Now that AudioGalaxy has gone the way of Napster, what if any p2p music sharing programs are left that are good? I've tried to download Kazaa twice, but it keeps locking up my comp.

Let me first note that I never liked Audiogalaxy. The first time I used it, the process required so many mouse-clicks to download a song that I decided not to bother with it. If it ever got more efficient, I didn't notice. I, for one, am only sad to see them go because I firmly support the public in the ongoing war against the record companies. This process starts at least with the George Michael lawsuit against his label years ago. Bowie and others followed suit. I'll skip the commentary from here. The artists are, unfortunately, the big losers in this one, but there's nothing new about that; hopefully, when the record labels are officially beaten, we can create a better world for musicians.

In the meantime, I use Limewire (http://www.limewire.com) and Aquisition (http://www.xlife.org/aquisition.php).

Limewire is slow, bulky, and does not cooperate with other applications. It is a constant source of redraw problems in my OS. (e.g. open Internet Explorer--the actual html window itself is okay, but slow, though the rest of the browser, such as scrollbars and UI either draw slowly or not at all; typically, I start a download and then hide Limewire in my dock.) I'm a fan of it because it will get me what I want if it's available.

Aquisition is good, but it's currently a beta; it is the product of our own Porfiry, and one which is greatly appreciated. However, it runs in OSX ... exclusively, as I recall.

When I ran AudioGalaxy, it seemed heavily dependent on IE and spent a lot of time inside their website. Quite literally, the only file-trading apps that will survive are those that behave like Gnutella clients. Get a "company" server as far removed from the trading process as possible. I tend to think of the difference as using a server and being one. Furthermore, with the diversity of file types traded through Gnutella, it's a lot harder to shut it down without running into huge legal challenges. At present, I venture that it is more expensive to kill Gnutella than it's worth.

Those are the only two I use, though. They suffice. Limewire is, technically, a hunk of shite, but it gets the job done. I always look forward to the next Aquisition update, but again, it's an OSX application. (Check the XLife forum here at Sciforums for user feedback on Aquisition.)

Other than that, a friend and I, when moving data specifically 'twixt ourselves, use AIM. There's potential in that, too, but I've never figured out how to organize a trading community through AIM. (Specifically, and dependent on the quality of my connection, AIM is blazing-fast compared to Gnutella, but of course, you run into catalog diversity limitations, and the big downer is that you have to actually interact with people.)

• Sciforums discussion on Gnutella clients (http://www.sciforums.com/t8293/s9223b1061969ddb55f3c6454f149a3af/thread.html)

• Sciforums-hosted XLife forum, including Aquisition and RadioFree (http://www.sciforums.com/f73/s9223b1061969ddb55f3c6454f149a3af/forumdisplay.php?forumid=72)

I think that should work.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

Yeah, Audiogalaxy has gone down the toilet. If you hadn't already mentioned it, I would have recommended KaZaa. It usually works...if you like not having complete control of your computer while struggling with KaZaa, heh :)

Tried Morpheus?

Get direct connect. It is good. It's a program where you have to go to different servers and such. It can really knock it out!

http://www.neo-modus.com

Kazaa and Morpheus suck ass.

Well I tried Kazaa & I tried Morpheus and they both suck major. I miss AudioGalaxy. I never had any problems finding or getting what I wanted and it was pretty easy to use.

Thank you, You Killed Jesus. As a former Audiogalaxy user I find that one of the favorite sites now gone the way of Napster. While a bit cumbersome to use at first, it is logically laid out. It does not take to long to figure it out, even when you don't read the info on how to use at first. It has the potential to obtain most, if not all, I would desire.

Originally posted by You Killed Jesus
Get direct connect. It is good. It's a program where you have to go to different servers and such. It can really knock it out!

http://www.neo-modus.com

Kazaa and Morpheus suck ass.


I've downloaded the program, but I cant find anything I want, pisses me off.

As tiassa mentioned, I'm a developer of a gnutella client, so I'm perhaps biased, but I think justifiably so. On the Windows side of things, the best gnutella client is Bearshare.

The gnutella network is promising since it is an open network that is under constant development and improvement. It's also among the largest since the Morpheus client now shares its files via gnutella.

Originally posted by Azrael:
I've downloaded the program, but I cant find anything I want, pisses me off.

On the "connect to hub" menu (should be there when you start up), click on "public". This will give you a list of servers you can connect to. Some hubs have an Xgigs requirement (such as needing 20 gigs of files on your machine before you can get on a particular hub), but you should be ok.

That, or the people pf sciforums can start a direct connect hub. But who has the connection needed to keep a hub running 24/7? :p

I did that, but when I typed in what I wanted to search for, nothing would pop up.

I think that you have to connect to a hub before you can search for music. I did a search and it popped up and stayed until I activated it and then it downloaded. The potential is limitless because it depends on others to connect for you to recieve info from.

Speaking of Audiogalaxy and Napster, will my music files be deleted when I uninstall these programs?

No, not if you saved them to your HD. Then they remain perfectly clear. And ready to make a "legal" cd out of them... :cool:

lol! Thanx Banshee! :) :)

While i found Audiogalaxy annoying in some respects, i found very very rare songs over it that i could find nowhere else. So for that i give it a great big :)

That being said, after many of the songs were censored on it, i started using KaZaa. Then when they were sold and the new company was talking of charging money and all of that, i went to Grokster. Though it's been a couple weeks since i used it, there was usually over a million people on at any given time. I suppose during the night in America it might dip a little below a million. But i can find a lot of songs over it. Grokster uses the same software that KaZaa does.

Actually you can still find some rare songs over Audiogalaxy that aren't censored.

KaZaa....sold? Charging...m-m-money? *trembles* I didn't know.
:confused:

bs, I'm using kazaalite with no problems

--Avatar--
Kazaalite?

yes, it's a modified version of kazaa with no spyware and ad banners in it.
not made by kazaa of course, but to the network it looks like kazaa.

search for it in google

Hey, thanks, Avatar! :) ;)

Why don't you try Grokster. It's a better version of Kazaa. It works well on my machine.

Aight, I'll give it a whirl :)

With Grokster I get about a bizillion bloody pop-ups and it doesn't have half the songs I want.

I also downloaded Direct Connect (thanks You Killed Jesus) but it seems like I have a bit of learning to do. Kazaalite looks good, (thanks Avatar) and thanx for Acquisition Tiassa and Pofiry.

(Sweet Cthulhu, four file sharing programs? Make that three - death to Grokster.)

DC disadvantage is that you have to share GB's there:(

also Xev- try to download DC++, it's a better version;)

google for it...If u can't find (which I'm sure you will), I'll e-mail it to you.

Avatar: Found it, dunno if I will DL it. I gave up and uninstalled Grokster - it was really, really slow, didn't have what I wanted and the pop-ups drove me batty.

Kazaalite is great. My only complaint is that it takes a bit longer than I would like (I have broadband, which makes me awfully hard to please)

So what's Morpheus like? I'm a bit reluctant to setup lest it be like Kazaa's spying...someone wanna describe for me?

and most important, is it still running for free?

Kazaa is free , but I don't suggest you to use it due to the MANY spyware appz.

Google fo KAZAALITE, it's a non spyware, non ad version of kazaa for free (some guys were so pissed off by the spyware , they made a non spyware version:) ) and I use it all the time- for everything, anything.

cheers!

you can also try edonkey... at edonkey2000.com

I rarely look fo music there but I've dl'd just about everything else.

the network is completely independent. Individuals set up servers and the server list runs world wide. It might take you a while on the very first connection but once you connect the first time the server will update your server list automatically and you should never have problems after that. you can even download when not connected to a server.

I've somehow had bad impressions about eDonkey
maybe it's just me

never mind, I am using Limewire and I've fallen in love with it.

those who use GROKSTER

it found 41 spyware components after installing that

www.advanced-g.netfirms.com/screen.jpg

all didn't fit in my screen lol

check how much have you got on your pc
(ad-aware)