What are the pros and cons of downloading Limewire or any other file sharing program???

Answer 1

Hey Dudette,

Limewire is a great "Peer to Peer" file sharing program. What it basically does is turn the WWW into your own personal network, with about 5 billion other people.

In your house network, it is a niceity to be able to share files and folders between computers and users. These may be pictures, video, music, important documents. As long as you own them, it doesn't matter which computer YOU access them. They are yours.

With limewire, you open up many files and folders, on purpose and not so "on purpose" because of the lack of security of the program, to the 5 billion people online.

So, not only are you sharing your files and folders with other people, you might be helping them do something illegal. Just as providing drugs to people is illegal, so is providing users with music, videos, and other things that they do not own.

Now, about the program. The program itself has, over history, been full of bugs and exploits that would give people access to your computer. You might say "What does anyone ever want with my computer?" Four things!

1. Storage space. If I can store my files on your computer so that I can get to them whenever I want, good for me! This isn't such an issue now with how cheap storage is, however, it is still an issue for those in other countries.

2. CPU time. Back in the day, we would have to fight for time with a CPU. Hacker (good guys) and crackers (bad guys) can install programs on your machine that actually crunch number for them and send them results.

3. Bandwidth!!!! If I can steal your bandwidth I can do other things with my bandwidth.

4. This is it! They want your identity! With enough information from your computer, I might be able to steal your identity and virtually become you.

That is just with the Limewire program itself.

Now, most everything that you download may have a little extra payload. It may come with viruses, bots that "phone home" and do the things above, trojans, and all kinds of other spyware. It will make your computer slow to the point it is unusable.

Hope this helps a little.

Tom

Answer 2

Pros: You can get some good shareware, music, videos, etc.


Con: My experience with Limewire is that it is plagued with viruses. Other file sharing web sites have similar problems.

Con: Sites like Limewire have files and software to share that are legitimate, but also many files and software that are illegal to share.

Answer 3

Pros: access to a lot of shared files (many of which are illegal because they're free); easy; fast

Cons: Higher risk of virus and spyware infections (people disguise some downloads by changing the name or size). Illegal in most cases.

Answer 4

Pros - you get software or music or e-books.

Cons - that could be stealing. But it is also a security risk to use P2P sharing programs. It opens your computer up to Hackers. Watch your P2P program carefully, and close it BEFORE you walk away from your computer. Be sure to keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware program up to date and active. Be sure to SCAN all downloads with your anti-virus software before you open it.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 5

Pros - Free music downloads

Cons - Going to jail or being fined thousands of dollars

Answer 6

first of all when you download something from lime wire u could get spy ware and it is illegal. But u probably not get caught.