R

After Napster shutdown, a few different file sharing P2P (peer to peer) networks popped up to take its place. The Gnutella Network is one of the most popular. The reason these P2P networks haven't been shutdown by lawyers like Napster was is because they allow anonymous downloading and have no central servers or office. When you download a file, you are downloading it directly from someone else's computer. An online community of loyal users and several client applications like LimeWire are keeping Gnutella alive. Ready to join now and start downloading music and movies for free?

Download & Install
If you haven't already, download and install LimeWire Basic. This tutorial will concentrate only on LimeWire. LimeWire is the most popular Gnutella client because it is both user-friendly and available for all major platforms including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. Not many Gnutella clients are available for all three. It's a free download.

Setting Up LimeWire:

1. Open the LimeWire application. Before downloading or doing anything else, immediately go to the Options menu. The preferences are in different places depending on if you are using the Macintosh, Windows or Linux version of LimeWire.
   
   
   • Macintosh: Use the command semicolon shortcut to bring up the Options screen.
   • Windows: Select Tools and Options from your Menu Bar.

2. If you have a slow internet connection or just don't like to share things, click on Sharing in the left hand column, and delete all of the text in the "Extensions" field under "Shared Extensions." Sharing files will slow your Internet connection down.

3. Next, type in the file extension for a file type that you don't have any of on your computer. In this example I used ".rms" because I don't have any. RMS files are secure RealMedia files. (This will allow you to download whatever you want, and the only files you will share are the .rms ones if you even have any at all.)
   
   
4. Next, select the Filters option in the left column and take a look at Keywords.

Select all three options to ignore: Adult Content, .html files and .vbs files. Most of these files will be junk anyway. It's best to avoid them all unless you are looking for bad porn again.

1. Go back to LimeWire's main screen.
2. Use the "Select Type" boxes that are at the top on the left. There are Images, Documents, Audio, Video, Programs, and Any Type.
3. Then just type the title of what you are looking for and click search.
4. The results may take awhile to appear if you are looking for an uncommon file, and sometimes nothing may come up. This could mean that that file is not on the network. It is a good idea to search again later, because a user might have launched LimeWire since your last search. You can only download a file if a Gnutella user has their client application open and they are sharing the file you are looking for.

Picking the Best Files to Download:
After doing a search you will be presented with a variety of results. Figuring out which file you should download can be a little tricky sometimes. In this example, I did a search for "Shrek 2." I was looking for the movie trailer, but the actual movie is available for download by multiple people on the network. Looking at my results, you can see that some of the files are broken into 2 parts. Sometimes large movie files will be broken down like this to make them easier to download. You can also see that some files mention Divx. If you don't know what Divx is, try to avoid these files. Divx is a video codec that requires special software. Try to keep it simple and just download the mpg and avid files you find. These files will play in Quicktime and/or Windows Media Player.

1. In the Quality column, you will see 0-4 stars. The more yellow stars the better the chance for a successful download. In the # column next to quality, the higher the number the better. The numbers represent people who have that file. If some people quit LimeWire, there will still be other peers from who you can download the file. Always try to download a file that multiple people have.

2. The Speed column tells the other users' connection speed. The faster their connection is, the faster you can download the file. T3 is the best, T1 is next best, Cable/DSL is okay, but Modem is the worst. Dial-up is for losers.

3. When downloading music or other audio files, the Bitrate column is important. The bitrate is the compression level that the original song was compress down to. The higher the bitrate number is, the better the sound quality will be. If you want clear bass or distinctive vocals, then choose a high bitrate. Higher bitrates files are larger in size and will take longer to download. Most people including the iTunes Music Store use 128 kbps. Real audiophiles will pump their bitrates higher.

4. REMEMBER: Be sensible! Say you do a search for the movie "Top Gun." You see that the title of a file is Top Gun, but the file extension is .mp3. This means that is can't be a video and that it is audio. Also, the file size is important. If you want to get a whole movie, and the file size says 1 or 2 MB, then it won't be the movie because movies are huge files.

1. When you find the right file, double click it to start the download.
2. You can preview the file by clicking "Launch." It's a good idea to do this in case the file is corrupted.
3. When a file is done downloading, it is saved to your computer. To see where it is, go back to the Options menu and select Saving.
4. At Directory, click Browse to change the location of where your downloads go. I keep my folder on my desktop.

Extras

Skins: To change the appearance of the program, go to view, apply skins, and then try the different ones out. Clicking on "Get more skins" takes you to the LimeWire website, where even more skins can be downloaded.

Connections: To display the connections, go to view, show/hide, and then make sure Connections is checked. This displays the connections tab, which shows information about who you are uploading and downloading from.

Help: You can receive extra help by clicking on "Help" in LimeWire.

Congratulations, you are now a power user of the Gnutella network. DON'T BUY LIMEWIRE PRO!! Yes that's right, don't pay the 20 dollars up front. Simply launch Limewire Basic, and do a program search for LimeWire Pro, download, and install! Once you feel the extra features are worth it (free updates for 6 months, live e-mail support, and no nag-ware), send your money.

*The writer of this article does not promote the pirating of music, movies, and/or software.

Music Downloads: Legal vs. Illegal Unauthorized downloads dominate online music. Let's take a look at the numbers: Songs shared on unauthorized download sites, such as BitTorrent (here's a tutorial on how to use BitTorrent): 2005: 3.4 billion 2006: 5 billion Songs downloaded from authorized sites, such as iTunes: 2005: 327 million 2006: 500 million Source: NPD Group