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MP3
Sharing Communities,
Downloading Software
Wanna download some mp3's??? Forget searching for sites and FTP servers. Try joining one of the "music communities" like Napster (used to be the best) and have fun.
Napster : The first and most
famous music community. Unfortunately due to the well-known legal issues, it
is currently using a filtering system that tries to prevent the sharing of copyrighted
material. This means that few songs are currently found on its servers. If you
want to connect to some compatible servers that don't belong to Napster Inc.,
try using Napigator.
Rating 50% (Songs 2/5 Speed 2/5 Interface 4/5)
Audiogalaxy : This program uses
the Internet Explorer to search for songs and could prove unstable for some
systems. Also, Audiogalazy servers are difficult to connect to for several hours
per day (when there is the most traffic). Nevertheless, audiogalaxy hosts the
most songs than any other protocol, and the speed is great, almost as good as
Kazaa.
Rating 90% (Songs 5/5 Speed 5/5 Interface 3/5)
KaZaA (or Morpheus) : Excellent
program. Supports resuming and it is probably the fastest peer-2-peer application
available (downloads a single file from many users simultaneously). Many TB's
of files are shared, most of which are not MP3, but you will probably find the
song you seek (maybe along with its video:). The only real downside is that
in an attempt to avoid legal problems the maximum bitrate allowed for mp3's
is 128kbps. Kazaa and Morpheus are actually the same thing with a different
name and logo.
Rating 80% (Songs 3/5 Speed 5/5 Interface 5/5)
Win MX : Another excellent program.
It connects to its own peer-2-peer network, as well as the OpenNap servers.
Resuming, search for alternatives etc.
Rating 60% (Songs
3/5 Speed 2/5 Interface 4/5)
iMesh : iMesh has a quite unstable
client application, but offers resuming and many shared files (most are video
files though).
Rating 50% (Songs
2/5 Speed 2/5 Interface 4/5)
Gnutella : Gnutella is also very
popular and there are many good programs that access its servers (like Limewire
and Bearshare), but it is not easy to use, and the searches last too long..
Rating 60% (Songs
4/5 Speed 3/5 Interface 2/5)