The excellent "about.com" has a great page with information about peer-to-peer file sharing go here>> to see it. There is another excellent series of pages about the same here>>

EFF As more people are getting nervous about peer to peer music sharing it may be worth a visit to the Electronic Frontier Federation where you can find huge amounts of information about your rights.

• Zero Paid is a peer to peer file sharing portal site offering vast amounts of information fact sheets, chat rooms and programs. A great starting point for information.   There are over 80 programs listed that cover all your file sharing needs. Along with the ones listed below you should never need to find a way to download your music files. Another area to visit is the links section here>>

• E Mule is a new file-sharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network, but offers more features than the standard e-Donkey client, because it's open-source but under the restrictions of the GPL License. The interface is excellent and the download speed also better than Kazaa making it my current choice of P2P download engine.


• Kazaa Lite You can now download a spyware free version called Kazaa Lite. Downloads and general information can be found here>>

• Kazaa lite Holland is a very good site in English for tips and help with Kazaa.

• Kazaa Movie Downloads offer many current movies to download. I haven't tried them as the download speed was quite slow.

• WinMX is an excellent alternative free file-sharing program which is  like no other. It allows you to simultaneously connect through the decentralized WinMX Peer Networking Protocol AND to many networks based on the Open-Nap and Napster protocols. This means MORE USERS and MORE SEARCH RESULTS than other sharing programs. WinMX also supports any file type, allowing you access to a diverse assortment of shared video and picture files as well as the usual MP3 audio files. you can download it here>>

• Splooge is a File sharing tool for use over the Internet for people who have access to the splooge central server. This means that you can share files of any type with anyone in the world  as long as they have unrestricted use of the Internet. With Splooge you can find anything from the latest and greatest Internet startup business plan,  PowerPoint presentation, or just about anything. Use Splooge everyday and find anything you want.

• Lime Wire   Peer Server. Its power comes from the combination of enabling true metadata searches, dynamic result generation and the ability to reach a consumer network of millions of users. The server allows administrators to generate Gnutella search results directly from web servers and databases. A pre-release trial version of the Lime-Wire Peer Server is available now! 

• Toadnode is an extensible platform for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Its core functionality revolves around the ability to find, retrieve and distribute data among users across multiple networks. It includes an extensible application layer that makes it easy to plug in additional features. Toadnode's robust search functionality together with its extensibility makes it a valuable resource.

• Newtella: The way music is shared on the internet is changing. Newtella is part of the new generation. Download a copy. Try it out. Then enjoy the freedom to share.

• My Napster: My-Napster is a community of people devoted to sharing their creativity, information and ideas. My-Napster is now a hybrid, incorporating features of Napster, IRC and Gnutella. We're working on distributing content such as e-Books from Project Gutenberg and Net Films via file-sharing technology. In addition, My-Napster is actively pursuing ways to compensate the artists. Our web portal provides a gateway for users to find music, books and information.
  
• Scour: Experience the rollout of the new, legal Scour. You'll find thousands of top video and music titles, with more being added every day. Best of all it's all FREE during beta testing. It's as simple as signing up at Scour beta, downloading your favourite titles, and playing on Windows Media Player.

• Napigator: is a free navigator to nap servers. It is your exclusive guide to finding the Internet audio you want. Napigator works side-by-side with your favourite Windows nap client, giving you an up-to-the-minute status of all nap servers, including the new and openly free Opennap Network, and the popular Napster Network. Napigator lets you see real-time server statistics and ping times, allowing you to choose which server you connect to based on the number of users, files, gigabytes, and network lag.

• Bear Share: Bear Share is an exciting new Windows file sharing program from Free Peers, Inc. that lets you, your friends, and everyone in the world share files! Built on Gnutella technology, Bear Share provides a simple, easy to use interface combined with a powerful connection and search engine that puts thousands of different files in easy reach! Best of all, BearShare is FREE! Download Bear Share now!

• KaZaA is very good as it will also download video and has as many files and users as the old Napster had.
  It can be used  to get those old and now unobtainable tracks from your youth, but naturally not any tracks that are at present on sale, as this would cut a large amount of earnings from some of the stars who own the copy write. The biggest problem with Kazaa is SPYWARE. Run Ad-Aware found in the Software section of this site.
   

• iMesh is the last of the original file-sharing networks. iMesh made its mark when CuteMX, Scour and Napster were the big names in file-sharing. Despite the downfall of these networks, the Israeli based company has managed to prosper during file-sharings darkest hours. iMesh's strength comes from its impressive user base of approximately 100,000 users and simultaneous download capability (among the first to support this feature). Although this Napster-like network has been requested to block copyrighted material, search queries are usually very successful. The downfall with iMesh is the installation of spyware (yuck). However, since the release of version 3.0, iMesh is much more stable. Some of the changes to iMesh include: bitrate display, a windows XP type interface and new chat feature. With iMesh you choose the files you want to download and share. The iMesh unique technology lets you download your files from several users at the same time. When you disconnect from the Internet or close the iMesh application, all your partially downloaded files are saved, to be resumed from the exact place they stopped next time you connect.
  
   
• Napster The best known file sharing protocol will be back with the launch of their new membership service early next year. While they had hoped to restore transfers in the current service, the realities of developing new technology have forced them to focus all their energy on building the new membership service. Napster are not live at the time of writing but many others are.

• Gnutella: There is no official program named "Gnutella" The original version, 0.56, was released as an early beta. The program was excellent, but not completed. This version contained defects that contribute to poor functioning of the network, which consists of all the computers running a client on the Internet at the same time. All existing robust clients are clones, with their functionality derived from a reverse engineering effort on the original program.
  The proliferation of the old software has prevented the Gnutella network from reaching its full potentials. The entire community can help to solve this problem by looking to the leaders of the Gnutella compatible software effort: BearShare, and LimeWire. The full range of  Gnutella lists are here>>

• Morpheus: is your key to Music City. It is the most advanced peer-to-peer application ever developed. Morpheus combines many features that have made other file-sharing services successful. Like Gnutella, Morpheus has no central server. Like iMesh, it allows you to download the same file from several people at once, greatly speeding up the download time.
  The program automatically resumes broken downloads by finding another source. Other features include playlist creation, an embedded Microsoft media player for audio and video playback, and instant messaging. All in all, this is a very promising program. Download it here>> 
  
  There are other clients based on the same engine as Morpheus developed by the Fast Track team.
  Kazaa is a superb example of a peer to peer client service and is currently getting more hits than NAPSTER at its peak. KaZaA offers a portfolio of products and services to enable instant access to music and video anytime, anywhere. All of KaZaA's products are based on the leading peer-to-peer media technology, Fast Track's P2P Stack, which is developed by Fast Track . Another based on this technology is Grokster and is another great downloading tool if not similar to all three. As long as we want to download files there will be tools to help us do it!

BitTorrent, is a protocol designed for transferring files, developed in 2001 by Bram Cohen,  and speeds file transfers by segmenting the content and downloading parts from multiple users according to who offers the fattest download pipes to your machine. As you receive a file, so other BitTorrent users are able to grab it from you in the same way. The idea is to ensure a more even sharing of bandwidth between participants. It is peer-to-peer in nature, but users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file.

The central server which coordinates the action of all such peers is called a tracker. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth.
The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound.) In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible.

BitTorrent is designed to work better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols which get slower.

How to use BitTorrent

How to create a Torrent

How to optimize your BitTorrent Client settings

How to improve your BitTorrent download speed

• DIVX Crawler  is the best and most reliable source for Direct Download Movies. Here you find quality DivX downloads such as software, movies, music videos and more. Our movie collection is updated on daily basis and any dead links are removed within 24 hours, guaranteeing you a user friendly and reliable browsing experience. We offer many downloads for the general public to use, for members however we offer a more reliable service with daily updated fresh content and a members area which comes accompanied by our award winning 7 day/week, 12 hours response Support Department.

• uTorrent is a superb torrent download agent. It hogs few resources and is simple to use. It is favoured by many torrent downloader's including me.

• Torrenz is a superb search engine for Torrents. It covers many sites seeking out the torrents easily for you.

• BT Engine has no download ability,but it is a professional tool set for BitTorrent download optimization.The computer optimized via BT Engine will improve its speed of connection while downloading.Meanwhile accelerate the speed to find more seeds and immediately connected to them.Generally,BT Engine can expedite speed to 100% more than usual.

• Free Codec's is a really well organised and useful site offering just about every codec available. There is also information about codec's, a forum, guides and tools to help you in your quest. Media player 9 is well supported and overall this is a great site.

• Update XP is a very "in-depth" site mastered by Marc Liron - Microsoft MVP In Digital Media. Here you will find downloads and information in a very well presented way. There is also an e-mail service and an E-Book on the registry that is worth a look. Visit here before you download and install codec's.

•  Edskes Codeks is the download site for QuickTime alternatives, Real Player alternatives, BL Player and codeks for most video formats from  can be found here>>. Watch out you don't also get a Russian bride with the codec's. Go past this header for the real software.
  This is also a superb site to download Kazaa, Win RAR, E-Mule, and loads of other software. The Mega Codek site is here>>

• Softpedia is an excellent resource for codec's, games, drivers and much more. The MPEG2 codec from Stinky is also here. The K-Lite mega codec's can also be downloaded from here. Alltogether a great site. Also here is a great DVD to AVI and any other video converter.

• Microsoft Media player codecs.

It is still possible to use file sharing without the "Napster P2P method", by using the FTP (file transfer protocol) with such programs as WS-FTP and Terrapin (my choice). These are the same programs that you use to upload web pages.
This method is legal and here are a few FTP sites to try.

• ftp.ibiblio.org

• ftp.simtel.net
  
• ftp.gamesdomain.com
  
• ftp.amug.org
  
• ftp.cdrom.com
  
• ftp.sunsite.org.uk
  
• ftp.zedz.net

• Bit Beamer is an Internet file transfer application and handles a large number of tasks:
  It's a fully featured FTP Client and a Download Manager that integrates into your Web Browser.
  If you are a user of Leech FTP, you will feel familiar with Bit Beamer, it follows the same principle of queued multithreaded file transfer. Bit Beamer is very easy to use, for beginners there are Assistants that guide you through the process of File Download, File Upload and Directory Synchronization.
  Advanced users will find a large number of functions that the average user hardly ever needs.
•  

• The free net project  Freenet is a large-scale peer-to-peer network which pools the power of member computers around the world to create a massive virtual information store open to anyone to freely publish or view information of all kinds. Freenet is:
  
  
• Highly survivable: All internal processes are completely anonymous and decentralized across the global network, making it virtually impossible for an attacker to destroy information or take control of the system.
• Private: Freenet makes it extremely difficult for anyone to spy on the information that you are viewing, publishing, or storing.
• Secure: Information stored in Freenet is protected by strong cryptography against malicious tampering or counterfeiting.
• Efficient: Freenet dynamically replicates and relocates information in response to demand to provide efficient service and minimal bandwidth usage regardless of load. Significantly, Freenet generally requires log(n) time to retrieve a piece of information in a network of size n.

• MP3.com: The best known MP3 download site. MP3.com is dedicated to giving consumers music when they want it and where they want it, using any web-enabled device. Its web site hosts one of the largest collections of digital music available on the Internet, with more than 1 million song and audio files posted from tens of thousands of digital artists and record labels.

• Get Music: We at GetMusic understand the power of music and your passion for it, because just like you, we're fans. That's why we're dedicated to bringing you as close as possible to the music, the artists and the lifestyle you love through our vast array of rich content and programming that can't be found anywhere else. Whether it's Beverly Sills or Britney Spears, Alan Jackson or OutKast, Lionel Richie or Limp Bizkit, GetMusic's got something for everyone.

• E-Music: A revolutionary way of discovering and acquiring music! We're the only true MP3 service. Our professionally encoded MP3s can be burned to CD or transferred to an MP3 player. It's simple. One low monthly fee gives you unlimited access to explore and download 180,000 songs and 16,000 albums from 9,000 artists. Artists get paid for every download.

• Blubster is the new way to share music over the internet. With a decentralized design, we aim to create an online community for safely sharing and downloading your favourite music.

• All Music Search: This is the site to find the right title and the right artist for file download. Spelling is absolutely vital when looking for database music. This site gets that information for you. This is an excellent site. Similar sites mentioned elsewhere are All game guide and All movie search.

• GraceNote: Grace note's signature CDDB^® Music Recognition Service is the industry standard. It is the largest online database of audio CD and song titles in the world and is accessed by over 28,000,000 unique users each month. CDDB is licensed by over 1,300 developers, including industry leaders such as AOL/ Winamp, MusicMatch, Kenwood, Real Networks and Creative Labs. Click here for links to applications using the latest version of this service.

• Audio Galaxy: Find the tracks you want with this excellent search tool.

• C-Net file sharing site
  

• Rolling Stone: Another good download music site. Search engine also links to movies and videos.