Tool's post on classical music made me think of this.

I am currently using LimeWire to download music, video and image files. I have found it to be the easiest to use of several that I tried, and it doesn't some loaded with spyware.
The transfers are kind of slow, though, compared to Napster.

What are you using to download MP3's and other files? Name them, with pros and cons.

Thanks

i use IRC

just find a file server or a friend that has what u want

con: selection can be poor compared to napster and the other file sharing progs

The best I have found is AudioGalaxy, easy, transparent and tons of media.

Yeah, I liked Audio Galaxy for all those reason, then found it was loaded with spyware that really slowed down my machine. Decent transfer speed otherwise and great selection of media.

Cyraxx,

Where do I get IRC?

Troy, did Bearshare load upa bunch of spyware on your machine? I haven't used it but heard that it does. I had such a hard time clearing all that junk off before I don't want to go through it again.

BTW, if you want to find out if  your machine is infested with spyware, there are a couple free utilities you can run, like AdAware. It is really amazing what gets put on your machine that you never know about.

Stupid questions, but I'm a id'yut when it comes to this new fangled inter-web thingie.

So I downloaded that Adaware, because I hate it when things are on my computer that I don't want.  I ran the search, and came up with a lot of stuff.  How do I know that none of this is necessary to my normal files or programs?  I don't recognize any of it.

Second, I got limewire a bit ago, and tried to download some MPEGs, but RealPlayer could not read the file (didn't recognize it as an MPEG, is there a better media player to use?

HKocher,

You are a wise man to ask first. AdAware is great but there are a few things you need to know. First is to ALWAYS make a backup copy of whatever it finds BEFORE you make any changes.
I strongly reccomend that you thoroughly go through their readme file before you start cutting out stuff.

There are a couple of critical files that some of the spyware programs MAY modify. One is the WINSOCK32.dll file. If you delete this, you are screwed iunless you have a backup made.

As a general rule you can safely delete all cookies. Then you want to look for the spyware itself. Stuff like Webhancer, Gator, Savenow and others will be found. Follow the AdAware instructions for removing those components.

Another way to find out what's running on your machine is to go to Start>Run>msconfig, then click on the Starup tab. It will give you a list of everything that opens and runs when you load Windows.

Most of the spyware will slow you down and clog your system with popup ads. Webahncer is by far the worst, as it is a program, not a cookie, that actively sends out information on what you are looking at, where and for how long. I don't go anywhere I shouldn't but it is still no one's business what I am doing while online. I expect you will feel the same.

Another simply utility I run is AdSubtract. Get it off CNET or their website [url]www.adsubtract.com[/url] It strips out cookies and banner ads while you surf and makes your pages come down much faster, plus no annoying ads to click through. Even easier to use than AdAware once your machine is clean, and it's free.

Hope this helps get you started. Lot's of people don't know about this spyware crap and how it messes with you.

PS: I'd be interested in hearing what you found on your machine. There is new stuff out all the time.

Cerberus, thanks for the great info.

I'm just recently formated my hard drive, because I was sick of all the crap that had bogged down my computer.

Prior to this, I went through my files and deleated everything except the basics, and I still had 4 Gigs of crap, so it all had to go.  Now I'm trying to keep a tight ship from day one of the newly clean hard drive, so I don't have to go through that again.

Here's what I found with adaware:  Gator (came with Snood, thought I had already deleated all the files with it!)
Doubleclick
Cydoor
Flyswat
Onflow
web3000
aureate

Sounds like you had a full menu of Spyware on your machine. Did AdAware gt it all off OK?

The one that was a bitch was Webhancer. That sucker gets itself installed into your registry and can be some detail work to dig it out.

If you've never heard of Webhancer, check their site out and you'll see why you DON'T want this on your machine. [url]http://www.webhancer.com/[/url]