FEATURE FILE SHARING ▲

Sharing files across the Net needn’t be a legal minefield.Find out how you can get social online and share your files with trusted contacts

Personal file sharing

The Internet opened up a whole

new world to those of us who use

computers, giving us access to a

wide range of information without

having to move away our desks. But that

was only the start of the revolution, the

rapid spread of high-speed, always

active broadband connections has

meant that it’s now possible to share all

sorts of stuff from photos and videos to

sound recordings and diary entries.

There’s a whole world of material

available and it’s only a few clicks away.

Like anything else you can do on the

Internet, file sharing requires that you

exercise care, and a sizeable helping of

common sense, if you’re to stay safe.

“These applications enable you to share selected data with trusted contacts”

The precautions of having a firewall and

an antivirus program installed are

important for any Internet activity.

You’ll no doubt be aware too that there

are legality issues attached to sharing

files too, and we’ll deal with those in

more detail shortly.

The part of file sharing that you’ll

have heard of – because it tends to get

a bad press over illegal swapping of

copyright material – is peer-to-peer

(P2P) networking, where a group of

computers talk directly to one another

without going via a server. However, this

only represents part of the story.

When it comes to sharing your own

files with other people across the Web,

it’s unlikely you’ll want to open them up

to all and sundry. In these situations,

personal file-sharing tools are a much

better solution. These applications

enable you to share selected data with

trusted contacts, without needing to

email it or make it available on an FTP

server. If you do want to share files with

the world, there are plenty of websites

to help you do so, many of which offer

you these services for free.

Over the course of this feature we’ll

take a look at the history of file sharing,

and how it’s developed from a legally

dubious minority activity to a sociable

pastime that everyone can enjoy. LLuukkee WWhhiittttaakkeerr

www.pc-utilities.co.uk issue 90 20

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