I have used three file sharing programs–Limewire, BearShare and Kazaa. Free versions of all the three.From my personal experience i found Limewire to be least intrusive. Apart from that it offers more user control. And under ideal circumstances there is least background bandwidth use by Limewire. So under ideal circumstances ,I found no speed related problems, when ever i used Limewire.
Add to the above one important fact–I never use an anti-virus in my PC, and depend solely on the two utilities provided by Windows Operating Systems–System Restore and Firewall.
So if somebody says a fully updated anti-virus is a must in a PC, whenever someone plans to go for programs like Limewire, my suggestion is, although this piece of advice looks weighty, you can afford to ignore it.
The above verdict is about ideal circumstances. Now let’s discuss some exceptional or abnormal circumstances. It happens when the PC does get a virus or malware infection. under these circumstances, the computer does slow down. As the bandwidth is secretly used by some spyware.
A PC can get infection by two ways: one through the executable content downloaded through Limewire and; second through the malware either strategically placed by Limewire itself or by parasites that secretly attach themselves to Limewire, and earn at its cost.
Let I explain you the former way: Like other File sharing programs which profit from bandwidth usage(more uploads and downloads), Limewire also tries to increase its volume, no matter what the methods are. Remember there is no sage in the world of file sharing.The only difference being–some adopt comparatively more ethical methods than others.
An example will make the talk more simple. Some of you, who have been using Limewire for some time, will be aware that no search. however rare it may be, shows zero results–where in all probabilty, it is possible not to find the desired search. Why? ….because, even in such cases, Limewire shows four or five files which although have nothing in common with the search, are eponymous(having the same name)with the search text. Initailly not knowing this juggulary, the user downloads one of these files,and later finds that they are just band width occupying methods(or in simple, not the data the user wanted).
But this is case only for non exe data like movies and music files, where the above juggulary costs the user some time and sometimes money. But when such files are exes, then the loss is double, first on the above count and then on opening them, they infect the PC with some malicious stuff, which makes the Limewire occupy the bandwidth, without the knowledge of the user.
The parasites which profit on Limewire, work similarly, but they harm the user much more.
So whenever someone installs programs like Limewire, one should have firewall on and a restore point made before the installation. Second thing that should be remembered while using file sharing programs, is that– if a search shows only four or five results and that also having the same name as the search text entered by the user, better not to download it.As in all probability, it may be nothing but some smart move by the File sharing program or in simple some juggulary.
Even if after taking all the precautions, the PC gets infected, without wandering here and there, try to restore it to the restore point made before the Limewire installation. If this measure fails to contain the problem, make a proper backup of your important data in the primary drive and format it.
