The future of file sharing, especially MP3's.
Written: Mar 23 '01 (Updated Mar 23 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free, decentralized peep to peer filesharing.
Cons: Not user friendly, I highly recommend cable and above connections
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend Gnutella. It is a viable alternative to Napster, allowing you to share any file type. I would also recommend a broadband connection, at least Cable.
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| doninsocal's Full Review: Gnutella |
I am going to try to keep this quick and simple. There is a lot of talk about peer-to-peer file sharing with the recent restrictions placed on Napster and Gnutella is among those most often mentioned.
The biggest questions are what is Gnutella and where did it come from.
The answer to the first part is Gnutella is an open source peer to peer file-sharing protocol (program) that enables users to share any file with others running the software while connected to the Internet. Yes, any file. That includes MP3's, JPG's, MPEG, RM, etc.
Now keep in mind that Gnutella is an open source program, owned by nobody, using no server to catalog files or users. Because the application is free, it will not be as polished as other applications we have seen in the past. The cool part is more and more people are figuring out how cool this can be and are starting to write front end applications to run with Gnutella, thus making the software a lot more user friendly and practical for us non programmer types.
Check out Bearshare.com, Limeware.com and Toadnode.com for more info on front-end applications that use the Gnutella protocol for file sharing. I personally like bearshare for its interface and resuming capabilities, and the cool little bear Icon placed on my desktop.
I have been using bearshare with a PacBell DSL connection and have had great success with downloading MP3's. For example, I downloaded BOTH of the Pink Floyd "The Wall" CD's in less than 45 minutes, yes both discs (I own the cassettes so I don’t consider it theft). A typical 5 MB song can download in less than 2 minutes. The way I do this is by selecting several files of the same song for download and usually I can get one that downloads at above 150kb/sec. That translates to a pretty fast download.
The other cool thing about this application is you decide what folders of data to share. You do not have to make every file on your computer available, just the ones you want. This leads me to a very important subject, Viruses.
There is a harmless virus within the Gnutella network. It will always show up on your searches as the exact filename that you requested. It is always 8,192 kb and usually shows up as a exe file. Be careful with the files you chose for download.
Now to answer the question of where did Gnutella come from. If you actually read this far, here is the best part because I love this story.
Most of us are familiar with the program called WinAmp. Well WinAmp is owned by a company called Nullsoft. Nullsoft is now a division of AOL, yes America Online. Now the wonderful people at Nullsoft were writing this cool application to share files and then the people at AOL caught on to what was happening and told them to stop. But not after the cat was out of the bag and the source code available to a hand full of bright people. These people passed it around and next thing you know…OH NOOO. You see, the reason AOL wanted to stop this application from being released is they were in negotiations with another company for a merger, can you guess who? If you said Time Warner give yourself a pat on the back. One of the very same companies that is suing Napster, it’s these kinds of ironies in life that keep me smiling.
I really like Bearshare/Gnutella. It is not the cleanest, prettiest nor fastest way I’ve downloaded files but it is the best priced, most resourceful application available at this time.
For additional info visit gnutella.wego.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
doninsocal
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Location: Costa Mesa, CA
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 8 members
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