So you want to go MP3 fishing? (Musiccity Morpheus)

Member Name: EazyDude

Product:	Musiccity Morpheus
Date:	05/02/02 (382 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get's the music...

Disadvantages: Eventually.

So you've read my MP3 vs MD op and want to download MP3s (like misslook), but you're not sure how, or what the heck you're doing. I'm going to lay out a pretty simple op, not a techie one.

What is Morpheus?
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Much of what we download from the internet is based in one of two forms (FTP & HTTP). If you click on a link from a page that you see before you, then it tends to bring a little box asking you if you want to save the file. Surely you must have come across this, if not. I'll guide you through downloading something in a sec.

Morpheus is different to the conventional way of downloading something. It's a "File Sharing Program".

It's basically a program, which you download, and then run when you're connected to the internet. Once running and connected, you have the option of sharing files with others. Once you've chosen the folders (aka directories) you want to share, you're away. The next step is to download whatever anyone else chooses to share.

How do I get a copy of Morpheus?
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Point your browser towards:

http://streamcast.downloadtech.net/morpheus/Mo rpheus-b3d-v2.exe

Or just head on over to www.download.com and do a search for "Morpheus" annd "Musiccity", you should be able to find it.

Found it? Follow the links for downloading. You may need to register with www.download.com, but I've found you can get around this on a 56K modem, simply by dialing in again. It then thinks you're someone else, see?

When it asks you where you want to save your file, I usually opt for the Desktop. That way you'll never lose it. If you choose somewhere else, make sure you remember where you saved it!

Wait, why can't I get MP3s like this?
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You've now completed the easy way of downloading stuff. Unfortunately,
you can't go downloading MP3s like this, well you could, but sites with stuff that you want tend to bounce up and down like a yoyo. My brother had managed to get some episodes of McGyver, and Friends this way, but the sites were erratically up. In fact, I doubt if they are there anymore. Illegal, see?

Installing Morpheus
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Pretty straightforward really. Double click on the file that you just saved, and it will start to prompt you where you want to install it. If you're not fussy, then the default should be OK.

There will be a screen where you have the choice of loading Morpheus automatically whenever you start your computer. It's advisable to say no at this juncture by leaving the box unticked.

I can't remember when exactly you choose a username and password, but you can make anything up. I think it did ask you your email address, I made this up too. Hope there's nobody with email address a@a.com who's getting junk mail galore!

Starting Morpheus
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This should have happened automatically for now, but for next time, you'll see a new icon in your Start Menu.

The Program
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This divides quite nicely into 5 sections, which consist of buttons (tabs) just below the menus.

1) Start

- Well obviously this is where you start. It's basically a browser that calls up the Morpheus Homepage, just to keep you posted on what's happening in the Morpheus world.

- Use this page to start (duh!) to search for stuff you want. Type what you're looking for (eg Metallica) and then change the next box from "Everything" to "Audio". You could leave it on the "Everything" option, but then you'd get a list of pictures... videos... and music.

Hit enter and...

| |
| |
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\../
.\/

4) Search

- This gives you a grand choice of what you c
ould download. There'll be details of the files too;
the track length
the size
the estimated time of download... etc

- Flick down the list and choose what you want to download, and hit Download. That simple. When it's done downloading, look in your My Documents folder, the file should be there.

- Try and choose files that have a little + sign next to them. This merely tells you that more than one person has the same file. This increases your likelihood of getting the complete file.

- Say that person were to stop being on the internet, or shut down their Morpheus, or delete the file. You'd no longer have access to it would you? Hence incomplete file. The early days of P2P (What the heck is P2P? - patience, it's coming) sharing were like this, very annoying.
Which then jumps to...

| |
| |
----
\../
.\/

5) Traffic

- Here you monitor your downloads. If you don't know what you're doing, you can leave all alone. If you're on a slow connection (56K), I'd advise just not bothering to watch this at all. If you're on a fast connection, I'd advise the same as you'll probably get the files before you know it. You can also see what other people are uploading from you.

- Things you can do on this screen include controlling which files you want to download over other files. You could have thought of 5 songs and plugged them all in, only to watch them all queue up in the Traffic Screen. There's a "Hold" button to put a halt to downloading and a "Resume" button for the obvious reason. You can cancel the downloads too, if you see that you're not getting the files you want.

Wait, what about buttons 2 and 3?

2) My Media

- Here you can control what you share and what you don't. By default I think Morpheus goes nosing around your "My Documents" folder and finds everything that it t
hinks is worth sharing. Probably worth Unsharing your senstive stuff. Porn, Top Secret files, naked pictures of yourself... that sort of thing. Oh, and any personal financial or similar documents you might have.

- You can also rate files, much the way you do in DooYoo. These ratings then show up on the "Search" screen. Completely optional. I choose not to do, and probably do many others. I can see it's uses though.

3) Theater

- Well, it's not really one. MP3s and some other types of video files are what's known sa "streamable". All this means is that you can download a bit, then see what it's like. So if you choose an MP3 and you play it, it gives you a chance to see if it's worth downloading the rest of it. Or if it is the song that you've been hunting out forever. Just right click on the file whilst it's downloading in "Traffic", and select the "Preview" option.

What else is in the Menus?
--------------------------
You get a chance to play around with the options, choose a username and do all sorts of other things, that you don't necessarily need to go poking around. After all, bet you can't use 10% of Word's functions.

What is useful is to control the Traffic option:

Tools -> Options -> Traffic

Control the number of things you download and other people upload, if at all off of you. 56K users should make the total number of files downloading at once 1-2 and the same for uploads. Broadband users can probably plug in numbers 10x this.


Some Techie Bits
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--- Firewalls? ---

Don't use one myself, but if you've got one you'll need to configure it in:

Tools -> Options -> Firewall

--- Security Risk? ---

Many people are probably yelling and screaming at this point. These programs ain't safe they say. I can see their point. By logging ont
o the Morpheus network you're allowing people to look at what files you have.

Upside is it's only the files that you choose, but they then know your computer address and can start doing funny things (of which I know not). All I'd say is, if you're interested, go do some homework. It's never been a problem for me as all I use it for is the occassional download of songs that I may purchase in the future.

--- P2P? ---

Point to point sharing. The likes of Napster quickly shut down because all users logged onto a a central server, which held a database of who had what file. Shut down the central server, and you've shut down the whole network.

Napster (2 people connected)

A <---> Server <---> B

What Morpheus does is to cut out the middle man:

A <-----------> B

Course the picture is much more complicated than this, but people are essentially connected to each other, making this a very difficult network to shut down.

--- Morpheus is Clever ---

In more than one sense. You remember I told you that you should choose files are shared by more than one user? If you're downloading from someone, and they log off. Morpheus goes and finds another identical copy to download from. Saviour! Days and days of watching WinMX not complete the file you always wanted because some evil person cuts you off at the last second.

What it also does is, if there are plenty of copies out there, it will choose the fastest link automatically.

AND... it also uses multiple people to get the file you want at the same time, connection speed permitting of course.

Clever huh?

Lastly, My Impression
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Overall, Morpheus seems pretty easy to use, almost foolproof. It gets files with little hassle, but can clog up your browsing speed if running in the background whilst you surf the net. It may not find those obscure MP3s
that you want, but is reliable at least. It doesn't get the files in the absolute fastest way as it uses some of your connection speed to get the fastest download speed, search for other copies, etc. Which can slow the whole thing down, but it's reliable.




Phew, thought I'd never be done! Any questions?

Thanks for reading.

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