I’m not going to kid myself that you guys haven’t already downloaded music or movies online using Napster or KaZaA.  However, I’m fairly sure that most of you haven’t heard of some of these other filesharing systems, some of which are in ways better than their bigger named counterparts.  Mind you, most of these systems have hordes of content that is less than legal, however there is a large amount of stuff that is public domain as well.

I’m going to give you just enough information on these systems to get you on board, however the rest you’ll have to do yourself.  Fortunately, most of these systems are fairly easy to use so that shouldn’t be a problem.  The system that I’m going to spend the most time on is BitTorrent as I feel it (or its technology) is the future of filesharing.

Hotline
Hotline is a system that is about as old (older maybe?) than the original Napster.  It consists of servers and clients (not peer to peer like Napster), most of the good ones being private, invite-only systems.  Hotline isn’t really big in the US, but it is huge across the pond.  Most of the ‘good’ servers consist of collections of the following: appz or warez (computer applications), movies, mp3’s, porn.  The list doesn’t change much from server to server, but the contents do.  Most of the good servers take some time to build up enough trust to be brought into the fray, as many of these servers are veritable goldmines.  Unfortunately, Hotline is largely a haven for porn addled teens, though there are plenty of good music collections to be found if you have the time to hunt them down.

Hotline uses ‘trackers’ to list servers.  Trackers are websites that list the IP addresses (your address on the net) to their server.  You use the Hotline client to go to the server that sounds interesting to you and log in.  However, like I said, most of the ‘good’ servers are invite-only exclusive deals, and you’ll likely not hear about them on a tracker website.

Waste
Waste is quite new to the filesharing scene.  In fact, in some ways it has never even hit the scene.  About 3 hours after being announced by the same guy who wrote the popular Winamp media player it was taken down.  Turns out his boss (AOL) didn’t like that he was being a loose cannon again.  Yes, I said again.  He’s also the same guy who wrote Gnutella a few years ago.  Well, even though they didn’t want it to be released, he released it with the sourcecode, so the innerworkings are known to the public.  You’ll likely not find many, or even any Waste servers online.  This is because Waste was designed to be used for small, private networks of friends.  Think Napster for your friends and family.  It was also built so that all communication over your Wastenet is encrypted, keeping out snoops, including the ‘law’.

Unfortuantely it is kind of hard to find a copy due to it’s illicit standing.  Even the sourcecode can’t legally be used as it is wasn’t authorized by AOL for licensing (even though a few groups are developing a new unlicensed version based on the source).  So unless someone rebuilds the program from the ground up it will likely remain obscure.  Too bad since it is a great way to share files back and forth with a small group of known friends and is really easy to use.  I guess AOL worried the RIAA and MPAA would go after them and put their nuts in a vice.

  • Waste Website Non-Official site, but it has the program and a short but effective howto.
  • Opensource Waste This is the project that is trying to rebuild Waste with the source.  Their are newer features in these releases, but they are ‘bleeding edge’.

IRC
IRC used to be a really big way of downloading stuff, especially warez (and it still is), however it isn’t very ‘newbie friendly’ and is likely to cause confusion and frustration for most casual filesharers.  IRC is an old Internet chat system (IRC = Internet Relay Chat protocol) that also allows people to upload and download files back and forth.  IRC servers used to be more abundant way back when, but with AOL instant messenger, ICQ, etc. it became relegated mostly to lonely dweebs, perverts and warez traders.  To quote Obi Won, “You’ll never see a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”.  You’ll likely not find too much in the way of great music collections, but if you want warez or movies, it is a place to look.  However, be forwarned that the wait queues for files tend to be very long and download speeds can be exceedingly slow.

You may also want to take precautions in that it is fairly easy to figure out who you are if the ‘law’ decides to track you.  This is true in most cases online, but IRC doesn’t do much at all to hide your identity.  In other words, if you are doing stuff that might find you in copyright trouble, be careful.

  • IRC Howto This site has a good intro to the world of IRC.
  • PirchWorld Back in the day I used to use Pirch.
  • mIRC The big name in the field.  I still think Pirch is better.

Usenet
Usenet (also known as Newsgroups) is probably the oldest way of trading files online other than through an ftp or website.  Usenet is the equivalent of a digital bulletin board (think old school BBS systems, without the ‘fancy’ BBS interface).  It’s still running after about 25 years.  There are countless Newsgroups on the Usenet.  Also, the Usenet is fairly well catalogued, almost to the beginning.  Yep, that means, just about everything ever posted on the Usenet exists to this day in an archive.  This however isn’t true of the binary archives, as there are way too many files that have been traded over the Usenet than could be easily archived.

Usenet today is a great resource for information, almost an encyclopedia of sorts.  However, this resource got screwed up in a number of important ways.  First of all, back in 1993 AOL allowed posting to Usenet, which was great for AOL users, but the moderators of the Usenet, who keep the posts clear of abuse almost went crazy with the flood of new users, unused to the rules of eqiquette of the net.  Thus also started a lot of early spamming to the Usenet, which persists to this day and is very difficult to control.  All you’ll need to get on the Usenet is a newsreader application and Usenet access (which most ISP’s offer).  Usenet is a great place to find music, movies, applications, etc. if you are willing to learn it’s intracacies, but most newbies will also become frustrated with it when compared to the relative ease of use of KaZaA.

  • Usenet Info A good intro to Usenet site.
  • NewsReaders Another good intro site.
  • Thunderbird A good free newsreader client.
  • Free Agent The big name in the field.  I still like Thunderbird more.
  • Google Groups You can’t download binaries (data files like programs, music, videos) from Google Groups, but you can post and read forums.

WinMX
WinMX is my favorite of the current peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing systems.  It doesn’t have nearly as many users and files as KaZaA, but it also doesn’t have a plethora of invasive spyware, isn’t the target of virus writers, and is fairly under the radar of the RIAA.  It has a familiar, easy to use interface that most Napster and KaZaA users will feel comfortable with.  It can also, optionally, log into OpenNap networks, increasing the number of files your searches will find.  Back in the day of Napster, some folks figured out how the Napster network works, and devised a way to create their own Napster networks, called OpenNap networks.  WinMX has a good collection of music, movies and applications, however the wait queues can be long.  Expect to add stuff to your queue and wait overnight or longer for files to complete (or sometimes to start, depending on your place in the queue).

WinMX is free, spyware and adware free and is nice and stable.  However, it is Windows only; Sorry Mac and Linux fans.  I’m happy for the most part with using WinMX.  Mostly, until I found the next item on our list.

BitTorrent
BitTorrent is the reason why I wrote this article in the first place and I’m going to spend a little more time on BitTorrent than the other options above.  Now first, I should say, it really isn’t that hard to use, but I’m giving you lots of info here to get started, so don’t be overwhelmed.  It’s a filesharing network with a funny name and well, a funny way of sharing files.  It’s all based on the give a penny leave a penny idea.  You post a Torrent (a file that describes where the file you want to share is located) onto a tracker, similar to the way Hotline works and also upload a ‘seed file’.  However, instead of their being an interface on the BitTorrent program, the person downloading your file just downloads that torrent file (named something.torrent) you posted on the tracker and then executes the torrent.  This kicks off the BitTorrent client/server application which then goes about downloading the actual file.  As the file is being downloaded, it is also being shared by other folks downloading that same file.  In essence, what is happening is that everyone is sharing parts of the file they have downloaded with each other.  This takes the load off the network and spreads it across multiple machines, which is significant when you are downloading media files like episodes of Smallville, which are often about 700 Mb.  When you have 1000 people downloading a huge file all at once, it can take down a server, but when those people are downloading a little bit at a time from each other, it spreads the load and makes it more efficient.

The only problem is that this only works when folks who’ve finished their download leave their Torrent open.  This is the ‘leave a penny’ part of the equation, which is just as important as the take a penny part.  If people don’t leave their Torrents open, then their won’t be anything to seed the file to prospective downloaders.  In this way, Torrents are not static.  They sort of gain in popularity and then lose popularity and will fade from the net altogether when nobody is seeding the file anymore.

Something to be aware of with BitTorrent is that you will NOT find the multitude of files that are on services like KaZaA.  However, most of what is there is quality stuff, sifted through by moderators and users who rank torrents.  Don’t expect to find that obscure cover by that obscure band that you and three other people have only heard of.  Also, get the stuff while the getting is good.  As I said above, a file that was hot today may no longer be available to download 2 days from now because everyone who was interested in it already shared the hell out of it.  The Torrent may be listed on the tracker, but the seed file that started the torrent may no longer exist, effectively nullifying its existence online.  Conversely, if you are trying to keep a torrent alive, and please do, leave your BitTorrent of that file open longer so that a seed file exists for a while.  I usually try to seed at least 1 full file before I take my copy offline (by closing Azureus).

There are a number of BitTorrent client/servers out there and a lot of trackers.  Unlike Hotline, most Torrent trackers are open, however there are private Trackers and Torrents.  Fortunately there are plenty of really good Trackers freely available.  By the way, I call the BitTorrent application a client/server because it really is both and has to be in order for the network to function.

My favorite BitTorrent application is the Java based, Azureus.  The Official client is nice, but lacks the features Azureus has.  You’ll have to have Java on your computer to install it Azureus.  After installing Azureus you are set to find some .torrent files on a Tracker.  My favorite Trackers are SuprNova.org, FileSoup.com and Torrentz.com (in that order).  They have most of what I want, which is TV shows as I’m stuck with rabbitears in my apartment and can’t get in some of the stations I enjoy very easily.  Of course, you can also find stuff like movies, games, appz, music, comics, and of course porn for you pervs on various trackers.

Go to one of those sites, look around to see if there is anything of interest to you.  Download the .torrent files and save them on your computer.  When you are done looking, go to where you saved the files and double click each of them to initiate Azureus to start downloading the files.  Azureus will estimate the download time.  If the file is really hot right now, there will be a lot of people sharing it and the transfer should go fairly quickly.  It usually takes me a few hours to download a TV episode.  Really big files can take significantly longer.  I usually leave my machine on all night when I go to bed.  When I wake up, I will have a few things downloaded.

A few pointers on downloading BitTorrent stuff (also applies to most of the other sites and services): Music is usually in the popular .mp3 format, no problem there.  Also, sometimes entire albums will be ‘wrapped’ into a big mp3 file called an AlbumWrap which you’ll need AlbumWrap to unwrap.  Sometimes find it in the .ogg format, which most players like Winamp support.  Some music is in a format called .shn (or shorten) which is popular with tape traders and bootleggers.  You’ll need a shorten player for those files.  Games and applications are usually self explanitory, unless it’s a console game.  You’ll have to do your own researching for those.  Movies tend to be in the DivX format so you’ll need the DivX decoder for those.  TV shows are usually in either the DivX or .mpg format.  Mpeg (.mpg) can be played by the Windows Media player, so that shouldn’t be a problem.  Comics are usually in .cbr or .cbz format.  This is just a .zip or .rar renamed.  You’ll either need a Zip or RAR application or you can use the CDisplay Comic reader.  I’ll leave the porn up to you to figure out (as if you don’t know!).

Of course, for those that want to stick to stuff that is purely legal, go to one of these sites instead: iTunes, Napster, Buymusic.com, MusicMatch, eMusic, Audible, etc.

This should be enough to get most of you on your way to trading files.  There are plenty of helpfiles out there, as Google can show you if you are having problems.  But jeeze, Let the music play!  Enjoy! ;P

-Hollywood