File Sharing: Pros And Cons Jul 17 '01    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Software Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student (3 From $89 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional From $88 The Bottom Line ::Broadband is bliss. Dial-up is like getting your appendix removed with a rusted spoon:: I am sure that you are here to find out something. This is all about general information about file sharing programs that have been widely spread around the Internet lately and have been the talk of the town. File sharing is actually taking the Internet by storm. I am sure that some of you must be wondering things like “what is file sharing” or “how does it work” well this is why I will put all of your concerns and questions at ease because in this general comment, I will establish not only history about these hot new programs, but I will explain to you which ones are better programs to use, and how to use them. Enter the world where computer media is infinite and download times can get ugly. ::File Sharing: Pros And Cons:: File sharing all started with the extremely popular and controversial program known as Napster. This was still file sharing even though it only held .mp3 audio files. The next wave in file sharing came in with a program called Scour. This was one of the “wide-media” file sharing programs that I have found and one that I have had the least problems with. When I say “wide-media”, I am talking about a wide variety of different file types. On a file-sharing program like Scour, you can download audio, video, text and picture files while Napster was solely .mp3. Like I have said in a previous review, the Napster a year ago was much better than it is now and this is because Napster was forced to install file filters enabling artists to voluntarily blocking their music on Napster. Downloads have just gotten slower as time has gone by on Napster. It was the fastest file sharing program that I have ever seen probably because it did not try to do everything all at once like I see all the time today. Anyway, Scour was a good wide media file sharing program, but it still had its problems. Since you are downloading P to P (peer to peer), downloads are only as fast as the weakest link and with any file on your computer, some may be damaged or in poor quality. Slowly, lawsuits started pouring in to Scour similar to Napster, but this time, the lawyers got to them and they were forced to file for bankruptcy. The last I heard was that they were in talks to merge with BMG music but I have not heard anything as of recently. Once Scour fell to the bloody swords of the vicious lawyers that represented the media companies, many similar programs followed to “keep the torch burning” in this hot new idea of file sharing. I can name several current file sharing programs and not one of them have been as affective as I would have like to or have been a step forward in this technology; rather a step back. I know this sounds confusing because usually as technology progresses, things improve. This is not the case in file sharing. You have to understand that dial-up users like me are what make these services a little worse. You see, if a guy with a cable modem were to download a song off of me, he would only be able to download at about 5 or 6 KBPS even though he has broadband. This is what gives it one of the worse flaws. Some other flaws is that when you get a lot of people trying to download one file at once and the person you are downloading off of already has 5 concurrent downloads, file transfer will suffer and it might even time out on you due to inactivity. Now I am not saying that all we have to do is to get rid of dial-up connections and the problems of file sharing programs will be over. In fact, this is not the case. Some people will be mean and cancel transfers on you. I hate when they do that. Also, I find myself searching hundred of the same file only to see almost all of them being downloaded at one time. There are countless files on the Internet that can be downloaded and that is why I think that these servers go slow. This is because they are taking on too much water and soon will sink. Services like iMesh (one of the better ones), have taken on a new approach to the method of downloading off of their servers. What is so unique about iMesh is that you can download an identical file from multiple people allowing you to have a better chance at un-damaged files, and faster downloads. The problem that I have with iMesh is that it may take a matter of minutes to contact just one person to download off of so the time that you are saving with multiple connections is really being used to make up lost time to wait for those same people to download off of. If that last sentence made any sense to anyone, I thank you for paying attention. It is time to stack up the pros and cons of file sharing. Please keep in mind that this file sharing concept is fairly new and has plenty room for improvement. I think that in a few years it can be perfected because broadband connections will be more commonplace on the Internet. ::Pros:: I think that file sharing is a great idea and has a lot of potential in the future. As of now, I guess that if you have a broadband connection and are downloading off of another broadband connection than things will be much better and it may be useful to you. For the lonely dial-up users like me, we will be forced to wait a few years until our parents realize that AOL is a really bad dial-up service and that getting kicked offline is not commonplace across other conventional Internet connections. Until then, I would suggest that file sharing would be most helpful for a broadband-to-broadband download because anything else would be uncivilized. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ::Cons:: The major problem among others is that if you have a slow connection, than you will always download at a slow speed. Sometimes will be more or less depending on the download source. And if you have broadband and are downloading off of a dial-up user, than even though you have a fast connection, you will download off of them at a dial-up transfer speed. How sad is that? ---------------------------------------------------------------- To sum this whole situation to you my advice would be to wait at least a year or so. Any time from now is better than today because dial-up is obsolete and becoming a thing of the past. The more cable and DSL connections there are out there the better and more useful these services will be to you. Some programs that you might want to consider consist of WinMX Bearshare and iMesh. Thank you very much for reading this editorial and I hope that this may have helped you if not now than maybe a few months down the road in the instant of getting a cable or DSL modem. -::Sparkfan77::

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