File sharing is more and more common every day for a lot of users. For some, it’s almost second nature. A lot of people use file sharing networks to trade music, movies, and other files, but some use these networks for legal purposes. Steal This File Sharing Book goes over all the different networks, explains how to use them, and how to be safe in the process. Wallace Wang goes over everything you need to know about the history of file sharing, being safe, and exposes the abundant free files online.

Steal This File Sharing Book starts off by explaining the history of file sharing for those that are new to it, though I’m sure many if not most of you have had some experience with it. To first learn how to get the files you want, you have to know which networks to use and the different types of file sharing. Steal This File Sharing Book goes into every way possible to obtain files from, and the old methods we once used to use for file sharing. This is where the history of file sharing comes in and the author does a great job at explaining the differences between BBS, email, newsgroups, websites, FTP, and IRC. I admit i’m a geek for this stuff as I have used a lot of file sharing in the past. Some of this I used once before broadband, and mainstream P2P was around. I’m sure those of you who have been on the web for a long time have remember the good old days of getting files off BBS and IRC.

You can learn a lot about the different networks used today from the book. Networks are different from the way that the client connects to the server and how the file is served for your computer to get it. Some networks, like Napster, relied on a central server network, which is why it was able to be shut down. Other networks don’t use the method making it harder to shut them down. Networks like Gnutella lets everyone who is connected to the network act as a server. Decentralized networks like Gnutella make it really hard to shut down the network. The most important network to stay away from is the FastTrack network which is used by programs such as Kazaa, iMesh, Grokster, and others. FastTrack became highly popular enough to atract the RIAA and others, but its popularity has been steadily waning.

The second section is more aimed towards ways of protecting your computer while sharing files online. Not having a filewall or not blocking certain ports can cause some serious problems for your computer, as there are a ton of viruses, worms and spyware running about looking for a unprotected computer to get. This section explains how to mask your IP, hide your email, stop spyware, make backups and more. I found that this section was a great compliment to the first section since a lot of new users just get on file sharing networks with a unprotected computer. Steal This File Sharing Book really goes into detail about all the different kinds of attacks and how to protect yourself from them.

If you don’t know what the meaning of a certain file extension is, well now you can. Steal This File Sharing Book breaks down all the different extensions used in file sharing into groups such as, Music File Formats, File Compression, Electronic Books, Movie, Photograph formats, etc. and how to use them. Once you know this it can be rather simple to know what you want, but what about finding those files? As we go through the chapters we see the different ways to obtain media files from many sources. Sharing networks, newsgroups, websites, and FTP sites are some of the ways to find anything you need.

With Steal This File Sharing Book, you can find all kinds of great techniques on finding the files that you want, and how to keep yourself secure while doing it. When dealing with file sharing networks, it’s also important to know the legal repercussions of your actions so the third section is devoted to this. You also learn about the future of file sharing and how it can survive and what the government, RIAA, MPAA, and others are trying to do to prepare for the next step into file sharing.

Steal This File Sharing Book goes into more detail than what I could really even explain. There is so much stuff that this book, that it will keep you busy reading for hours. This book was simple enough to understand even for the basic home user. I found Steal This File Sharing Book to be a great read and I would recommend it to anyone interesed in file sharing.

A big thanks to Patricia from No Starch Press for providing us with a copy for review!

• Categories
All Announcements Ask a Monkey Audio Bookmarking Books Browsers E-mail Free Music Graphics Hardware Interviews Networking Podcasting Podcasts Portables Productivity Resources Reviews Security Services Shopping Software Storage Tricks and Hacks Video