Grokster will change your life (possibly) (Grokster)

Member Name: johnny8977

Product:	Grokster
Date:	15/03/02 (1914 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free , Able to resume downloads, Quick searches, Find almost anything

Disadvantages: Few porn files creep in

Let me start by saying this isn’t an opinion of whether file sharing of copyright material is right or wrong. I don’t know. But I’m sure there are other Opinions out there that will give a more constructive view of that argument (UPDATE: see thread Home > Internet > Information > Internet Forum > Copyright on the Internet ).

Right, onto Grokster. Grokster is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. It allows using to share any digital file over the Grokster network. This includes MP3’s, video clips and images. Currently there are about 1.2 million users sharing roughly 1.2m Gb worth of files – i.e. A LOT!

Using Grokster is simplicity itself. Download the program from www.grokster.com. It isn’t very big, about 300kb, and install it on your machine. When you have done this you will be presented with an easily navigated interface. You have options of Home, My Grokster, Theatre, Search and Traffic.

Home is the Grokster homepage. This shows links to new bands sharing their work on the network suchlike. It also has links to FAQS, support and the privacy policy.

My Grokster is the folder the program will automatically create in the Grokster folder on your PC. Here all your downloaded files will automatically be stored until you move them. The My Grokster folder shows thumbnails of the files if applicable as well as information such as size, language and artist/album. Selecting a file here will display it in…

Theatre. This is Grokster own media. Here you can play your music files, watch your video clips or browse your images.

Search is where you find the files you want. You have the following categories to choose from:
Everything (will display all files types matching search criteria)
Audio (MP3’s and .wav files)
Video (all video files)
Image (JPEG and .bmp)
Documents (word and similar files)
Software (all software such as .exe files)

Also, you
can specify whether to search for the artist, album or both. I find it easiest to search using both.

Once you have found the file you wish to download, select it to begin to download and go to…
Traffic. This page shows the progress of your download. It shows the file, the user you are downloading from, the size of the file, how much you have downloaded, current download speed and estimated time left. You can choose to download multiply files at once and manage them as you see fit, e.g. downloading them together or pausing particular ones until others have finished. If the file transfer stops for whatever reason, e.g., you become disconnected or the person you’re downloading from disconnects, Grokster retains your progress so you can resume whenever you like. This is by far the best feature of Grokster. This means you can download huge files in multiple sessions.

Some of the other benefits of Grokster are;
It is entirely free. You just need to register.
The searches are very quick and you can specify how many results you want returned. If multiple users return the file you want, Grokster will automatically switch between users, making sure you get the fastest possible download.
You can preview files before the download is complete, especially useful in MP3 downloads where you can check the song is the one you want without having to wait for it to finish downloading.

Overall, Grokster is brilliant. 9 times out of 10 you can find exactly what you want, be it a song by some unknown band or instructions on a piece of software in Word format.

However, a little word of warning. Grokster searches return whatever you ask them to return, be it title or artist etc. But there is nothing to stop people putting inappropriate titles on inappropriate files or listing unconnected artists with particular files. What I am getting at is that sometimes perfectly innocent searches with return one or two porn related files,
particularly when searching for video or image files. When these are returned in a search though, they are still described appropriately as porn in the description box so you sold never accidentally download something you maybe shouldn’t.

But other than that Grokster is as good any free software you are likely to find anywhere and will revolutionize how you download files from the Internet.

Summary: