KAZAA - A HAVEN FOR VIRUSES AND PIRATES ALIKE (KaZaA)

Member Name: Del_Boy

Product:	KaZaA
Date:	19/02/03 (8092 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Free, Plenty of files

Disadvantages: Viruses, Corruption, Fakes

P2P software, I?m sure that the vast majority of you have heard of this before now. Just as likely is the fact that you have used some sort of P2P software, be it Napster, Audiogalaxy or one of the many other variants. In this review I am concentrating on what I believe to be one of the best for downloading Audio, as well as Movies.

ABOUT KAZAA
=============

Kazaa, or Kazaa Media Desktop to give it its full name is the creation of Sharman Networks. Sharman Networks are a company that is commited to creating P2P software applications.

Kazaa is a legitimate application that is often used for illigitimate reasons, it has been blamed by many for allowing people to download pirated material.


What is there to download on Kazaa?
==========================

Basically anything you care to think of will be shared on the Kazaa network. However, just because the file is shared doesn?t mean you will be able to access and download it. This is due to factors that I will explain further later on in this review.

The majority of files on the network are of the dubious legality variety. These include the latest games and applications as well as the latest MP3s and Movies hot off the reels.


So this program is just about people pirating products instead of buying them?
============================================== ==========

Well it would be churlish of me to say that the majority of users use this for anything other than illegal means, but there are legitimate reasons. Kazaa can be used as a platform for distributing legal material such as:

Shareware, Freeware, Open sourced products and Music by unsigned bands

Further to my above explanation, it would seem that Microsoft themselves used Kazaa as a distribution platform according the the official Kazaa site, here is a quote from a Microsoft representative:

?"We're really interested in how peer-to-peer networ
ks can be used for the legitimate distribution of content," said Jonathan Usher, director of Microsoft's Windows Media division.
A key question, Usher said, is whether Kazaa users will download an authorized, copy?


Precautions to take when using Kazaa
===========================

Better to be safe than sorry, so you?ll be needing to get yourself a decent virus checker. Try downloading AVG from www.grisoft.com, this is so that you can check the downloads ? as unfortunately Kazaa is well targetted by viruses. Do not be tempted under any circumstances to download Full version Virus software from Kazaa, as these can quite often be themselves infected (if you think about it, they are prime targets).

Oh, and you may wish to take advantage of the filtering capabilities to block out Adult or objectionable content. Myself personally I have no problems with Adult content, however the times I have searched for something totally innocent and non porn related and been confronted with objectionable search results have been many. As a result I have made myself a nice list of filters (these can be applied via a menu in Kazaa). These filters incorporate stuff which I never want to see listed in the search results Window.



More about the application
===================

Kazaa can come in several different variaties from the bog standard version available from Kazaa.com, to the Kazaa Lite version available from a number of places.

I would recommend that users choose Kazaa lite, as not only is it identical in most regards to the version from Kazaa.com, but it also has no spyware. The original Kazaa is well known to be a hotbed of Spyware, the latter versions to their credit have been cleaned up a lot, but I would still steer clear from recommending to you the original version.

Kazaa also comes with a fully integrated Virus hecker called Bullguard Lite, I would advise that when you are using
Kazaa that you disable this and instead use your normal Virus checker. This is because I have noticed that Bullguard Lite tends to find Viruses that don?t actually exist.... I am not saying it makes them up, but there seems to be a lot of false positives, make of that what you will.

Kazaa lite not only has less dubious content than the original Kazaa, but this modification also comes with a number of useful utilities such as:

Sig2Dat ? this can be used to create links to files that someone can click to get a verified correct file, you can find websites full of Sig2Dat links that you simply click and then download should start as soon as the file becomes available

AviPreview ? this can be used to discern whether a movie file you are downloading is legitimate or a fake (more on this later)

Speedup ? this can be used to automatically search for other versions of the same file at a user set time frame, thereby hopefully ensuring you download speedily all of the time.

Kazaalite is not considered 100% legal as such I will not provide the link to it in this review, needless to say a quick Google search often yields wonders.


About fakes
=========

Guaranteed if you are going to go onto Kazaa and download several files such as a new movie, a new game and a new application the chances are that at least 2 of those will be a fake file.

Fake files are usually just other files that have been named differently to trick users to download them. Fake files can be quite sophisticated for example sometimes they will appear to be legitimate until you try watching them, in the case of a Music file you may find that instead of the track playing properly it is just a series of loops of the beginning of the song.

It is for this reason it is best to seek out verified Sig2Dats, thus assuring you that you are downloading a legit file. This isn?t foolproof, as certain versions of Sig2Dat have shown to ha
ve a problem whereby links created with a different version of the software cause it to try to download a different file altogether.

If you must download an unverified file you can use the preview function of Kazaa to test some of them out ? here are ways to help yourself:

If you are downloading unverified software, then consider downloading a few megabytes and then trying to open the file with something like Winrar, or CDMage. If you are lucky you will glimpse some of the individual files for the program, thus giving you an idea of what it is you?re actually downloading.

If you are downloading unverified audio, try using the Kazaa preview function to listen to the song as it is downloading ? also keep a sharp ear out for any hisses or clicks that may have been added deliberately or not to the song.

If you are downloading unverified video then try using the Kazaa preview function to watch some of the file as it is downloading, you could also use AviPreview which is often able to preview files (.AVI only at the moment) that Kazaa itself can?t.

So how does Kazaa work?
===================

Kazaa works by allowing people to download the client and then once you have connected you are assigned to a Super Node ? this Node is a server that has many many users present on it. If a Node is down you are simply assigned another Node to go on.

This has its problems. By their nature Super Nodes can be shutdown by such groups as the RIAA ? this has not happened yet, but in the near future it looks like it could well do. Other problems with this approach are wide and varied, the most troublesome for the normal user is the fact that 10 people may have the file you are after ? but if all 10 of those people are on different Nodes you will not be able to find the file, nevermind download it.

What can be done about this?
=====================

There are programs available that help you to change Node
s on Kazaa, Diet Kazaa is one such program. Another thing you can do to change Node is to simply disconnect, and then reconnect (thus hopefully being assigned a different Super Node). For the technical amongst us, you could also block the IP address of the Node you are on using your Firewall ? this will force Kazaa to renogotiate the Node hence placing you onto a non blocked one.


Download speeds
=============

Download speeds are obviously dependent upon several factors, including the speed of your connection, and how common/rare the file is. If a file seems rare it is often a good idea to start the download and then use the find more sources for file option (right click over the file name in the transfer window) to well, find more sources.

Download speed is also dependent on something called the Participation level, the participation level is a good idea in theory (rewarding those who share by giving them priority for downloads). The PL can be raised by uploading more data than you download, however this has been proven time and time again to be easy to hack. As such you could share all day and not download anything, only to be bypassed in the race for a download space by someone who has just cheated themselves the status of Supreme being (1000 PL Max).

Sharing files
=========

Sharing files is easy, just go to Tools>Find Media to share. It is advised to only share full files, and not any installed files. Also do not share your Windows directory, or the My Documents directory (unless you want people to look and download your personal documents and files).


Advantages of Kazaa over other P2P applications
===================================

Kazaa seems to have some of the fastest speeds maxing out download capacity regularly
Kazaa has a lot of files shared, mainly in the music and video catagories
Kazaa is easy to use and supports resumable downloads

Disadvantages
=
=========

The main disadvantages with Kazaa are as follows, corruption and fakes:

Corruption is common on downloads from Kazaa. For a movie or audio file this will manifest itself as perhaps a very slight visual or audio defect, but for the vast majority of cases the actual file itself will still be usable. It is a different story however if you are downloading a piece of software, this is because in most cases if something corrupts with a software download then the whole thing will usually become useless. There are ways to repair some corrupted software downloads, for example if it is a CD Image (Bin or ISO for example) then a program called CDMage will scan for, and hopefully fix corrupted sectors, this is not perfect though and in a lot of cases the corruption is too much to fix.

Corruption can be made more likely by someone sharing a corrupt file, or by pausing/resuming/disconnecting/reconnecting Kazaa.

Fake sharing as touched on earlier is also a big problem with certain companies and film studios being known to pro-actively flood the network with fakes, knowing full too well that there are plenty of gullible people out there that will share these files.



Alternatives to Kazaa
===============

I would recommend that people seek out Emule/Edonkey2000-Overnet Hybrid as an alternative for Kazaa.

On the Edonkey/Overnet network it is often the case that files have increased availability over Kazaa, there also seems to be less fakes (because of a community that is able to spot them easier). The big selling people of the Edonkey network however is that it will spot any corruptions in files and instead of that download being useless, it will simply redownload that small segment from another user ? thus saving you a lot of time redownloading.

Emule is simply a modification of Edonkey that amongst other things can compress a download as you are obtaining it ? some files are shared uncomp
ressed and can weigh in at for example 700 megabytes. When compressed these files can sometimes half in size, so it?s a very nice feature.

The Edonkey network also has another Advantage over Kazaa, this being the fact that it is extremely hard for people to cheat when using it ? thus ensuring that only those who share will get the rewards over those who don?t.

Get Edonkey/Overnet hybrid from here:
http://www.edonkey2000.com/
Or
Emule from here:
http://www.emule-project.net/

If you need download sources for these programs or serverlists then feel free to send me an email asking.

I'd be interested to read your comments or questions regarding this review, if I have omitted anything then let me know and I'll do my best to rectify things.

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