On my website, Ask the Village Idiot, I offer to its clients the opportunity to ask a question that for whatever reason, they are unable to find on their own. I do this for a couple of reasons: One, its a very nice freebie to offer on the site, and two, I love finding the impossible. During the past few articles, I've offered my tips and tricks so that you, the reader, have if nothing else, a starting point to what the internet is all about.

In this particular article, I'm going to offer an additional dimension to part of the enjoyment that is the world wide web, namely peer to peer file sharing. This is the protocol, or set of rules, that allows people to share MP3's, word documents, e-books, and software across the web, not from a single website, but from other's computers.

Although this method of file sharing has raised a great amount of uproar amongst music artists everywhere (Check out Heavy Metal Morons of Metallica vs. file sharing article here) and in general the entire copyright industry. Personally, I don't think this is an infringement on copyrights, as no one is making money on the music that is traded, and no different from making your own mixes on a cassette tape to share with friends.

There are two types of entries into this arena; centralized access (such as Napster), and multipoint access, such as Gnutella (Gnutella networks don't have a centralized website). The Gnutella network is the most widely used, and fortunately, nearly impossible to stomp out. Limewire.com has an excellent article on the Gnutell network and its advantages. Need the software? Glad you asked. Here are three of my favorites:

1. Limewire. Top of the list because it offers the cleanest interface, and its a real bargain. You can either get the ad supported version for nothing, or spend $9.50 for th non ad version.

2. Ares. I like this one, because its clean, small and easy to set up. Free to use.

3. Grokster. Great list of features make this one the easiest to use, but it is heavily ad supported.

The rules of searching are identical to that of the internet; and much like the internet, much of the content can be pornographic in nature. But the end result is possibly the greatest information sharing source on the planet. Please let me know how these work for you by going to the forums, and put in your favorite filesharing program for others to try. Enjoy!