whats the safest and best peer to peer software..lime wire,share bear etc ?? any others ??

Answer 1

As far as clients that use the Gnutella file sharing networks such as Limewire, Bearshare, and a variety of others goes the safest and best would have to be Frostwire. Frostwire is entirely adware and spyware free. It also has all of the same features as Limewire Pro and then it has some features that even Limewire Pro lacks. As far as torrents goes I suggest Azureus. While Frostwire does have the ability to download torrents I find that Azureus does a much better job of managing them. It's working out quite nicely for me and has a variety of plugins available for it.

I noticed that your question only refers to p2p software and judging by your examples that you gave I'm going to assume that you meant p2p clients. A variety of p2p clients come bundled with adware, spyware, viruses, or varoius other forms of malware and that is the only threat that a p2p client itself could pose to your computer. The real danger posed to your computer by using p2p file sharing networks comes from dangerous files that you could potentially download using them. In order to avoid downloading dangerous files such as viruses, trojans, and all varieties of malware you must think about what you're downloading before you download it. Oftentimes the dangerous files will be exe files and therefore you should avoid downloading these especially if they are under 1MB. You should pay attention to the file sizes as well because if something isn't nearly as big as it should be then it probably isn't what it's labeled as.

Even if you pay attention to file sizes and avoid downloading small exe files you may still accidentally download the occasional piece of malware. To protect yourself from your own slip ups you'll need to have a good anti-virus program installed as well as an anti-spyware program. At the bottom I will list download locations for free and effective versions of every type of program that I recommend you should have for a safe and enjoyable p2p experience. Using on access scanning your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs should deal with the majority of malware as soon it finishes downloading. There are ways of encrypting the contents of an exe file which makes your anti-virus incapable of detecting the danger it may pose until you actually run the file yourself. The on access scanning will deal with it when you run it but to be on the safe side you should do a weekly scan of your entire computer just in case your anti-virus program wasn't running when you downloaded a file.

Another risk of using a p2p network doesn't come from the clients you use to connect to the network or even the files available on the network. It comes from the government, RIAA, and the other numerous anti-piracy organizations. In order to decrease the likelihood of finding yourself involved in an extremely costly legal dispute with an organization that has virtually unlimited resources and more lawyers than you can count you need to take a few preventative measures. One of these is to download an IP blocker such as PeerGuardian 2. PeerGuardian 2 once installed will automatically block the known IP addresses of anti-piracy organizations and it will automatically update to the most recent block list available to minimize the risk you take using p2p.

That takes care of the computers that are known to be used by these organizations that would enjoy giving you hefty fines and perhaps even some jail time but there is still the chance that an unknown computer being used by these organizations can bust you. In order to minimize the amount of evidence that they would have available to prosecute you with you would need to encrypt your downloaded files. If you're using 256 bit encryption and a good password then it should be impossible for any organization on the planet to gain access to your files within your lifetime using our current technology. My personal preference for encryption is Truecrypt. I've been using it quite some time now and it's easy to set up.

Since I took the time to give you what will no doubt be the best answer to your question I thought I may as well tell you a little bit about myself and my qualifications. I'm 18 years old, have an IQ of approximately 180, and I tend to get along better with older girls. I first became interested in computers at the ripe old age of 7 when my grandpa bought one shortly after Windows 95 came out. In the 11 or so years since then I have learned a modest amount about them through some reading, tinkering, and a good deal of trial and error. Fortunately I have yet to mess anything up that I haven't been able to eventually rectify. I'm currently dating an awesome, beautiful girl that is a sophomore at a nearby college. I like to eat blueberry pie, the king of all pies, with a scoop of vanilla icecream beside it.

Answer 2

You know, if you stop and think about it, peer to peer connects you to unkown computers all over the world.

So exactly with file sharing peer to peer when you don't know what you are connecting to, how can you even think it would be safe.

It's only as safe as the peer you connect. Do you know them?

Answer 3

I work on computers, build them, troubleshoot them, ect. ect. and have since 2000, I have ALWAYS used LimeWire and LimeWire PRO because it's ad-free, spyware free, and virus free. It's safe, not a memory hog, and easy to use. Morpheus, Bear Share, Kazaa, WinMX, most are either shut down, or filled with spyware. LimeWire all the way.

Answer 4

i heard torrents are good
and Limewire is the fastest and more reliable than any other
try getting PRO not much a difference
umm but dont forget to run your ant-virus and update weekly for new detections you never know a song may contain a trojan or spyware!! i never share my files soo yeah
BEWARE OF .EXE AND .ZIP!!
IF SONGS ARE LIKE LESS THAN 200 KBS ITS A VIRUS
USUALLY WHEN BIGGER THEY ARE REAL
Windows Defender
Spy bot search and Destroy
Ad-Aware SE Personal
McAfee is good

much luck!