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Some methods don’t exactly fall into any of the categories mentioned above, so I want to mention them separately. You’ve probably heard of Napster through the news on TV and online. Napster is dedicated to the exchange of music files and is not a general file sharing program. But if sharing MP3 files is all you want to do, Napster handles the job exceptionally well and the price is right...free (for now). Napster uses the client/server model, but the server isn’t used to store the files being exchanged. Instead, the server acts as a central search engine used to direct one client to another client where the file is located. In that sense, Napster is a kind of hybrid of client/server and peer-to-peer networking. The clients act as both clients and servers in this role. Napster allows you to search for music by title, or artist, or album, etc, and the search engine responds with a list of all of the connected clients with the song available for download. The popularity of Napster and the sheer amount of attention it has received from the record industry testify to the effectiveness of Napster’s model. Napster has spread like wild fire on college campuses, to the point of seriously taxing the network infrastructure of some colleges. Many colleges have taken action to try to block Napster traffic into and out of their campus networks. Before you rush out to start using Napster, there are several issues you should be fully aware of. The most serious is the illegality of exchanging copyrighted songs, which is essentially every song on a CD you buy in a music store. That, of course, hasn’t stopped the legions of Napster users out there. I mentioned that files are downloaded from the other clients connected to the server, and this includes you! By default, Napster enables sharing of the music files on the PC it's running on to everyone else who connects to Napster's servers. However, you can disable this functionality and make Napster run in client (receive only) mode only. Another default in Napster is to keep your computer serving other clients even after you close your Napster client. If you have an always-on internet connection and leave your computer on 24/7, this is a serious problem. This “feature” can also be disabled, but check your taskbar tray in Windows after you close the client just to be sure it has stopped serving. Of course, Napster isn’t the only show in town. Several Napster-like clones exist, such as MyNapster and OpenNap, which range from reverse engineering the Napster protocol to adding more functionality. One interesting file sharing alternative is the GNUtella movement, which can search for and download all file types. GNUtella is best described on the web site:
“Gnutella is an open, decentralized, peer-to-peer search system that is mainly used to find files. Gnutella is neither a company
nor a particular application. It is also not a Web site; in particular, it is not this one, which is merely the de facto hub for
Gnutella information. It is a name for a technology, like the terms "email" and "Web."
To use GNUtella, you’ll need a GNUtella client such as
Bearshare
(screenshot). Many
other clients are available for GNUtella and are
listed on the web site. Bearshare allows you to search for any file type you specify, whether it is .avi files, .exe files, or something
else. You should only run a GNUtella client if you really know what you are doing because of the risks involved in
sharing the files on your computer with the rest of the world. Like Napster, you can disable this functionality, but different GNUtella clients are bound to have different
defaults on whether you are sharing your files. One last special file sharing application I would like to mention is
ICQ, the popular instant messaging program. Not only can you
chat with your buddies when you see them log on, but you can also send and receive files directly to/from them. For some people,
this may be all the file sharing they need, so it is a very viable option. It is instant gratification for those times when you are chatting
it up with ICQ buddies and need to exchange a map for a game or whatever file it may be. The file will travel directly from your
computer to their computer without going through the ICQ server, so this is a peer-to-peer file sharing approach. The biggest
advantages of using ICQ are its popularity, wide spread use, and the ease at which you can send files to another person on ICQ
without either person having to setup and configure a server. Summary [Send comments or corrections to Paul Muehr]
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Tip:
WARNING: Special file sharing applications such as Napster and GNUtella clients provide public file sharing, which
may not be what you wanted to do at all. Be sure to visit their web sites and learn more about these applications before
running them.