Wolfsclaw posted on Mar 12 2004 at 04:32 PM said:
p2p is for lamers.
its dangerous, most files are fakes or with viruses or trojans, are incomplete, they miss stuff like nfos or file_id's and the download speed is crappy.
while in irc or newsgroups (let me guess: you never heard of them, right?) the files are superb fast downloaded (with dsl mostly 93 kb/s) and nothing is fake or incomplete.
Oh goody, you took the oh so
original 'all p2p users are lamers' route. "Let me guess, you've never heard of them, right?" Typical condescending talk from someone who has their mind set on only one method.
Let's think about this for a second...
1. IRC is also for lamers. mIRC-using newbies who spam the channel with /ctcp or /msgs that they ctrl+entered by accident, or with colour codes in them. Asking when bots will be advertising or if files are in stock.
2. You want variety? Forget about it. There are a set of major releases that are commonly spread around, but the rest of the files are only available on fserves. Newgroup archives are only held for so long, and it costs money to access so far back into the past.
3. p2p dangerous? Yeah, if you download full albums that are in EXE format maybe. Files from p2p networks are generally just as safe, viruses are about 4 KB and can be spotted a mile away. Even so, you should be virus checking ANYTHING you download (although I personally don't, I have had no bad experiences with p2p)
4. Most files are fakes? Hah! On kazaa perhaps. Try Overnet/eMule and discover the joys of the comment/rating system and hashing files which ensures they are fake.
5. All three of those problems - trojans, fakes and incomplete files - are destroyed with websites like sharedonkey who 'release' files with a stamp of quality. Check the hash and get ONLY the file they put out, and it is guaranteed to be good quality. These sites have as much reputation as major warez release groups.
6. Download speeds range. On Kazaa I could easily max my download with most popular files. eMule is slower, as it bittorrent, but Overnet isn't. The latter benefits from longer uptime so that you can join a bunch of queues, and your speed will simply keep increasing. If you're impatient, P2P is not good. Besides - IRC has queues as well, you know! Not to mention random DCC failures or bot disconnections or NETSPLITS which occur virtually all the time on the major networks.
7. Finally, you missed out IP dangers but put it this way, Overnet is a massive, decentralised file network with less chance of you getting caught unless you download from RIAA IPs or the like (most get blocked quite fast and show up on something like PeerGuardian anyway). With IRC the chances are the University server or rooted box you're downloading from is logging every download, and if the XDCC bots or fserves are found that nice list of IPs might get you in trouble.
- Rico
