Top tips on how to keep your identity safe from prying eyes and keep out unwanted visitors.If you want to stay safe when downloading or sharing your favorite files online, the following tips wil help keep you from getting busted. They're simple, straightforward, and easy to follow, but if you have any questions ask them here in the forums. 1. Use Private BitTorrent tracker sites:The first is fairly obvious and that is of the inherent risk of using public BitTorrent tracker sites instead of private members only ones. The risk stems from the fact that almost anybody can connect to the swarm and take a peek at your IP address. 2. Don't act as a "Supernode:"
3. Try to use campus DC Hubs:The RIAA and MPAA have sued college students for using publicly-accessible file sharing networks, including systems like i2hub. However, with one particularly notable exception, the RIAA and MPAA have not targeted users downloading or uploading music over closed, college campus intranets -- in other words, students sharing with other students at the same school over the school's own network. Tracking intranet infringements is practically more difficult, though not necessarily impossible. 4. Use IM data transfer programs:Similarly, the RIAA and MPAA have not targeted file sharing through instant messaging systems, closed networks such as WASTE, and other sharing tools in which users can limit access by third-parties. 5. Use PeerGuardian:This handy tool blocks "harmful" IP addresses from connecting to your PC. Using a list that's regularly updated on Blocklist.org, it detects and closes connections from specified IP ranges. 6. Use Safe Peer:This handy Azureus plugin for BitTorrent users is similar to PeerGuardian in that it also imports a list of IP addresses from Blocklist.org to use as an IP filter before connecting to peers. What else can I do?The Electonic Frontier Foundation(EFF) has posted a list of additional tips to help you avoid getting busted for illegal file-sharing. First off, for those of you who are unware of what constitues illegal file-sharing, the crime occurs in the "dsitribution" of copyrighted material, the uploading or sharing of content, and not by simply downloading it. The EFF points out that there is no way to know for sure as to exactly what the RIAA and MPAA are going to do or who they are going to sue but, in the meantime users of publicly-accessible P2P networks can take the following steps to reduce their chances of being targeted: Either...
Or...
We hate this option -- it blocks your non-infringing sharing, and it doesn't get us any closer to a real solution that gets artists paid while making file sharing legal. But, at the moment, it does appear that turning off sharing will reduce your chances of becoming a lawsuit target. This can usually be accomplished in the "Options" or "Preferences" of your P2P application by removing all shared directories and sometimes setting an explicit option not to share files or to allow zero uploads. The specific method will vary depending on your P2P application, but looking at a few examples can give you the general idea. EFF suggests (but cannot guarantee) the following links for instructions (you can also try Google searches for ("turn off sharing"+the software's name):
**Note: Not all clients allow you to turn off "sharing."If you use software such as BitTorrent and eDonkey (as well as related clients like Azureus and eMule, respectively), you will automatically be uploading whatever you are currently downloading. In eDonkey, these files may appear in search results and thus become visible to the MPAA and RIAA. In BitTorrent, you must connect to a BitTorrent "tracker" to download a file, and your Internet address is visible to anyone else -- including the MPAA or RIAA -- connected to that tracker. In these instances, you may be at greater risk.
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The RIAA has targeted subpoenas at users who allow their computers to be "Supernodes" on the FastTrack P2P System (used, for instance, by KaZaA or 
* Disable the "sharing" or "uploading" features on your P2P application, if your application allows it (see below).
does this not defeat the purpose of P2P?
I can't believe i'm reading this on zeropaid.
The only really helpful "tip" is hidden in #4: Use closed networks, you are on a campus and have bandwidth coming out of your back. Then learn how to use anonymizing darknets or encrypted vpn proxies.
After all, you are on campus to learn, aren't you ?
The tip of using ip blocklists is only half helpful and only if you know how to handle them properly.
Every overzealous idiot is contributing ip ranges and the list providers don't have the resources to check and recheck all the ranges on a regular basis. Therefore they are complete overkill and do more harm than good.
And the copyright goons know about them as well !!
If you HAVE to use public p2p (maybe you are looking for rare stuff), DISABLE VIEWING YOUR SHARED FILES ASAP !
If your client doesn't support this, change it or even the network.
The best tip in my opinion is, STAY INFORMED AND LEARN TO USE YOUR TOOLS OF TRADE.
The times of brainless p2p fun are over.
A review of it is available on the Security Dreamer blog.
I'm working with Steve Hunt, author of SecurityDreamer, a site devoted to reviewing and analyzing physical and IT security.
You can read it here:
http://www.securitydreamer.com/2007/06/first_look_at_i.html
So that means friend to friend services like Dargens.com should grow although it is only for new unsigned bands.
If you only connect to friends then only they know you are sharing. And you share with their friends, friend's of friends and friend's of friend's of friends and so on.
I have been using Freenet for filesharing for a few years and it has really started to become a viable option recently. Freenet's security is pretty good, it has a dedicated team of developers, including one paid full time coder. Its main focus is a censorship-resistant anonymous network and that makes it very good for filesharing too.
To give you some idea of speeds, a full album of music can be downloaded in a couple of hours to a day, depending on your connectivity and the popularity of the file. There are several uploaded every day and the number of uploads does seem to be increasing rapidly at the moment. Full DivX movies are also uploaded regularly.
Freenet is very easy to install and set up. It is a Java program but it is pretty light on CPU and memory.
It can run in a 'darknet' mode, where you only connect directly to people you know and trust, or 'opennet' mode, where the program peers you with strangers at random. The darknet mode is most secure, but as people will likely not know other Freenet users at the moment, the opennet is more convenient. Your direct peers can't tell for certain what you are doing on the network, but there is a theoretical possibility of statistical attacks if an adversary can control enough of your peers. Opennet security should be provide good enough anonymity for 99% of uses.
Freenet comes with an anonymous filesharing program called Thaw and an anonymous message board called Frost which can be used to request files. It is definitely worth checking out, and I think it is where the future lies with all the legal attacks on filesharers.
http://masti101.net