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Thread ID: 108108 2010-03-14 06:13:00 Whats the problems with P2P tut (12033) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
867117 2010-03-14 06:13:00 I have seen two references to P2P sites here on this forum recently. They make it sound if P2P causes lots of problems.
I have been downloading music and some vids from one of these sites for some time with no apparent problems.
Is there something I should be watching out for?
What are the problems?
tut (12033)
867118 2010-03-14 06:15:00 Yer get the wrong thing and run it, your system will get infected. Its not the program itself, thats the prob, its what you get and run (if youre not careful) Speedy Gonzales (78)
867119 2010-03-14 07:49:00 Yes as Speedy says security is the biggest issue with P2P, quite a few computers that become infected have/do use P2P programs (limewire, bittorrent, etc).

But in saying that it's not all bad, I downloaded some drivers off the Asus website the other day through P2P and got twice the speed I was getting with http. Many linux distro's also use P2P.
davidmmac (4619)
867120 2010-03-14 07:52:00 Well, true if its something legit, like ASUS, you probably wont get infected. OTOH, if its warez, thats another matter. Speedy Gonzales (78)
867121 2010-03-14 08:00:00 My kid has had limewire on his computer for a couple of years and it still works prefect (6291)
867122 2010-03-14 08:10:00 A friend of mine downloads P2P data on a regular basis (mainly TV shows and software) and has done for at least 2-3 years - and AFAIK has never had an infection... jwil1 (65)
867123 2010-03-14 08:23:00 Well, that depends on WHERE youre getting it from Speedy Gonzales (78)
867124 2010-03-14 08:39:00 I have seen two references to P2P sites here on this forum recently. They make it sound if P2P causes lots of problems.
I have been downloading music and some vids from one of these sites for some time with no apparent problems.
Is there something I should be watching out for?
What are the problems?
Hmmmmmm.... And did you pay for the music and video, by any chance?
Renmoo (66)
867125 2010-03-14 19:26:00 I have been downloading music and some vids from one of these sites for some time with no apparent problems.


Sometimes it IS the program you use.
But mainly it's the potential for infection.

After all, think about it, where are you downloading from? A legit music shop? No.
You are stealing.
And the stuff comes from other peoples computers.

Who may or may not know they have infections.
Or have deliberately infected something.

It is theft you know.
pctek (84)
867126 2010-03-14 20:50:00 I don't think there is any danger; infected files are quickly removed from shares as soon as they are discovered they have been infected. Why would anyone keep an infected copy around on their computer?

If they didn't know it was infected, they will keep on sharing but no one else will share that file, as most people will choose to download the file with the most sources - the most popular (safest) version of that file.

This effect is most evident when Madonna's recording studio (not sure which one) deliberately released one of her new singles onto a filesharing network, but with the song replaced with an anti-piracy message. At first it got around, but then as soon as people realised it was fake, they stopped sharing that file. When new people try to search for that song, they'll see the fake with a few hundred sources, and the actual song with hundreds of thousands of sources.

It is theft and stealing is wrong, I'm just saying thats how the networks operate.

Also if you run your computer in a normal account and not administrator, I'm pretty sure its difficult to get infected.
utopian201 (6245)
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