WinMX files seem funny lately?

[gipper]

Hello there. I'm a newbie to this site so I apologize in advance if this questions has been asked before.

I've been using WinMX for music downloads for several years now and have used it exclusively for several reason. Lately however, it's almost got me scared. If I do a search for newer music, it will usually find lots of files. However, I noticed that quite often it has many copies of the same file name by the same user. I've never noticed this as much as in the past, but I don't feel comfortable downloading from user johnsmithxx that has 150 available versions of the exact same song. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it leaves me with the impression that these are false user names set up to get your user name or IP address information if you download them. It feels like you are being baited into a trap.

Any imput would be appreciated. I know there is always dangers associated with this type of activity. I love WinMX, but this stuff has got me a little concerned about downloading these days.

[SwordFish_13]

Hi,

Maybe the Music indistry is fighiting back with spoiling tactics and make the free-song swappers lives a misery. ......

By Hiring Companyes like Overpeer to Do all the Dirty Job For them............... What you are Experiencing is Might be related to that .

What the record labels don't shout about, is their relationship with a small company in New York. Overpeer enables some big industry names to use spoiling tactics and make the free-song swappers lives a misery. By creating fake or 'spoof' files it tries to swamp the swappers networks with useless content - anything from white noise to a repeated music sample.

Marc Morgenstern, CEO, Overpeer: "What we do is make the P2P experience much more frustrating and much less rewarding. Someone clicks on our file, expecting it to be a pirate file, but instead they encounter a decoy file. This is a file which may contain an audio sample or a game demonstration but does not contain the content that's expected."

They just want you to make some effort atleast.

or it's some guy with all those Dang Virus/Trojan Collection that he wants to share

--Good Luck--

[nihil]

I know nothing about downloading music, so I am somewaht curious.

1. Are these real files, and do they actually contain the same stuff, or are they just segments of a compound file?

2. Are they posted at the same location, or different ones?

[SwordFish_13]

Hi,

1. Are these real files, and do they actually contain the same stuff, or are they just segments of a compound file?

2. Are they posted at the same location, or different ones?

Nihil we are talking about P2P Networks.....................So these Files are Distrubuted Across Several Peoples Computrs .

And yes i have noticed this too Too many Search results with Same file name .............they just create too many Files with the same and try to Sworm the actual one in them Dummy ones............ User is beffelled to see so many Files with same name and dosen't know which one is real...........Yes they are Real Files ..............Contains Buzzing Sounds or anything ..............Just making Illegal File Swapping a Frustrating Experience

Emagine on a Dial up and Just Downloaded 20 MB Music File and it contains Weird Sounds.............and have to search the file again and again waaaaa i will just go and buy them instead.....


--Good Luck--

[jtheriot]

A note for the newbie:
Caveat Emptor --> Buyer Beware.

Although you are not buying those files, you are placing them in your system.

If you are not running a good firewall/antivirus program and keeping your operating system updated, go buy the music. It's cheaper, and less frustrating.

Cheaper than free music? Yes.

I routinely repair computers for people who infect and destroy their computers through the use of P2P and laxidasical security practices. My normal take is from $150 to $300 US.

It would be easier to just wipe and restore, but many of these people are teachers and they have much valuable data that they want to retain.

Keep that in mind next time you download a strange file.

[nihil]

Thankyou, Swordfish............

It is an area I know absolutely nothing about...............A good friend does all that sort of stuff for me, and they come in sections that he assembles............they are videos of airshows that the guys take themselves, so it is all legal harmless fun .............he burns them to CD for me.

I don't use P2P, other than at work, which is internal network stuff..............I don't like it as a security risk.

I am afraid that I have had to clean up too many "messes"

[BinaryBrother]

If when i searched for a song and it came back lots of results, i would see how many songs by whome.... There used to be ppl on WinMX with like an entire music archive of *.mp3.exe would commenly consuse novise users into downloading the files and opening them... if you notice that someone.. an individual has a great amount of files, compare the file size... 900KB is not a reasonable song size.... even if they used a byte adder, if you notice they have 200 different songs by different artists and stuff, and none of his files vary over 1 KB dont that seem alittle suspicious? I quit using P2P, its an all around healthy decision for your comp. but for those of you who need music, i understand, but at least download from a trusted source.. yvw.hopto.org <----- i have been using it for years....

[gipper]

Thanks for the replys guys. I make sure to keep my machine updated with the latest firewall and antivirus updates and I do regular spyware removal sweeps. I haven't got anything nasty yet from them (that I know of anyway). Another thing that seems strange about these files is the bitrate of many of them. Most people who rip music will rip at bitrates of 128, 160, 192, 256, etc. These are common rates to use, and lot of these other files are done at odd intervals like 147, 168, 225, etc. There is just alot about the files that give off a bad vibe. Yes, I have downloaded them before and they seem to play fine usually. I try and stay away from them if I can, but sometimes that's all I can find. Most of them don't appear to be fragments either, as the song duration and file size seem normal.

I don't know what the deal is, but I don't care for them and I'm staying away from em'.