Ian writes:

<<Of late, I've seen quite a bit of negative commentary about the potential
perils of using file sharing programs, and I can't help wondering just how
much of the 'doomsay' is based on hearsay.....

After many years of downloading a wide range of data from unfamiliar sites,
I haven't picked up more than a dozen or so viruses.>>

Perfectly correct, much of this is reported by techies who have to repair
the mess.

So others pass on this info, hearsay though it may well be, for better or
worse.

No great problem if you are wise and careful---but we aren't all, so
warnings of dire consequences might not be amiss.

Ian answers himself---12 viruses are 12 more than most of us would want to
download.  For anyone who doesn't practice Safe Cruising, that could be 12
expensive disasters.

I have a friend who has twice lately hosed his system with Kazaa
downloads.  He hasn't a clue. Just got himself a new computer with enormous
HD and Cable, so is madly downloading all music ever invented.

Only one problem---he expects me to fix it when things go wrong (last call
was 3 days ago).  He won't learn to update a-v, install firewall, or take
basic precautions. His computer is simply a tool and he has no interest in
its internal workings. XP has a built-in firewall, and that's good enough
for him.

Perhaps he's not untypical of many out there.

Hence my dire warnings, not intended for the cognoscenti, but for the
unknowing innocents. I agree, the Kazaa system's great, as long as one is
sensible and reasonably knowledgeable about potential risks.

There's probably only 1 in thousands of files that are bad. You may never
see one. But I don't go swimming in shark-infested waters, either.

<<And, like the folk who offer opinions about operating systems they don't use
themselves, it's amazing how many don't have this knowledge.>>

Not sure that I'd entirely go along with that one.  If one reads, in a wide
variety of journals, FAQ's, etc consistently bad reports about a certain
piece of software, one might be justified in advising caution about the use
of that software, even though personally untried. I don't need to use XP to
know that it ain't likely to work too good on an old computer. It's
unlikely that everything I read is wrong.

As Ian rightly says, one needs to be critical about advice given. Some of
it is just plain wrong, even dangerous.

And don't assume the "experts" know it all.  They don't.

Don Penlington



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