Which is the best file sharing program?

[Jets4Life]

I use Limewire, but is there something out there that is better than Limewire?

[blankall]

Bit torrent.

A bit difficult to set up at first. But well worth it.

[Hack&Lube]

And if you don't want to share, you can just leech from usenet.

If you have shaw internet, you should already have free access to most of them

[Rathji]

Using Limewire is like using a stapler on your testicles after doing a home vasectomy. Sure it might work, but there are a lot better ways.

Use Bit Torrent or Use Groups.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

And if you don't want to share, you can just leech from usenet.

If you have shaw internet, you should already have free access to most of them

Could you elaborate? I've never used usenet. Is the non-upload the biggest advantage?

[millhouse11]

I use transmission for the mac

[stang]

I use torrents, but it seems a bit pointless for just a single song.... I use it for full albums.

My wife uses limewire...

[Azure]

Don't usergroups cost money?

[Swayze11]

I used to use Ares for single songs, but I use torrents now.

[T I M]

Originally Posted by Azure

Don't usergroups cost money?

Premium Usenet access costs a monthly fee, but some ISPs provide a more basic service as a part of your monthly fee. Based on the recommendation from Hack&Lube, I've been using Shaw's service for a couple weeks, and have been impressed so far. The main difference between Shaw's service and a Premium service is transfer speed and retention(how long stuff is available). A premium service will retain files for 3 months or so after its been posted, where Shaw will retain for a couple days. So for new stuff it's saved me from having to upload to maintane my ratio on private torrent sites.

[cKy]

Shaws newsgroups suck.. alot. I pay for a Giganews account, sure its like $20 a month, but I constantly get full speed on it (1.5 megs right now on some random wireless where I am staying right now) and no upload which is awesome and Network friendly! I find torrents slow up my internet like crazy when downloading/uploading on it. newzbin.com - giganews.com .. and get a program called Newsleecher.

I should also add, I find I get alot of incomplete files using the Shaws server, requiring to download the Par files to fix it, whereas the giganews server is way more stable.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by stang

I use torrents, but it seems a bit pointless for just a single song.... I use it for full albums.

My wife uses limewire...

A non-zipped/rar torrent file allows you to select single files (in this case songs) to download rather than downloading the whole album.

[Azure]

Well, I'm not on Shaw/Telus or any mainstream ISP.

Anyway I could get access? I don't think my ISP has a usenet group.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by Azure

Well, I'm not on Shaw/Telus or any mainstream ISP.

Anyway I could get access? I don't think my ISP has a usenet group.

You would need to sign up for a 3rd party News server.. as in Giganews. I heard Giganews has the biggest retention (280 days i think it is?) but it doesnt matter what ISP you have.

[OBCT]

I've used Azureus and uTorrent semi-recently. I'm not hardcore into the whole thing, though, so my advice might be less helpful than others'. I like uTorrent for the most part... in my experience, it basically just works.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by cKy

Shaws newsgroups suck.. alot. I pay for a Giganews account, sure its like $20 a month, but I constantly get full speed on it (1.5 megs right now on some random wireless where I am staying right now) and no upload which is awesome and Network friendly! I find torrents slow up my internet like crazy when downloading/uploading on it. newzbin.com - giganews.com .. and get a program called Newsleecher.

I should also add, I find I get alot of incomplete files using the Shaws server, requiring to download the Par files to fix it, whereas the giganews server is way more stable.

Shaw has outsourced all their newsgroup farms to Highwinds since the beginning of the year.

Highwinds is behind all these backend premium providers and is the biggest usenet reseller to ISPs in North America:

Newshosting.com
Usenetserver.com
easynews.com
newsdemon.com
anonymousnewsfeed.com
blocknews.net
buzzardnews.com
flashnewsgroups.com
iunsenet.com
maximumusenet.com
meganetnews.com
news4u2.com
newsfeeds.com
newsgroupdirect.com
ngroups.net
teranews.com
thenewsgroups.com
thundernews.com
tigerusenet.com
titannews.com
uncensorednewsfeed.com
usenet.com
usenet.se
usenetguide.com
usenet-news.net
usenetrocket.com
cox.net (ISP)

Suffice to say, I'm getting over 120 days retention on some of the lower traffic servers and about 15-30 days retention on the highest traffic servers (a.b.nl a.b.boneless a.b.dvd, etc.). When talking about speed, it's whatever your shaw service is. So if you have a 15MBps download...you can basically get that. I've pulled 2 Megabytes a second off Shaw/Highwinds.

[stang]

Originally Posted by KTrain

A non-zipped/rar torrent file allows you to select single files (in this case songs) to download rather than downloading the whole album.

true.. but its just easier to open up limewire and search... especially for my wife

[Azure]

Originally Posted by stang

true.. but its just easier to open up limewire and search... especially for my wife

I think you run a bigger risk picking up a virus with Limewire, than you do with torrents.

Especially if you get a membership to a private site like Demonoid.

[stang]

Can they disguise viruses as Mp3? cause thats only what we use Limewire for...

So far so good anyways...

[csnarpy]

newsgroups with Giganews is the best thing i have found and used for the last 4 years.

Now i can get a 4g file in 35 mins. plus they are going to 365 days of retention.

Best place for nzb's is NZB Matrix (free) or Newzbin.com (pay)

With Shaw extreme and the new updated speeds. I'm getting an avg of 14Mbps - which is frikkin great.