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Disclaimer: I do not condone illegal file sharing.

In the past, I said that I am a white-hat hacker. But, there are a few dark things I know how to use. Though not necessarily a black-hat-hacker-only pastime, I know how to access peer to peer (P2P) networks. Don’t get me wrong, I do not condone illegal file sharing. In fact, it makes me sick. Though, there are some legal uses, however few, for programs accessing these networks (at least in my eyes).

The most prevalent P2P network is the Gnuttella network. It is very easy to access Gnuttella. Just, download one of the P2P clients and you’re good to go! The hardest part is choosing the right P2P client. One popular program is Kazaa. Others include BearShare and Morpheus. Though they pretty much do the same thing, you may want (not want) some of the features. For example, I believe all of these programs above are laden with spyware and/or adware. These little pests embedded in programs might as well be considered viruses. They bombard you with random popup advertisements and monitor your computer usage to analyze for marketing demographics. This is not only annoying and obtrusive, it slows down your computer! To make things worse, it is very difficult to reverse the effects of these pests. A simple uninstall won’t solve things.

So, what do to? Should you just deal with it and sacrifice so that you can access Gnuttella? No! Try Phex! I like Phex for two reasons:

1. It is free of spyware and adware.
2. It is customizable. I don’t know how the P2P clients work today. But back then, they were very restrictive. They only let you do basic things like download and resume.

Note that Phex was written in Java. This can be both a good and a bad thing. The good thing is that Java programs can be used on any platform (Ex. Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix, etc). The bad thing is that Java programs are a slow. However, I am willing to sacrifice speed for a spyware and adware free computer. Try Phex!

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