of data transfer at that very moment) of the source user. iMesh only allows searches on a text string. That's it. In the search results, iMesh also provides pictures of worms to indicate the download time of your file. More worms = faster download.
- Napster has the appropriate server hardware to scale to the mass number of users it has. iMesh appears to be lacking in this department as well. I have often gotten "Server Busy. Please try again in a few minutes" error message.
- The iMesh client occasinally crashes on my Win98 machine. I haven't figured out why yet. But Napster has never crashed on me at all.

Despite its shortcomings, iMesh is still a great service...when it works. It certainly has the potential to be a Napster alternative. But, iMesh better increase its server scalability and fix the client reliability if it wants to play in the big league. With the impending doom Napster faces, iMesh better make these enhancements REAL FAST.

Give iMesh a try. You may experience a few more problems than Napster. But its benefits will likely make you a faithful, and hopeful, follower.






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