Peer to Peer Programs

jereece · Joined: Dec 06, 2002 Posts: 567

My son has used a Peer to Peer program over the years on his computer. He has used Limewire, Bittorent, Bearshare, etc. Knowing this I have had discussions with him about the dangers of viruses, spyware, hackers, etc. but he likes the ability to find mostly music. I have secured his computer best I can. I learned a lot from this forum over the years. However twice in the past few years he has gotten a virus. Right now he is not running anything because I told him I would try to see if any one stood out as being safer than others. So here's my question, does anyone have a recommended P2P program based on it's safety features. For example, is there one that scans for viruses and spyware?

Another question is, can all P2P programs be configured not to share anything from his computer. He does not want to share anything, just download stuff.

While I don't like him using a P2P program, he is an adult and I am just trying to help him be as safe as possible.

Thanks,
Jim

jereece · Joined: Dec 06, 2002 Posts: 567

I assume no one has a clue?

Kaelte · Joined: Oct 23, 2008 Posts: 42

Any anti-virus is better than none, and NOTHING is going to stop a virus if it's downloaded and then opened.
eg. You download something, and as soon as it's complete, you click it to run it, and see if it's the right song, or whatever, and your AV program pops up (or it should) with a warning. You ignore the warning, open the download, nothing appears to happen, because it's not a song, it's malware. You're infected.
The problem is the amount of fake music on P2P apps. Run whatever one you like the best, keep a good AV running, and get a decent anti-spyware program as well.
Many of the "viruses" in P2P are actually trojans or worms, and some AV programs have no defence.
Try Spybot S&D, Malwarebytes anti-spyware, or SuperAntiSpyware. All are free.
Once his "song" is downloaded, right click on it and select to scan with whatever you're using. If it's got some sort of malware contained, it should be detected, then delete and redownload from another source.

Each P2P app has a method of NOT sharing files. Simply look in the preferences and select the folder to share. If you can't actually disable sharing, then you can just make a new, empty folder on your hard drive, and point it to that, you won't share anything.