PEER TO PEER
this is the most popular medium in the warez world but that does not by any measure mean it is the best. P2P is plauged with a myriad of problems. the first and most obvious is the malware associated with every popular P2P application.

another issue holding back P2P is the lack of reliable fast servers to offer downloads. since you are downloading from other private users the source you are downloading from is liable to disconnect at any time for any duration of time. any honest P2P user has to admit they have their fare share of incomplete downloads.

finally the big downside to P2P is that when you share with others through P2P you expose yourself in the most extreme way possible. sharing means offering a list of every illegal file on your computer to any annonomous user that has the same program. if you are going to use P2P and share files it is almost pointless to even be concerned with the malware since you are willingly transmitting the most sensitive information on your hard drive.

now that i have seemingly trashed P2P let me point out some of the good points. P2P owns the rare mp3 scene. if you are looking for hard to find or very specific mp3's there is nothing out there that can compare to P2P. it is truly a music lovers heaven. wile mp3's are generally a few meg in size they are still small enough that it is practical to download from other peoples limited bandwith personal connections. the smaller the files you deal with the less chance you have of suffering incomplete downloads.

P2P is also the largest community on the internet and as a result finding help and information is remarkable easy when compared to some of the alternatives.


IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
the original P2P platform that most mainstream P2P apps are trying to emulate is IRC. IRC functions in much the same way as P2P apps generally speaking however things are broken into smaller groups making things more difficult to search out. IRC uses several different networks and each network is again subdivided into smaller channels. if you dont know where to look for something it could be an eternal search. P2P just puts everybody in the same place so it is easy to find things.

the difficulty associated with finding things is a double edge blade. on one side it is a drawback to using IRC because it can be very difficult to find exactly what you want. on the other side this could be considered a positive aspect of IRC because should you choose to share through IRC you will be better hidden than if you did so through a P2P network that lumps everybody together in one place.

the most popular client for IRC is mIRC or some scripted derivitave of it. while mIRC is a great program it was also written with the intention that others would be able to write add-on's for it. as a result mIRC is one of the most well known programs on the internet as far as aspiring programmers (ie. wannabe hackers).

when i started using IRC it was on a very modestly sized network with some friendly and mostly trustable people. i spent about a year on this network before i ventured onto any of the big networks. having some experience proved to be a valuable asset when i did start using other networks because i quickly realized how vulnerable i would have been to irc script kiddies that prowl the big networks looking for victims. i am on the fastest cable service available in america so it is apparently a very inviting domain for script kiddies to probe for vulnerabilities.

once a new user gains a full grasp on how to use mIRC and configure things to offer them decent security IRC can offer some great communities to become part of. a savy IRC user can establish enough contacts with other users to keep their finger on the pulse of things and always find out about new rooms or location of releases quickly. staying on top of these things can be the difference between finding accessable 0-day releases and waiting in a queue for 3 days to get on a server that cuts out after 46% of your file is transfered.

another great benefit of IRC is that unlike P2P on IRC when you share you get rewarded. sharing on P2P just gets you slower downloads, sharing on IRC gets you distro access to more private ftp's and locked room servers. its a system that actually recognizes the difference between sharing and leeching and rewards accordingly.

long term deadication can even lead to unlimited distro access without the condition of serving or even a position administering distro.

the main thing about using IRC is to have a good understanding of how things work. a good way to learn about this is to join a small network and type /join #mytestplace and a new room will be created titled mytestplace and you will be the oped user in the room. then you can start another copy od mIRC and join the same network and room and you will also be the non voiced user in the room. then you can experiment with different options and compare options that are available to ops that are not available to other users. its a good way to see things from both sides of the fence and can offer an invaluable education and keep you from getting in sticky situations.


USENET NEWSGROUPS
i have made no secret that i personally feel this is the best place to go for releases. i will try to keep my personal feeling out of it here and offer an honest objective view of newsgroups. they do have drawbacks and i will not try to hide that.

the most common mistake made with newsgroups that is easily avoided is the software used to access them. newsgroups function in the same manner as e-mail and as a result many people try to use e-mail readers to download large binary attachments from newsgroups. at one time this was how things had to be done and outside applications had to be used to reassemble parts but those days are long gone. some of the newsreaders i would suggest are grabit, Xnews and last, the most powerfull newsreader i have encountered, newsbin pro. if you go with newsbin pro be carefull setting it, make sure to uncheck the automatic downloads box or you will download entire newsgroups to your hard drive.

once you get a client configured and get onto a newsgroup to start downloading there are still problems you can run into. the most common problem is incomplete files. unfortunatley in the case of smaller files like mp3's there is not much that can be done to get whats incomplete. the best advice i could offer is to sign up with www.teranews.com and get a free account to download 50 MB per day.

in the case of files larger than mp3's most usenet posters will use multipart archives when posting. in the case of missing part to a multipart archive there is often a solution provided with the original post. on usenet parity files are used to offer a generic fill file that can be used to rebuild any missing part in the archive. generally a poster will provide 20% to 25% redundancy when making parity files so if an archive is 20 parts long they will also post 4 or 5 parity files. this link, http://www.slyck.com/newsgroups.html explains it better than my babbeling ass. the point of it all is that incomplete archives have been addressed within the usenet system and in most cases it is no longer an issue. for some it may still be a problem but with service that poor there is little hope for help.

another problem that plauges just about every newsgroup user is the news server their ISP offers has very short retention time that it saves a file for. in order to use the news server provided by my ISP i must make sure to download from them at least once every 2 days or i will miss files. many people are just weekend warriors who look around on peer to peer saturday and sunday. if this is the type of recreational user that you are then newsgroups are to fast moving a community for your taste.

another downside related to usenet newsgroups is the overall paitence involved with using them.for the most part proper posts on newsgroups are limited to a certin amount per day. the reason for this is to try and keep the resources available to everybody and not have any individual or group hog up everything at the expense of other groups. what this translates to is no more than 350 meg per day posted. a VCD is typically spread out over 4 days to accomodate for the size with half a cd posted each day. when something very popular like SW EP2 comes out it is generally flooded onto usenet in less than 24 hours but this is not an accepted practice so i do not endorse this behavior but thought it was worth a mention.

in short usenet is a fast moving, laid back community where you sit on the edge of your seat waiting and grab it when its available so you dont miss it. if you are looking for 0-day access this aint it but if you are looking for 0-week access this should fill nicley. finding posting is not very difficult and groups stay consistant for years at a stretch unlike IRC rooms that move around every few months.

the biggest good side of usenet that i can mention is that it offers the unique opportunity of fixing most shortcoming in the system by tossing a few bucks a month at it. for as little as $10 a month a person can get an account with a premium provider like easynews that solves any retention or completion issues suffered at the hands of an incapeable ISP news server.

FXP GROUPS
these are the rag-tag misfits of the internet. imagine wild dogs that eventually band together and you have most FXP groups. these people will teach you nothing but if you have a clue what you are doing already and want in it is not that difficult. after all they are wandering theives that hold virtually nothing sacred. in fact they hold so little sacred that should you get involved with an FXP group and not know what you are doing do not be surprised when you discover one of the group members has exploited your connection in some way.

to the FXP group member the internet is a big playground. often these people will act like they know more than you because they indeed do know more than you and will use what they know to play with you.

FXP groups will wander IRC and web based forums maintianing meeting places where they will share stories of exploits and information regarding compromised systems being used to host the most recent warez.

if you know who kevin mitnick is and consider the guy a hero you might have a good time playing in the FXP groups but i am guessing if you have even read this far through this post chances are you are not in need of the advice i am offering here. FXP groups are NOT the place for a newbie to be sticking their nose.


FTP TOPSITES
hmmmm how can i put this politley? if you have nothing to offer then screw off. no release group is in need of cable or dsl servers. if you wish to get access to true ftp topsites that are named, ranked and truly considerd the "scene" then you had better be bringing something to the table and it better be something good.

lets suppose you were a sys admin for symantec and had access to early releases of all their products as well as the ability to set up a ftp site on a huge pipe. then you could go to a group that releases software like suppose DOD and make a deal to supply them with software and an ftp in exchange for access to all new releases available in the "scene". you would be rewarded with pre-0-day access.

so whats the downside of getting involved with a release group? just ask the former sys admin from symantec, Barry Erickson, that is now sitting in a federal jail cell for the favors he exchanged with DOD. i wonder what kind of favors he is exchanging these days. the "scene" is not the playground of script kiddies and certainly not open to the general public. if you are currently using peer to peer to get your files i feel totally confident in saying your best chance to crack the "scene" is at least a year off and much education stands in front of you in the meantime. then once you get there expect many people that are in the higher echelons of IRC to think they too are on the "scene" and downplay how much you truly do risk to support bootlegging.

the straight forward hard reality is if you dont know the difference between an @ and a + on irc then you have about as much chance of cracking the scene as a mouse does of getting an elephant pregnant.


Url to this pages:
http://nade.dk/web/nade/site.nsf/FramesetHP?readform&wmain=files/E52561B5F98387BFC1256DA40047DB2C