With File-Swapping Services, Popularity Really Does Count

By GREG MILLER

June 29, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

I don’t know who “Straya” is, what she does, where she lives or even whether she is a she. All I know is that Straya has a super-fast T1 connection to the Internet and that, as I write this, I am plucking a copy of a U2 song from her computer.

It is one of millions of such anonymous transactions taking place on the Internet every day, a file-swapping frenzy fueled by a new-breed software that enables computer users to share songs, pictures, programs and almost anything that can be converted to bits.

Napster, Gnutella and IMesh are three of the leading platforms for such file-swapping. All three are free and relatively simple to use, although I encountered a number of frustrations documented below.

The premise of these services is simple: Somebody out there probably has something on his computer you want. And perhaps you have something someone else wants. These new file-sharing technologies enable you to find one another.

The services are best suited for high-speed Internet connections. I tested them with the hookup that most consumers have, a 56K modem.

Most of the material changing hands in these online bazaars is music, in the form of MP3 files. This raises a moral issue that I will address only once and then leave to your conscience: These platforms make stealing easy. All three urge users to respect copyright laws. But the fact is, their user bases would likely shrivel to nothing if all the copyrighted material flowing back and forth suddenly disappeared.

There also are security issues to consider. File-sharing systems, by definition, give others access to designated folders on your computer. Be sure that these contain only files you wish to share. Also, with some file-swapping technologies, it is possible to download viruses.

That said, if you’re ready to start file-swapping, I would recommend any of the services presented below, ranked in my order of preference:

Napster

Napster, designed exclusively for swapping MP3 files, is simply a gem. Created by a 19-year-old college student, the software is so simple and powerful that it scares the world’s music industry as much as it delights its more than 13 million registered users.

Downloading the software from Napster took only a few minutes. Installing it and registering didn’t take much longer. The interface is clean, with six buttons atop the screen. The only button that is not entirely self-explanatory is the library button, which is what you click when you want to manage your music archive.

To search, type in the name of an artist, the title of a track and the number of results you wish to see. Once you hit the “Find it” button, the files unfurl on your screen.

It’s hard to come up with songs that Napster can’t find. Several months ago my mother, after reading a story about the company, called to inform me she’d just downloaded Napster and quickly assembled all her favorite hits by the Dave Clark Five. Enough said.

The system is designed to steer you to the quickest source. Files are ranked by “ping rate,” or how swiftly the host computer is responding to incoming requests. Color-coded dots correspond to connection speeds: green for cable modem and better, yellow for 56K modems and red for losers with anything less.

Double-click the file you want and a new window appears that lets you check the progress of your download. Once finished, the track appears in your library, where you can play songs on your PC much as you would your stereo. (Napster is the only service I tested that comes with its own built-in player.)

I only scratched the surface of the Napster service. I didn’t chat, set up “hot lists” of other users with similar tastes or check out Napster’s own recommendations.

But within 40 minutes, I had downloaded Napster, installed it and moved three MP3 files to my hard drive, all over a pokey 56K connection. Someone with a cable modem or DSL line could accomplish that in one quarter the time.

Napster is by far the most popular file-swapping program, which is important, because more users means greater likelihood you will find the track you’re looking for. When I was online there were 783,331 files available from 7,449 libraries, or users, and that was only a partial listing of the total number of Napster users online at that moment.

My only complaints about Napster are that it expects users to understand such terms as “ping rate” and “bit rate,” and that a technology so exciting should not have an interface so dull.

Gnutella

Unlike the other file-swapping platforms, Gnutella is not the product of a company. It was created by programmers working for a division of America Online, but the company quickly dropped the technology after considering its piracy implications.

Since then, Gnutella has spread organically. Perhaps for that reason, it is the least user-friendly of the file-swapping platforms.

Downloading the software is simple. I found a copy at https://www.gnutella.wego.com. It took less than 10 seconds to download over a 56K connection, and less than a minute to install.

But then, when I launched the program, it just sat there staring at me with a posture I interpreted as saying, “If you don’t know what to do next, I’m certainly not going to tell you.”

I pored over the “frequently asked questions” and tutorial on the Web site and quickly realized that this is no service for novices.

For starters, the tutorial informs you that Gnutella “doesn’t automatically connect to any servers or anything, which is why you have to find somebody to connect to before you can start searching for files and downloading them.”

Um. OK.

Just as I was about to go wander the streets looking for people to connect to, I discovered that what the instructions really mean is that you can fetch Internet Protocol addresses listed on the main Gnutella.wego.com Web site and plug them into a blank space on the Gnutella interface. (If terms such as Internet Protocol sail over your head, Gnutella might not be for you.)

Clicking a button labeled “Add” is supposed to prompt a connection. But even that didn’t work because the default “port” settings on those pasted addresses were wrong. I had to plug in other suggested numbers at random until I found one that worked.

The next few moments were a bit breathtaking. An odometer-like reading in the corner of the screen started to race. Within seconds, it climbed to 2,279 hosts and 221,378 available files--a community larger than my hometown, populated by people eager to share their digital belongings.

I went to the search page and typed in Eminem. It found 490 items, including songs, video clips, a public service announcement and still images. Downloading the song I wanted took 25 minutes. When I played it, it cut off 30 seconds short of the ending, which shows you never know exactly what you’re downloading.

Gnutella isn’t for the faint of heart. But it does have a few advantages over Napster. For starters, it is designed for swapping any kind of file, not just music files. And because it is a decentralized service, with no company watching from above, Gnutella users can be more assured of their anonymity.

IMesh

IMesh is, like Gnutella, a tool for swapping digital files of almost any sort. In many ways, IMesh made the best first impression of all three.

The IMesh.com site was cleanly laid out, with a box for conducting searches even before you’ve downloaded the software and thorough instructions behind such no-nonsense labels as “How does it work?” and “Why bother?”

The download took about five minutes, the installation less then a minute. Like Napster, IMesh walks you through a registration that prompts you for your name, e-mail address and other information.

From there, the service launches automatically, though you have to instruct it to “connect.” The interface is pleasantly intuitive. You type in what you want to search for, use a drop-down menu to select which kind of file you’re looking for (audio, video, etc.) and click a button.

IMesh seems to be positioning itself as a friendlier file-swapper than Napster. Instead of showing users statistics on ping rates, IMesh uses little green worm icons to rate download speeds. The more icons, the faster the download. Instead of Napster’s somewhat sinister logo of a cat with headphones on, IMesh’s mascot is a cuddly ladybug.

But when it comes to swapping music, Napster is still superior. During my IMesh session, there were 12,333 users online. But when I searched for U2 songs, it came back with only a portion of the complete U2 library available on Napster.

I also had several problems with IMesh. When I started downloading a song for the first time, the IMesh client, or program, crashed. It was the only time this had happened to me during my interaction with all of these services.

I logged back on quickly and found the file again, but half an hour later, I was still waiting for the download to resume. In fact, I couldn’t get anything to download, and I quit for the day.

Two days later, I tried logging on again. But even though the IMesh Web site said the service was up and running, I repeatedly got an error message that said, “You cannot connect to the IMesh service right now. Please try again in a few minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later, I was able to connect, double-click the U2 track once again and download the song. It took a couple of days and wasn’t as easy as it should have been. But copying a U2 song over the Internet from someone I will never meet still struck me as pretty remarkable.

Thanks, Straya.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Swap This

File-swapping software, the latest Internet craze, enables users to trade songs, images and almost anything that can be expressed as bits. Here’s a look at three of the most popular file-sharing platforms.

Napster

Where to download:

https://www.napster.com

Files it will swap:

Music MP3s

The good:

Giant user base means access to more music; comes with internal player.

The bad:

Swaps only music files; expects users to understand techie terms such as “bit rate.”

Gnutella

Where to download:

https://www.gnutella.wego.com