MPFree! But.... (Napster)

Name: cyberstoat

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Product:	Napster
Date:	01/06/01 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many MP3s, Simple Interface

Disadvantages: Hard to locate files, Nasty download Discons

OK, at first glance, paranoid internet users like me - and I've been using this thing for YEARS - get a little wary about something like Napster. The words 'free' emblazoned on any site start to worry me. Free, except for hidden subscription charges or diallers or...well. Who knows? But Napster doesn't seem to be overly endowed with such things. OK, like almost any major site these days it has advertising and all, but what site doesn't? And let's face it, if you're gullible enough to spend all your hard earned crinklies on something that you saw advertised on an internet site purely on the strength of advertising and the spur of the moment, then you probably deserve all you get.

Please send all your cheques to cyberstoat now, care of...

But I digress.

Put aside the cost of ISP and hardware and all that phone call nonsense that you incur to use the internet anyway. Look at the basics. Napster IS free. So, nice plus credit to them there.

What else is good? Well, the concept is nifty. Connect to the net, let everyone there see what MP3s you have on your machine, and let them download them directly from your harddrive to their own. A simple, beautiful idea that has sent the whole copyright business into absolute mayhem. I am not going to comment on the ethics or morality of that here. I don't want to plunge my typing hand into a nest of vipers. No siree. Form your own opinions by reading the news on them around the world.

That's pretty much all there is to it. On paper, looks fun. But here's the bad news.

Napster can be a pain in the neck. A real headache. Why is that, you wail, hands tearing at the screen in frustration at the thought of free MP3s not being easy to get.

Well, the first problem is finding the darn MP3s. To get round the copyright laws and all that entails, almost all the MP3s under the Napster user's scheme are spelled badly. The artist,
the name, whatever the owners can do to change them...all different. That involves a certain level of psychic ability. Unless you know how the spelling has been changed, you can't find the file. Trial and error can lead to the right file, but it can be a major rump pain if the artist has a long name with many variations on spelling.

So, then. You've found your file. Huzzah! What next? Just click the little symbol and download.

Well, no. Not exactly. Start the download. And pray like crazy that the person you are downloading from is feeling generous. Because if they're not - and most of the files I've tried to get haven't been from such people - then they'll terminate the download for you. Bah. Why do they do this?

Heh. Try it and see. It locks up your computer like an absolute devil half the time. So the best way to prevent that and speed up your own downloads is to cancel all those going out of your machine. SPLAT!

Yes, Napster makes your machine run slow, and the more downloads you run or the more people take from you, the slower it goes.

So what does this add up to so far? Files that are hard to find that SEEM to download fast but in my experience tend to get slower and slower as the download continues. If you can survive that then good luck to you, but it does get irritating. My personal feelings are that Napster, for now, is a useful tool but it needs improvement. Ease of download protection and ease of file location for one...

Go on. Try it. The headaches are probably worth it for loads of MP3s.

Summary: