Torrents and Tribulations

At the bequest (not final!!) of DJ Scratch-Master Rob "the winnebago on the wheels of steel" Smith i am making a posting about my current P2P situation, whats hot, whats not and whats a pile of... er... snot! Enough about iPods... cut to the chase: Not much has changed really since i made my last posting about what i use. Sites have come and gone faster than i can remember and only the brave have stood the test of the MPAA and their vulture legal teams. Major players have fallen and new ones have stepped in to take their place. Still the torrent sites go on strong as before and the signs are that it is not slowing down. After all - if you featured something like torrents on places like the BBC news website - would you not expect more people to start using it? Duh! In my world, P2P apps have pretty much died a death and i only use them for obtaining an odd track now and again (obviously ones i already legally own). Sites like Suprnova paved the way for torrents to take over and this is now seen as (one of) the best methods of obtaining "stuff". Here is my current A-list of sites and software. Torrent Sites:

• Demonoid
• Oink
• Mininova
• Boxtorrent (xbox stuff only)

These are the only torrent sites i use now. All the others like Torrentspy and Sharelive seem to have gone a bit "odd". Plus, using sites that you have to register for and enforce an upload/download ratio means you get more people sharing and therefore get a faster download! Oink is a great music only site which uses an invite only entry system and this can only be done by "Power Users". I got an invite - not sure how you would go about getting one! Mininova is registration free and is fast to load which i why i like it, just like the good old days of Suprnova. Demonoid is the best though and has a good community feel to it. P2P:

• Soulseek
• Warez

Soulseek is a music only sharing app which benefits from allowing you to find a song and download the "containing folder" which means you could in theory get a whole album in 1 click! You can browse and download from other peoples shares too. Soulseek has a chat facility where you can make requests plus an excellent watchlist tool which pops up and tells you when people sign on with matching criteria. Looking for the Drum and Bass version of Button Moon? It'll tell you when it's available! Warez is your typical run-of-the-mill P2P application like Kazaa, Limewire, MinMX and a host of others. The only thing that keeps me using this is that it does seem very fast! Not too many users though and its probably monitored by someone. I have had a few fakes from there too which was annoying. I might switch back to WinMX soon but i use it so infrequently that it hardly seems worth it. Browsing the candy store of torrent sites makes more sense to me - unless you know exactly what you are looking for. Essential Software:

• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Version 10
• Giant Anti-spyware
• Registry Mechanic
• Firefox

Symantec anti-virus - nuff said. Corp version does not expire - need i say any more? Does what it says on the tin. Giant Antispyware has since been bought by our matey big bad Bill Gates - so it must be good! It runs all the time and pops up to tell you when dodgy things are happenning. Another essential is Reg mechanic which will clear out the rubbish from your registry - maybe making your machine faster and more stable. Ditch Internet Explorer and use Firefox. Since i made the switch i have had alot less spyware on my PC. Its fast and free! Get it now! In conclusion, P2P is out, Torrents are on the up and i still have'nt got an iPod! Oops! Sorry!