Home

Mac OS X(based): File Sharing




There are many many different ways to share things. The different protocols I plan to go over include:

Networks











Before I begin I think I should point out that this is in no way a complete list of how to share things. Also, I am not an expert on this so feel free to help me out.

Part One: The Networks


P2P

What is it: P2P is a method for sharing files in which every user is equal insomuch as the network is concerned. By this I mean every single user does every part of the entire sharing process. Everyone who wishes to use a P2P network must pick which network they want to use and then download an application. This application then allows them to search, download and share files. Keep in mind that most of the networks I mention are 'Peer-to-Peer' in the sense that it is people giving things to other people, not corporations giving things to everyone. Just as the term 'PC' is used to reefer to non-unix based personal computers, Apple computers are technically PC's if you wanna be a jerk about it.
Advantages: There is no central file-hosting server of any kind. This means that in order to shut down P2P you would have to shut down every single user. Unfortunately this does not mean that they cannot be shut down, as even now the powers at be simply go after the people who distribute the software to run the networks.
Disadvantages: Anyone can share anything at any time with no regulations and no means for reporting misconduct. Because of this there are several different bad things that happen on P2P networks: Files are shared with wrong/misleading information, intentionally bogus files are shared, viruses/spyware/adware/mailware are shared, the networks are used for spamming purposes. Another disadvantage is that each user is required to make direct connections to other users in order to transfer files. Undisguised, this allows for easy identification of all users involved.
Instructions for use: Pick a client, download the app, and away you go.
Resources: There are many many different P2P networks out there and many different clients for each one.
Networks: The Gnutella network seems to be the most popular amongst mac users.
Clients: Acquisition, Limewire, and Poisoned
Other: Useful list


Bittorrent

What is it: If you ask me Bittorrent is one of the greatest inventions since Nikola Tesla. Bittorrent is an efficient, reliable and easy form or file sharing. Bittorrent was invented by a man named Bram Cohen as a way for companies to efficiently distribute large files without putting a strain on their servers. The method for doing this was actually rather ingenious.
Step 1: A 'torrent' is created. This can be done with many different applications today, like Azureus or Bittorrent. When a client makes a torrent it splits the file to be shared up into dozens of tiny little pieces. It then makes a 'hash' of each piece using the SHA-1. The 'torrent' contains metadata about the little pieces, the name of the file, the 'contact info' for the computer sharing it, and a 'tracker' name.
Step 2: The torrent is distributed. This is usually done by hosting the torrent on a regular web server.
Step 3: People download the torrent and open it with a torrent client.
Step 4: Everyone's client connects to what's called a 'tracker', which then links them to everyone else who is currently downloading this file.
Step 5: The system finds out which of the little pieces of the file every user has and then begins to transfer any available piece to anyone who wants it. This means that every single person downloads from every other one. I might have piece 253 and someone else might have piece 324. I would download piece 324 from them and likewise they would download piece 253 from me. Now anyone else can download either or both piece 253 and piece 324 from me or the other person. Because of this system, people can share far less and download far more. If 100 people downloading a specific file share at a rate of 20Kb/s anyone downloading that file could theoretically download it at 2,000Kb/s!
This immense efficiency is probably why the bittorrent protocol today accounts for more that 1/3 of all internet bandwidth. The other amazing thing is that there is no strain on a central server. Because it is such an amazing system, unlike P2P it is actually used for legitimate purposes. Almost every Linux distro I have ever downloaded has come from a torrent.
Advantages: No central server hosting illegal files. This makes it harder to prosecute/shut down. Just as 'they' have been going for the makers of P2P apps, 'they' have also been going for the people who host the torrent files.
Insane speed! This is one of its greatest advantages.
Resumable. You can resume a transfer any time you like.
Dependable. Because it takes a group to share a file it is very rare that a bogus file will be shared as no one but the perpetrator has incentive to share it.
Disadvantages: Torrent files may be hard to find. While there is no shortage of web-servers hosting torrent files, they can sometimes still be hard to find.
Preview-less. Originally, because files are downloaded randomly instead of sequentially it was impossible to tell the quality of lets say a video before downloading it. Realizing this problem however, many people have begun to share samples of files that can be previewed before downloading the whole thing.
Teamwork. Yes, teamwork is a disadvantage as most people suck. Because it takes a whole team to share a file if someone with the only copy of a certain piece stops sharing, the entire file is worthless.
Instructions for use: Download a client, find and download a torrent, open the torrent file with your torrent client. If your client gives you the option you should configure it to run through a port other than 6881-6889. These are blocked by many trackers and will result in slower speeds. A port outside of the used range is good(i.e. a five digit number).
Resources:
•Clients: Azureus is very popular. It is highly configurable but also very processor intensive. Transmission is my favorite as I get the best speeds and it doesn't eat up my CPU.
•Torrent servers: These are great places to look for torrents.
•Google, it sounds stupid but try '[filename] torrent' sometime.
•Torrentz will search many other sites and tell you what site has what you are looking for.
•isohunt, for some reason torrentz doesn't search here and they have a lot of torrents other sites don't.

On Super-Seeding: Super-seeding is a seeding mode designed for original seeding purposes. It is very brilliant but fairly simple in concept. When a user decides to super-seed, they only give out pieces of the torrent that no-one has, waiting to send the next one until they see that the first piece has been spread around the community. This makes seeding 150-200% more efficient because it reduces the amount of redundant data sent. This is only recommended for initial seeding, seeding for a very week torrent, and seeding where upload costs money.
I am not sure if super-seeding can be done to one specific individual...
Comments: It seems to me that super-seeding is a great idea that is poorly instituted. Why pretend that you have no pieces of a torrent when you could simply only send the rarest piece of a torrent first. In most torrents hundreds of copies of each piece exist at any given time. 200 people might have piece 12 and 198 might have piece 54. Why then not send piece 54 to someone who doesn't have either first? That's just my two cents.
Super-seed resources:
•Inventors words
•Pretty good wiki


Forums/One-click hosting

What is it: Growing in popularity these days seems to be a style of sharing in which an individual uploads a file to a free online server then shares a link to that file with people on a forum. This is a very simple concept; find a free server, upload a file, find a forum, post the link.
Advantages: No bandwidth strain on users. Fast, reliable downloads.
Disadvantages: Highly centralized server. Shutting down any major server will shut down thousands of files.
Non-resumable downloads. Most sites offering free downloads do not let you resume them.
Waiting. Most sites offering free downloads also require you a wait a little as motivation to pay them money or click their adds.
Instructions for use: Go here for more on this.
Resources:
•Forums:Popular mac shares forums are Codez4Mac, Mac-BB and Mac Serial Junkie
•Servers: Rapidshare, MegaUpload, SendSpace, and FileFront
For a large listing including reviews, check out: 'The File Storage Encyclopedia'. ~ Thanks Athos!

File Servers

What is it: A file server(or the definition I'm using for lack of a better term) is a server that someone dedicates to share files. This could be a home computer turned into file server or an actual server. This is typically done by using a popular server client. The four main clients are: Hotline, Carracho, KDX, and Wired. KDX and Wired each offer great encryption whereas Hotline and Carracho do not. The way that files servers work is fairly simple; Some decides to host one so they download the server side application and turn their computer into a server. Now anyone who downloads the client side application for the same network can connect to that server provided that they know where that server is and have permission to do so.
Advantages: Security. Because people who run these servers have the option to allow or deny service to anyone they can do a good job at keeping bad guys out. By having all users of their servers consent to an agreement before entering, they can make a lot of information gathered there useless(in theory).
Disadvantages: Centralized servers. Any one server can be shut down resulting in the loss of files.
Speed. Because many of these servers are hosted from home computers, download speeds can be very limited.
Hard to find. There is no real way to find a given server or to know what is on it. There are several approaches to this but no conclusive ones.
Instructions for use: Download a client application, find a server, and connect to it.
Resources:
•Clients: Wired, KDX, Carracho, Hotline.
•Finding servers: Tracker-Tracker

Hubs

What is it: It seems today that a lot of major universities have what are known as 'Hubs' running on their schools private network. Information on these seem to be very limited on the web, and not currently attending a university that has one my knowledge on this subject is very limited. It is my understanding that a college hub is nothing more than a simple way for everyone on the colleges network to share files. This is done in a direct connect type manner where every file is downloaded direct from one person to the next.
Advantages: Insane speed. Because this is intranet not internet some of my friends have reported speeds that are lagged by disk write times.
Reliability. Because this isn't open to the public angry companies do not have access to share bogus files or include spyware.
Disadvantages: Limited. Because this is private in the broad sense, the only files available are those that people in the network have.
Comments: If anyone knows more about these please either post it here or contact me and I'll update this post. I am also a little curious how colleges can legally allow this. I think it would be pretty naive of them not to know.

IRC

What is it: Internet Relay Chat(IRC) is essentially just a large series of chat rooms. Many of them have nothing illegal in them. Others however, are used solely to distribute warez. Once on a warez channel people can download warez shared by other members through smart bots. The IRC has been around a long long time and seems to be a favorite form of sharing for people who have been using computers a long long time.
Advantages: The feds don't seem to care much about the IRC. It seems to have a lot of stuff other places don't have/it gets them first.
Disadvantages: Quite the learning curve.
Instructions for use: First you will need an IRC client. I would recommend Snak. Then you will need to connect to a server. The best one seems to be 'EFNet'. Next you will need to connect to a channel. The best mac channel seems to be: #MacFilez. In order to know what is being shared you need to get a list of files from a bot. Bot's have names listed in green. Simply click on one and start a new query. Then type 'xdcc list' without the quotes. Otherwise if you wait around a while most of the bots will usually just display what they have. When you finally find something you want enter the query 'xdcc send [number]' without quotes where the number is the slot number you want without the brackets. A lot of the time these bots can get quite loaded so be patient if the download takes a while to start.
Resources:
•Clients: Snak 5.x STW
•Search for IRC stuff...
•C4M Discussion

Usenet

What is it: Usenet is a series of servers originally designed to display news. Today these servers are used to host 'binaries' or files. Usenet is much like the IRC in the sense that it has been around a long long time and older people tend to use it. It also has a propensity to have first run or exclusive files. Like the IRC a lot of Usenet is used for legitimate purposes.
Advantages: Pretty much the same as the IRC but with less wait times.
Disadvantages: Expensive. In order for usenet to actually be useful for filesharing you need to pay money for a good news server with high file retention.
Instructions for use: First you will need a news server. Most ISP's offer one with a very very small file retention. The favorite paid news server by far is called http://www.giganews.com/. Next you will need a news reader. I highly recommend Unison. Open your news reader and it will ask you for a news server. You tell it to connect to the one you got earlier. Then you need to go to a wares newsgroup. There are a lot under the series of alt.binaries.mac.XXX (like alt.binaries.mac.applications).
Resources:
•News servers: http://www.giganews.com/
•Clients: Unison, MT-NewsWatcher, NewsWatcher-X, Newsflash
•Newsgroups: alt.binaries.mac
•Usenet search engine: Newzbin

SoulSeek

What is it: Unlike most of the other file sharing methods mentioned here, Soulseek is geared toward sharing music. I am not sure how exactly it works but I think it is very similar to how P2P works. There is a central server that manages all the users and connects them to one another when a file is to be transferred.
Advantages: There are a lot of all different types of music available here. Soulseek allows chats, which can be helpful sometimes.
Disadvantages: Centralized server that has in the past crashed. Because transfers are set up on a one-to-one basis, larger files can sometimes be hard to get.
Instructions for use: Simply get soulseek client.
Resources:
•Clients: SoulSeekx, SoulSeeX, Nicotine, SolarSeek

Free Download

What is it:
I was saving the very best approach to warez for last. Download a demo from the company or Macupdate/Version tracker and then serialize it. Only very large or expensive/well known files don't allow this. Sometimes a serial number or crack doesn't exist for something. Most of the time you can just download it and register it. Don't request someone to share something before you have tried this approach. Make sure you are using the latest SerialBox and KCNcrew as well.
Advantages: Free, reliable, legal to download.
Disadvantages: Some things can't always be registered.
Instructions for use: Go to one of the websites and download the app. Download the latest serial box or KCNcrew and serialize it.
Resources:
•Google
•Macupdate
•Versiontracker
•SerialBox
•KCNcrew

Part Two: Etiquette



I was going to put a little etiquette section under each method but then I realized that I would be repeating myself more than I already am. There are just a few very important rules to file-sharing etiquette. If you are using a network that allows you to upload what you have just downloaded(P2P, Bittorrent, Soulseek), keep it going. By this I mean let people upload the entire file at least once. In bittorrent this is a very big issue. It is easy to see your share ratio. It should be at least above 1 before you stop 'seeding'(sharing) a torrent. If you are using a network that does not depend on user bandwidth, share the file on another network or again on the same one. This is called 'Mirroring' and is a pivotal part of these methods of sharing. If you got something from Usenet, upload it to rapidshare and post a link on a forum. If you got something from a wired server, offer it on the IRC. As long as you keep whatever you got going the system shouldn't fail. Of course it never hurts to add new files to the mix. Feel free to site your source. Yeah, they probably didn't post it themselves but it never hurts to give credit. That being said, just remember: This is a team effort!
Please read these etiquette links:
•Mirroring
•P2P
•Bittorrent
•IRC

Part Three: The escape



There is a lot of information and misconceptions floating around the internet about not getting busted. There are a lot of things you can do to help keep a low profile but Nothing will stop you from getting caught if they really want to get you.
That being said, here are some things that you can do:
C4M on subject topic
1) Security! Good security is so important. A lot of good security practices involve withholding information from other entities on the internet. This can be extremely pivotal in not getting busted.
C4M Security
2) Run through a proxy. A proxy is basically a server that you route internet traffic through to conceal your identity.
TOR, a great proxy system.
More on TOR
Netshade, faster but more expensive and less secure than TOR.
3) Use a block list. This is just a list of known 'bad' IP addresses, which you then automatically block.
PeerGuardian
4) Remove evidence. Never helps having things laying around...
A great, must-read tutorial by the laughing.goblin.

It is important that you understand however, that none of this will keep you safe. If the government really wants to break into your computer it doesn't matter what kind of security you have, they'll do it. If the government really wants to find you, it doesn't matter how many proxies you run through, they'll trace you. Block lists are flawed by design. Because there is NO WAY for them to be all-inclusive you always run the risk of talking with a bad IP. No matter what you do the government can get evidence off your hard drive. Well... that last part might not be entirely true. If you do a 35 way random 1 and 0 pass over your hard drive then degauss it then melt it down and finally throw it in a volcano they probably got nothing on you. The idea behind doing any of these things is to make you not worth their time.
Lets use our imagination for a minute. Lets pretend that the government watches all sites related to illegal activities like torrent sites and P2P client downloads. Now lets pretend that they simply keep a huge database with a list of all IP's that have ever been to these sites and how many times they have been there. Now lets extend that thought to the networks themselves. Lets say that they watch all P2P, Bittorrent... traffic and record the IP's on that. If the government were watching 'the internet' this kind of thing wouldn't be so hard to do. If they did have such a list I would bet that they would take special note of the people who seem to be on it the most and go after them. All of these precautions will help keep you off their imaginary list a lot, but not entirely. If you are running a wired server and they get wind of it, it doesn't matter what you are doing they might get you. I'm sure the government has stuff on everyone its just that most people aren't worth their time. Why bother tracing you through a proxy when there are millions of other people who aren't even running through them at all? One final topic I feel I need to bring up is that not uploading things will NOT keep you from getting caught in any way. It will only lead to the downfall of file-sharing as we know it!
Share/Bookmark