The Modern FileSharing Guide

[SwordOfWar]

Most people today have heard of Kazaa, napster and limewire, but this method of file transfer is quickly fading out in favour of more superior methods. This is simply just a short guide containing information and possible recommendations on where the best place is to find the content you want.

WARNING: Filesharing, Hacking (and porn) related websites are some of the most commonly infected sites with viruses, Spyware, Adware and Malware. I strongly encourage anyone wishing to participate in filesharing to first increase your computer's security. The first and easiest thing you can do is to install a different browser to use instead of Internet Explorer! My recommendation is to install Mozilla FireFox http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ or Google Chrome http://www.google.com/chrome ! I recommend Firefox personally.

Next, you need to have some sort of virus protection software, one of the best and free virus scanners available that I highly recommend is http://www.malwarebytes.org/ MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware. The free version allows you to manually scan files and remove viruses. It will not automatically check files for you in the free version, so you will need to manually scan such files before opening them. http://www.virustotal.com/ can be used to scan files using multiple popular virus tools for extra safety just to be sure.

I will say this again, please do NOT use Internet Explorer on filesharing sites (you really shouldn't use it at all unless necessary). Internet Explorer is very vulnerable and it will let many viruses form website into your computer, and most of the time it happens without you even knowing or seeing a download or anything. You have been warned.

Many files you encounter may be in a .zip or .rar format, which is a compressed version of the file. WinRAR will handle these files perfectly and you can use it for free. It is available at http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm You have the option to buy it, but you are never FORCED to buy it, and it will keep working if you choose not to pay for it.

METHOD #1 - Traditional P2P Apps

The most common method (also with the most viruses/spyware/malware) is using a program such as Limewire, Kazaa, BearShare, Shareaza, eDonkey and several others.

My client of choice over the years has always been Shareaza. It connects to multiple networks, including Gnutella (the network mostly used by limewire users), Gnutella2 (mostly other Shareaza users), and edonkey.

Shareaza is open source free software, and only works on Windows XP or newer. Shareaza can be found at http://shareaza.sourceforge.net/

Kazaa is one of the worst out there, and I suggest you to avoid it at all costs. The network used by kazaa is full of bad files and almost nothing useful.

I don't recommend using these programs unless you are searching for MP3/music files. They can find other types of files, but your better off using something else for videos, software etc because the networks used by these sharing programs are full of mostly fake files and viruses.

METHOD #2 - BitTorrent

Bittorrent is an excellent way to find almost anything your looking for. There are some good things and bad things about BitTorrent filesharing.

The Good:

Content is usually always available

Content has descriptions and is organized

Content is usually verified, or at least does not contain viruses or other bad files

The Bad:

You are usually forced to upload as much as you download, or you risk being removed or banned from the BitTorrent site you are using. If the site goes down, in most cases you can't find content from that site until it comes back online.

You need to be a member of a good BitTorrent website. Your ability to find what you want depends on how good the BitTorrent sites are that you have access too. Most of the good sites will require you to gain an invite from someone who is already a member.

Most public BitTorrent sites (ones that don't require an invitation to join) has less content and can contain fake or harmful content.

Bittorrent is a way of sharing files. Someone has to create a torrent package, and upload the .torrent file to some BitTorrent website. Other users can find this file on the website, and the BitTorrent program you use on your computer will use this file to find and download the content from other BitTorrent users.

My recommended Bittorrent client is uTorrent and it is available for Windows and Mac computers at http://www.utorrent.com/. It is also Wine compatible, so users on Linux can also use it.

Simply download and install uTorrent, then find a bittorrent site and you will find torrents to download, which is just a fancy name for a package of content that is shared using BitTorrent programs.

I recommend that you start by trying to get an invite to www.demonoid.com This is a general site with content from almost any category, and it is so popular that finding an invite should be easy for this site compared to other private torrent sites.

For movies and tv shows I recommend trying to get into www.TorrentLeech.org.

For games I recommend BitGamer.com or Blackcats-Games.net - BitGamer is an easier and more relaxed community so I recommend them first. Blackcats-Games is more strict but usually have more content.

For music I suggest What.cd or Waffles.fm - Both of them are great sites but What.cd is better and also easier to get into. You can study up at www.whatinterviewprep.com and take a simple test, if you know what they ask then you will be invited.

ThePirateBay is probably the most used public BitTorrent site. You can find it at http://thepiratebay.org/

If you are new to BitTorrent, I highly suggest that you spend time with the public trackers and become familiar with BitTorrent and how everything works. You will need to know such things before you go into a private BitTorrent site or you are likely to get banned from them.

METHOD #3 - Traditional File Hosting Sites

You have probably noticed people post links to sites such as RapidShare.com or MegaUpload.com or some other site that lets you download a file someone else uploaded. These sites are a very simple way to share files. all you do is find a site you would like to use, upload your file, then share the link with others so they can download it. Usually files on these sites will be deleted after some time or if too few or nobody downloads the file often enough.

Some sites out there will index these files to make them easier to find. An example site is http://www.rlslog.net. If you go to this site you will see some content, like movies, shows, software and such. Each item on the site usually has a list of comments under it, where users post links to download sites so you can download the content. Since these sites are usually not moderated well, be careful not to download harmful content, because anyone can post a comment with a download link.

There are also sites that allow you to upload once, and then the site will spread the file to several other hosting sites for people to download from. www.MultiUpload.com and www.FlameUpload.com are some examples of such sites. The benefit is that you give the downloader more sites to choose from when downloading the files. Instead of uploading to one site, then uploading to another one, and so on, you can just upload once and have the file appear on multiple sites. This will save you a lot of time and frustration if you wish to upload content. Sometimes one site may be offline, or maybe the file got deleted from one site. Having the file available on multiple sites means it is more likely one of the sites will work and the user will be happy because it can be downloaded.

METHOD #4 - Using a NewsGroup service

I have never personally used this method, but I know a little about it.

Basically you have to signup for a NewsGroup service, such as UseNet. Once you signup for the service you can use a program to connect to the NewsGroup service and find files to download. NewsGroup servers usually drop files after they become so old, so it is not recommended for old content. however someone can always re-upload old content again.

The good thing about NewsGroups is that they generally get new content very quickly even before they appear on other filesharing sites and programs. The download speeds are usually also very high.

The major downside is that it costs money to subscribe to a NewsGroup service before you can access the content, which is not a very popular option for most users.

METHOD #5 - Online video streaming

This method has become extremely popular. Instead of downloading videos (such as movies, tv shows, other video clips) you can simply play them online on the website without waiting for a long download to finish.

Some example sites where you can watch Movies/Shows are http://www.watch-movies-full.com/ and http://www.icefilms.info/index

IceFilms is currently my favorite site but it will take a bit of time learning how to set your PC up to work correctly with it if your not experienced with computers that much.

http://www.moviewatch.in/ Is also a good alternative to find something to watch online.

These are my personal recommendations but feel free to search www.Google.com for other sites if the content you want isn't available. Sometimes sites may go offline and you may need to find a new site.

Since many sites will often show videos from www.MegaVideo.com I feel it is important to discuss it also. Megavideo is a site where people upload videos, and usually movie sites will use megavideo to play the video you want to see. MegaVideo has a time limit of around 50-70 minutes of play, and then it will ask you to wait maybe an hour before you can play more content. You can bypass this with some internet providers by simply unplugging your router/modem power off and back on again. It is that box that your internet cords are plugged into in your home.

If you decide to pay for MegaVideo to remove the restriction completely, I suggest finding about 5 other people or so and you all chip in on the payments. This will make it so you only have to pay a few bucks. You also get bonuses on downloads from megaupload.com which can be used to redeem more membership time.

Another way to bypass the MegaVideo limit for free is to install and use Illimitux on the firefox browser. It does work but in my testing the video loaded considerably slower using Illimitux so I only recommend this as a last resort. You can find it at http://www.illimitux.net/

[karachidude]

nice,good work :)