Lately there have been quite a couple of interesting new tools for filesharing issued, some of which are good, some less (see my w/u kazaa vs.
overnet). I now will list some commonly used clients and networks:
Kazaa Media Desktop 2.x / Fasttrack Network
Kazaa is the the
most often-downloaded client after Morpheus 1.x and Napster deceased. The
programm offerst various features such as downloading from multiple sources and
a newly implemented point system that gives you priviledges if you share. Sad to
say it also contains a lot of spyware that litters your computer and may hand
over your personal data to greedy firms.
Kazaa Lite 2.x / Fasttrack Network
Simply a ripped version of Kazaa without any spyware and (optionally)
some tools to enhance kazaa, such as Speed up. Both clients profit from the
great variety of users and files existing on the Fasttrack Network.
Other clients on Fasttrack are Grokster, Fileshare, etc.
eDonkey 2000 / eDonkey Network
The donkey is a great tool for searching videos, with a great fan community
putting up links for eDonkey Downloads. While online you are always tied to one
specific server from whose users you can only download (this limitation doesn't
exist in eDonkeys sibling Overnet though). The client can download from
multiple sources, given the fact it finds one.
Other clients on the eDonkey Network: Overnet, eMule
WinMX 3.x
WinMX gives you a lot of options to customize about it, but the main failure
about it is the totaly lame speed it is able to go, even when there is a
broadband connection. The features are nice, and the interface equals a lot the
one of ancient Napster.
iMesh 3.x
Very neat interface with proper search results and nice download speed,
supporting most features the other clients have, too. Unfortunatly contains
Cydoor, which is undoubtfully, spyware.
Bearshare 4.x / Gnutella Network
The bear totally fits for this tool, the Bearshare's speed is really lame but
the hype the existed around Gnutella after Morpheus died did brought a lot of
users there. Spyware-free.
Limewire 2.x / Gnutella Network
Usefull, until the designers went mad and started dividing their resources in
a rather lame free and a so-called "enhanced" version they charge for (which I
never tried, out of obvious reason). It still is good for downloading music, but
as slow as Bearshare, due to the slugishness of the Gnutella Network.
Other Clients on Gnutella: Gnotella, Morpheus 2.x, gtk-gnutella (for linux), etc.
Alternative Clients:
Some less popular, but especially preferable for music download are two
relative newsters among the ever growing hoard of p2p-filesharing tools:
Blubster 2.0
Easy-to-use, multiply-source-capable mp3-only with potential.
Soulseek
A tool that claims to house especially alternative, non-mainstream music,
that ironically has no bitrate or filesize limitation in it's search option.
Nevertheless worth a try.
Most of these can be found at http://download.cnet.com