[NOSIOJ]

Is It Safe To "Limewire" Your PC?
By Scott Drinkard

Before I begin, I just want to make something perfectly clear: NOTE TO ANY ATTORNEYS WHO MAY WORK FOR LIMEWIRE - I think that your clients' product is WONDERFUL! Aside from the wheel and the internal combustion engine, it's probably the SINGLE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT in the history of mankind. REALLY!... So please don't sue me.

Now that I've cleared that up we can get down to business. In my line of work, I get calls on a daily basis from people who are having issues with viruses on their computer. Some of these people have relatively minor infections and some have MAJOR PROBLEMS. Here's the pattern I've noticed, though (I just call 'em like I see 'em): When someone has a serious virus and/or spyware infection on their PC, they almost always have a copy of Limewire installed as well. Now, don't interpret that the wrong way. The Limewire software (assuming you get it from a legitimate source) is perfectly safe (Are all of the attorneys still paying attention?). To my knowledge, their software contains no spyware or viruses and I'm not just saying that to avoid a lawsuit. I really mean it. So, if the question is posed to me "is it safe to install Limewire on my computer?", my answer is an unwavering "Yes".

The problem, it seems, is when people start using the service to actually download files to their computer. This is where a lot of people get a bit confused about why their computer gets so badly infected in a relatively short period of time. From my observations as a working pc repair tech I have come to the conclusion that most people don't have even a basic understanding of how file sharing services work, nor (in a lot of cases) do they care. That's too bad really, because it's difficult to protect yourself from threats if you don't even know what those threats are or where they come from. Alas, the lure of "free" music is just too much for many people, so they will just blindly download files and hope for the best.

There, now that I have that off my chest, I feel much better. The real purpose of this article though, is not to chastise people for their wide-eyed naive trust of free things they get from total strangers over the internet, but to (hopefully) help educate those who want to use a file sharing service and provide them with a little bit of knowledge so that they can better protect themselves.

The first thing I want to do before I go any further with this discussion is to let the folks at Limewire off the hook. They are not responsible for their users' reckless online activities any more than the people at Ford are responsible for their customers reckless driving. It's up to the end users to monitor their own activities and to become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. It really wasn't my intention to single them out because most file sharing services are essentially the same. The only reason I mentioned these guys by name is that they are far and away the most popular service of this type operating today. Had I written this article a few years ago I probably would have the Napster people annoyed with me. So for the remainder of this discussion I will just refer to all of these services collectively as "file sharing services". Now all you lawyers can go back to what you were doing before, such as suing somebody (other than me).

Anyway, as I said before, most users of file sharing services may not completely understand how the file sharing process works. There seems to be this perception that there is some gigantic free music repository full of perfectly safe, virus free, downloadable content stored somewhere out there in cyberspace. I assure you that this is not the case. OK, you ask, then where do the file sharing services get all of this music that they offer for free downloads? I'm glad you asked. The answer is that they don't. File sharing services don't store any music files or movies or anything of the sort on their servers. More importantly, they don't own any distribution rights for any of the copyrighted material. So where does the music come from? Again, thanks for asking. It comes directly from the computers of other users of the file sharing services.

You see, file sharing services are in essence a very large peer-to-peer (P2P) network. When you join one of these services, you are sharing a portion of your computer with other members of the service and they are in turn sharing access to their files with you. Now, you may think that this is somewhat of a security risk, but probably not a huge one, as these services upon installation of their software, designate a default folder on your PC to share on the network. Other than that one folder, nobody has access to your PC. The real threat with this type of network is in the files you download. If someone in the network has infected files on their computer (trust me, a lot of them do) and then you download one of these infected files, guess what!? You've just invited a virus onto your computer. Multiply this scenario by the hundreds of thousands of other P2P members and the MILLIONS of files being passed back and forth and you can see how this can quickly become a real threat to your PC.

So as a computer tech that deals with virus infested computers on a daily basis, I have to say that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND downloading your music from a "pay-per-track" service such as itunes or amazon.com. I only say this because from a PC security standpoint, using P2P file sharing is just too costly in the long run. Think of it this way, how many itunes could you have purchased with the $200 that you just gave to the computer repair guy after he cleaned up your PC? When you look at it that way, all that "free" music just doesn't seem like such a great deal, huh?

I will say this. Many people insist on using file sharing services even when they know the risks, so if you are absolutely dead-set on using a file sharing service to build your music collection, at least get some good antivirus and antispyware on your computer and make sure that your virus software is always updated with the latest definitions. This will at least give you a fighting chance at keeping your computer safe. Also, learn how to effectively use your antivirus software. Most antivirus software will let you scan individual files in real time (after you download but BEFORE you open the file) by right clicking the file and using the scan option in the menu. Other than that, all I can do is wish you the best of luck and hope you know a good computer guy.

So again, if you ask me if it's safe to install Lime...um...file sharing software, the answer is yes. Is it safe to actually USE file sharing software? No, probably not.

Scott Drinkard (The Computer Guy) is a self -employed computer service tech living and working in Odessa, Texas. The owner of Odessa based "The Computer Guy" has been helping the good people of West Texas with their computer problems for about 10 years. Please visit http://www.odessacomputerguy.com for more information.

[jenamae]

Yeah, the article is clear enough....I used to ask that question too..