Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Love feet tapping music? Slow sentimental romantic songs? Jazz ? Hip- hop? Gospels or Devotional? Whatever genre, they are all up there for grabs in the internet. Really ? Yes, go for it, moreover they are free as well! You can download as many songs as you want. How is getting free music possible? By the file sharing or the peer to peer ( p2p) network method. All that your computer needs to join a peer-to-peer network is an Internet connection and P2P software.

What is P2P? Peer-to-Peer is a file (music or video) sharing method that allows files to be swapped directly between users' computers. In the P2P networking the files(music or video) are not stored in a central server but in a P2P software which acts as a server and stores the files. Thus, in peer to peer file sharing, people are actually connecting directly to your computer to retrieve files and likewise it allows you to search for files on other people's computers. Usually, people will only be able to access the single folder that you have selected to share. In simple words, p2p means that by installing certain software programmes, people are able to directly share files (music or video) with one another.

The peer-to-peer (P2P) network is popular with music lovers as they can sample and collect music from a wide range of artists. Since millions of individuals around the world act as music providers, music of different genres is available through file-sharing than at the local music store. Remixes, obscure tracks, and copies of live performances which are unavailable on the commercial CDs are often found on the P2P networks .Though there are other types of files like movies, television shows, and video games which can also be downloaded and shared in this manner, music file-sharing by far is the most popular and in demand activity.

To access a P2P network, users simply download and install a suitable P2P client application. There are many P2P networks and P2P software applications that do exist.

Some popular P2P networks are:

• BitTorrent
  
• Gnutella
• Ares

Some popular P2P applications are:

• eMule
• BitTorrent
• Limewire
• Morpheus
• BearShare

Beware ! Some files over the P2P network contains:

• Embedded advertising

• Fake and/or corrupted files

• Ads or spyware

The negative side of P2P networking is that this type of activity has led to a lot of software piracy and illegal music downloads. Therefore, it is good to download the software and music only from legitimate websites.

Yes, just like millions of people who use free P2P file sharing software to swap music, video and other files over the Internet, even you can do it!

Copyright © 2008-2010 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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How to Convert CD Tracks to WAV, MP3 and WMA using Windows Media Player

Would you like to convert your audio CD tracks to WAV, MP3 or WMA using Windows Media Player 11 which comes along with your windows XP or Vista. Would you like to have the music either stored in your computer or transferred to your iPod. Its actually very simple!

This requires a little bit of configuration. After that, it automatically downloads song titles, album cover art and more. Best of all, it is easy and it takes very little time to master the CD "ripping" process.

Here's what you need to get started:

· Access to the Internet

· Windows XP or Windows Vista

· A little space on your hard drive (at least 250 megabytes)

Just follow these easy steps:

Open Windows Media Player by clicking the Windows Start Menu > Accessories > Entertainment >Windows Media player.

The Windows Media Player will appear shortly.

If you do not see the menu bar in the windows media player, then check out the interface to access the menu bar.

Choose Tools>Options to bring up the Option Dialog box.

Then:

· Choose the Rip Music tab and here you will find all the relevant options.

· Click the Change button to allow you to select an output folder.

· Click the Format dropdown list to choose from either WAV, MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats.

· You can drag the Audio quality slider to balance between smaller file size and higher sound quality, as necessary.

· Click on OK to apply the changes.

These become your default settings and Windows Media Player will remember them the next time you want to rip (convert) CD audio tracks.

Now to convert CD tracks:

Run windows Media Player

Place an audio CD in your CD drive.

The following dialog box will appear-

Choose the Rip music from CD option to automatically convert all your tracks to the selected output format in the selected folder.

That’s it! Done! You have converted your tracks to the format you had selected!

Another simple

option:

• Launch Windows Media Player.

• Make sure that the CD tracks are visible.

• Click the prominent Rip Music icon/button.

It will take a little while! Anyway, finally you have your tracks ripped and converted!
Enjoy your music!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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