Backing up your legally owned DVDs - a 'how to' guide

A brief introduction to the DVD format

Please sir, can I have some more? Certainly Oliver, how many gigabytes would you like? I am of course talking about data storage space. Once upon a time, having the ability to backup 650mb of data to a CD was a feat met with gasps of awe. Since then the emergence of the digital versatile disk (or DVD) has upped the ante along with the storage capacity possibilities, quite frankly making the trusty CD writer look like a bit of a lightweight. It is now feasible to write up to a whopping 9.4 gigabytes of whatever takes your fancy to a single CD sized disk providing you have the right hardware.

At a glance it's difficult to tell the difference between a CD and a DVD, though judging this particular book by its cover would be highly misleading. Storage capacity represents the most notable distinction between the comparatively minuscule CD and the mighty DVD. Both formats store data within imperceptibly tiny grooves aligned so as to spiral around the surface of the media. Within these grooves are found pits and bumps representing the ones and zeros of digital information that are read by CD/DVD drive lasers.

DVDs are able to store many times more data than CDs owing to the smaller pits and a tighter track spacing of their structural makeup, the landscape of which is scanned by smaller laser beams than those of a CD drive. Without going into great detail, your CD drive, unless it happens to be a CD/DVD combo drive, will never be able to read DVDs because their larger laser beams cannot interpret the smaller surface data structure of DVDs. No matter how many internet rumours you have the misfortune to stumble across relating to this, it cannot be done, no way, no how; if you want to read DVDs you will need to buy a DVD-ROM drive.

A comparison of the many variants

DVDs can accommodate up to four layers of data, two on each side of the disk, in comparison to the single layer offered by CDs. To be able to read the various layers of information, DVD drive lasers alter the intensity of their focus to probe deeper into the disk - each change of focus is known as a 'layer switch'. Note that because the lasers in DVD players and DVD-ROM drives are suspended in a fixed position it is necessary to manually flip over double sided disks in order to access all the data. The possibility of utilising up to four layers of information on a single disk has resulted in the development of four different types of DVD, each distinguished by their data capacities.

Single sided, single layered disks can hold a maximum of 4.7 GB worth of data, while single sided, dual layered disks can hold roughly 8.5 GB. Double sided, single layered disks have the potential to store 9.4 GB worth of data, whereas double sided, dual layered disks can contain approximately 17 GB. At present it is only possible to create DIY DVDs containing no more than 9.4 GB worth of digital delicacies because there are no DVD writers on the market which are capable of burning dual layered disks.

To give you a rough idea of how long you can expect to have to twiddle your thumbs waiting for a full DVD to be written, a 2x writer can record a full 4.7 GB DVD in approximately 30 minutes and a 4x writer would achieve the same task in approximately 15 minutes. From these figures it is clear that CD and DVD drive speeds cannot be directly equated; a 2x speed DVD writer works much faster than a 2x CD writer.

DVDs come in three flavours; DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and DVD-ROM. DVD-Video disks contain a combination of audio and video content and are used to store the movies you can buy in stores or rent from Blockbuster et al. DVD-Audio disks, although far less common in mainstream retail outlets, are used to store high fidelity, multi channel stereo music. DVD-ROMs are computer compatible disks used for data archival purposes, much like the CD-R format only with greater scope.

To further complicate the state of affairs, there are three DVD recordable formats; DVD-RAM, DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW. At present they are to be considered competing formats as a de facto standard has yet to be decided upon. Unsurprisingly this creates all kinds of quandaries for the consumer, not least the fact that the various formats are incompatible with one another - a single format DVD-R/RW drive is incapable of writing to DVD+R/RW disks and vice versa.

Also, there's a good chance that your home made DVD movies will not work in your standalone DVD player. To avoid such dilemmas you can either buy a writer which supports multiple formats (commonly known as a combo drive), or you can patiently bide your time until one or the other drive/media rises victorious from the ashes of the format war before taking the plunge.

DVD-RAM disks have more in common with hard drives than with CD-R or CD-RW disks as they can be written to up to a hundred thousand times and do not need to be reformatted before use. They can store up to 9.4 GB worth of data on a double sided disk, though because most DVD players and DVD-ROM drives do not support them, DVD-RAM drives aren't worth considering unless your requirements do not extend beyond backing up computer data and re-using that data on a single computer or multiple computers which have DVD-RAM drives installed. My prediction is that the DVD-RAM format will disappear into obscurity in the near future leaving the pluses to do battle with the minuses.

The DVD-R format, devised by Pioneer, has the advantage over DVD-RAM that it is supported by most DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. DVD-R disks are capable of storing 4.7 GB worth of data per side yet they can only be written once. Keeping it within the family, DVD-RW disks can be written up to a thousand times and can also contain 4.7 GB of data per side. Likewise they are compatible with most DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. DVD-R media can additionally be divided into DVD-R(A) disks which are designed for professional authoring, and DVD-R(G) disks which are intended to be used for general use.

Of the three formats, DVD+R is the only one to offer complete compatibility with existing DVD players, and because it is backed by a number of the most important names in the computer industry (Dell, Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Sony) it has a good chance of outliving the competition to become 'the one' - I'm sure The Highlander would be proud. DVD+R drives are not able to read or write to DVD-RAM disks but gain ground because they are backwards compatible with CD-R and CD-RW disks. The usual 4.7 GB per side capacity rule applies and they can be re-written up to a thousand times.

It's worth noting at this point that older DVD players cannot play any kind of re-writable disk so if you intend to use this type of media you will have to either invest in a new DVD player or only play back re-writable disks in your computer's DVD drive. The newer your DVD player, the better chance it has of correctly reading your disks irrespective of the format they take.

Making your DVD player region free

Like Bill Gates, motion picture studios are evil, which is why they try to insist that you only buy DVDs from within the same geographic region in which you bought your DVD-ROM or DVD player. They do try to defend their motivations for doing so with a number of plausible sounding justifications i.e. because movies are released at the cinema at different dates across the globe, DVD release dates have to be carefully regulated so as to ensure that people in the UK, for instance, cannot buy a movie DVD while that same movie is still being shown at the cinema, though I still think my original explanation is more apt. ;)

Working in cahoots with the naughty people in the movie biz, the DVD Copy Control Association assert that anyone wanting to manufacture a DVD-ROM drive or DVD player must implement region code restrictions into their hardware. This can be changed a maximum of five times by the user and a further four times if the unit is returned to the manufacturer.

When this system was first introduced it was met by a public backlash; unsurprisingly many people were not prepared to have their consumer rights compromised for the sake of helping the movie industry to line its already bulging pockets. It was soon discovered that it was possible to circumvent this protection to force DVD drives/players to play all DVDs regardless of where they originated, hence the region-free DVD player was born. The code which stipulates which DVDs can be played in a particular DVD player is stored on a chip very similar to that of a motherboard BIOS chip, and as a result they can be 'flashed' to change the way they function in an identical fashion.

To make a DVD player region free you have to update the player's firmware with a patched version. Your first task is to identify the model number of your DVD drive and find out if it is region locked - you can do this using a utility known as Drive Region Info. It's very unlikely that your drive will already be region free, but if Drive Region Info reveals that it is, you obviously do not need to alter your firmware.

Once you know the model number of your drive you can download patched firmware for it from 'The Firmware Page' and apply it in the usual way (as described in the misc. section of the FAQ). As always, remember to heed the warnings found in the readme.txt file of the relevant 'flashkit' archive and follow the instructions to the letter, otherwise you could do permanent damage to your hardware. When you reboot your computer, load Drive Region Info again to check that the changes have taken effect.

Creating data DVDs and extracting movie DVDs to your hard drive

Creating your own data DVD is accomplished in exactly the same way as you would write a CD-R/RW. In Nero, for instance, you would select 'new' from the 'file' menu and then choose the DVD option from the drop down selection box before clicking 'OK'. Files can be added to the compilation by dragging and dropping them into the empty pane below the new DVD title. Once you are ready to commit your choices to disk you can write the DVD by clicking on the 'write' dialog box, making sure you check the 'finalise' option if you do not wish to add anything to the DVD at a later date.

Unfortunately Nero is incapable of backing up commercial, copyright protected data, movie or audio DVDs, and similarly trying to merely copy the files to your hard drive will achieve very little. Game copyright protection mechanisms have already been covered elsewhere on this site so should be familiar territory. Movie copyright protection on the other hand may be new to you so we will briefly look into this before moving onto discussing possible ways to get around it. Nearly all movies worth watching are encrypted using the content scrambling system (CSS) so cannot be copied using standard CD/DVD writing tools, or simple copy and paste techniques.

For your DVD player to be able to access these disks at all, the key which decrypts the scrambled data before streaming it to your TV or computer monitor has to be provided alongside the 'lock'. To prevent people from copying protected disks these keys are kept well hidden in the normally inaccessible lead-in area of the disk. Whenever you try to copy such a disk you get the scrambled data, but not the key which allows you to make sense of that data. As a result, errors are spat out at you whenever you try to play back the protected content from your hard drive i.e. the movie .VOB files which contain an amalgamation of video, audio and subtitle streams.

I realise warning you what not to do isn’t a great deal of help on its own, so now would be an opportune moment to tell you what you should be doing. Downloading DVD Decrypter would be an excellent place to start - this will provide the means to create an image of a protected DVD which can be stored on your hard drive for further manipulation or play back. It's free and luckily is no more difficult to use than Clone CD, a program you are perhaps more familiar with. Let's get to work. Run the program and insert the DVD you wish to decrypt into your DVD drive. DVD Decrypter should detect the disk and locate the most suitable drive or partition on which to store the extracted data i.e. the one with the most free space available.

I should point out at this stage of the proceedings that because a movie extracted to a single ISO file will consume upwards of 4 GB of hard disk space, the partition you intend to store the file on must have been formatted to use the NTFS file system. This is because FAT32 doesn't support files of this magnitude. If you don’t have an NTFS partition available and do not wish to convert one of your FAT32 partitions you will have to use the 'file' rather than the ISO output option of DVD Decrypter (files contained on DVD-Video disks cannot be greater than 1 GB in size), but more of that later.

DVD Decrypter will auto-magically select all the constituent parts of the movie, leaving you only the task of prodding the DVD to hard drive transfer button in the bottom left corner of the application GUI. Within 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your computer hardware and the length of the movie, the transfer of the movie VOB files to your hard drive will be complete.

These can now be played using a range of software DVD players, the best of which are thought to be Win DVD and Power DVD. In Power DVD you can do this by pressing control and O to access the open menu followed by selecting "open DVD files on hard disk drive". Finally from within the subsequent dialog box choose the VIDEO_TS.IFO file extracted by DVD Decryper (IFO files contain navigational information used by your DVD player to jump between chapters etc).

To achieve the same thing in Power DVD you first have to create a folder on the root of your hard drive called VIDEO_TS (note this is case sensitive) as you would find on the original DVD and move all the extracted files into it. To play back the movie you would then click on the options button and select the hard drive where the files are stored.

If you'd rather turn your DVDs into ISO files and play them using a CD/DVD mounting tool such as Daemon Tools then that is also possible with DVD Decrypter. In this case you would select ISO (the 'read' variant obviously) from the 'mode' menu before hitting the start button.

As you've probably gathered by now this is a great way to backup your DVD movies if you aren't lucky enough to own a DVD writer, assuming you have plenty of spare hard drive real estate that is. If you have got a DVD writer you might like to learn how to go about writing your extracted files to a blank DVD (or two). This will be our next task.

Because DVDs come on either dual layered 8.5 GB disks (DVD-9) or single layered 4.7 GB disks (DVD-5) they cannot all be duplicated in the same way. The most notable stumbling block is the fact that no DVD writers exist that can write dual layered disks, so if you want to copy a DVD-9 disk you have to either use two recordable DVDs, down sample the DVD to make it fit on a single disk, chop out the extra features to save space and then write it to a single disk or use a combination of these methods.

Backing up DVD-5 and DVD-9 disks to recordable DVDs

Backing up a DVD-5 disk is a cinch as it is possible to create a 1:1 copy using only DVD Decrypter. Assuming you have created an ISO image of the DVD you wish to backup using the methods described earlier, all you have to do to write the file to a recordable DVD is to select Mode > ISO > Write from within the DVD Decrypter interface, insert a blank disk and hit the hard drive to DVD transfer button.

The trouble is, most modern DVD disks are of the DVD-9 variety so unfortunately they cannot be backed up using this method. It would seem that there are nearly as many methods to backup such disks as there are DVDs. Everyone has their own favoured means and it's difficult to say outright which, if any, is superior because they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps the most sensible thing to do is choose the one which suits you and not get too caught up arguing your case for or against using one piece of software or the other... which is exactly what I'll proceed to do now because I have no self control. ;)

The process can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be - some DVD copying guides will span many pages and list up to a hundred time consuming steps which you must follow to the letter in order to produce a working backup. Those people who put their faith in such methods rationalise that only by doing this can you create perfect copies indistinguishable from the original. They may well be right if you're the type of person who can spot a needle in a haystack from a hundred yards while wearing sun glasses during an eclipse, but for everyone else, the quick and easy methods will suffice.

Also keep in mind that as time goes on, more and more one-click DVD backer-up-erers will appear on the market; the extraction/writing process will become more refined and there will be even less evidence to support doing things the hard way (as I type, the people behind the award winning Clone CD are working on a DVD hybrid which should be the answer to many frustrated DVD devotee's dreams). Quality issues aside, of course there will always be people who will continue to do everything manually using a number of different programs because they think it makes them look l33t (that's quite clever with computers for anyone who doesn't speak hacker).

One of my favourite methods which involves a few more steps than your average idiot-proof, Clone CD style tool is to extract the movie using DVD Decrypter and then write it to a single DVD using Pinnacle's Instant Copy (he says backtracking slightly from recommending one click solutions). This method allows you to cram a full DVD-9 movie onto a single recordable DVD, although it does detract from the video quality of the original movie somewhat.

First of all, extract the movie data from the DVD using the Mode > File method, select all the files from within the 'edit' menu and begin transferring them to your hard disk using the transfer button in the bottom left hand corner of the DVD Decrypter GUI. Once the task is complete it's time to whip out Instant Copy and set it to work. From within the 'source' menu option choose hard disk, select the folder where your movie data files are stored and locate the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. Now select the destination DVD writer drive and click on the DVD tab. Change the copy method to 'Customised Resize' and the preferred destination to DVD and press the start button.

You will now be required to configure the video size settings. The challenge here is to reduce the video size and hence the file sizes so that they fit on a single recordable DVD. You can either reduce the video size of the main movie and the extras indiscriminately or you can reduce the video size of the extras while maintaining the video size of the main movie; it's all about compromising to find the right balance. Look at the contents box and you will see a folder labelled 'Video Tracks'. If you click on this, a list of all the components of the movie will appear (you will easily be able to recognise the main movie as it will be many times longer than the supporting files). Select each of them one by one and under the 'video' tab drag the slider to resize the video accordingly.

The options under the 'audio' tab allow you to selectively remove audio tracks (if you only speak English you might like to remove the multi-language support entirely), and the 'subtitles' tab provides the means to hack out the subtitles to recoup even more space - no great loss unless you suffer from hearing difficulties of course. When the data size bar turns green (to indicate that the files are small enough to fit on a single recordable DVD) and you're happy to commit your amendments to file, click the OK button to begin converting the movie.

The process will take anywhere up to six hours to complete so you might want to set it up to work over night or while you're out at work, school or wherever (if you're not prepared to wait this long you might like to use a program called DVD2One instead of Instant Copy - the quality of the resulting movies isn't as good, but you can extract and write a DVD in under an hour). Once complete, a dialog box will appear requesting you to insert a blank DVD. Do as it says and our work here is done.

The one click method

All in one conversion tools that claim to create perfect DVD backups are nothing new, though when it comes to the crunch, many of the authors of such programs are exposed as blatant charlatans as they do nothing of the kind. Instead they produce DVD rips in SVCD or DivX format without the need for a DVD writer. These kinds of rips would be perfectly acceptable if what you require are reasonable quality movies in a format small enough to fit on a CD-R, however, what I object to are the false claims which typify the spiel of far too many DVD software authors. Separating the hype from the truth can be a time consuming process, though one technique I often use is to quickly scan through the introductory text on DVD software web sites to pick out the text which has obviously been translated from Korean, Chinese or Japanese using Babelfish.

This may sound totally ethnocentric and narrow minded, yet you'd be surprised by how many frauds can be exposed by this simple method. Besides, if you've created a quality product to be proud of, you don't present it to an English speaking audience using sloppy, grammatically incorrect Engrish. If your English is terrible, but you're a talented programmer, for your sake, get a native English speaker to help you - otherwise your work will be dismissed by prejudiced people like me even if the code is top notch. ;) If your English and your programming is terrible, for my sake, don't bother at all.

Finding the real deal is a rarity - DVD X Copy is probably the closest you'll get. It doesn't create copies which are identical to the original movie, but it comes so close it's not worth splitting hairs. Because DVD X Copy has been deemed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to be in breach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 321 Studios, the authors of DVD X Copy, have had to implement a number of conciliatory features into the program to sidestep potential legal battles.

What this means for the consumer is that the movies created by DVD X Copy have to be tampered with, which brings into question just how "perfect" the results truly are. Firstly, the program stamps its own copyright protection onto your movies to prevent further duplication. Secondly, a digital watermark is embedded into your movies so as to aid identification of the licensed owner of the software used to create the duplicate. Finally, a disclaimer is appended to the beginning of all movies to inform viewers that the disk is a backup copy intended for personal use only.

"Personal use" is the key term here; the DMCA states that the owner of an original DVD is perfectly entitled to create a single backup copy of that disk providing the duplicate is only watched in private and is not distributed either freely or for profit. For the MPAA to obtain a court order insisting that the product be withdrawn from the market they would have to prove that DVD X Copy is being used first and foremost as a piracy tool; a task they are currently working on. At least for now, consumers can continue to exercise their right to backup their legally owned DVDs safeguarded by their 'fair use' agreement.

Legal wranglings aside, DVD X Copy provides the means to backup almost identical copies of DVD-5 or DVD-9 disks including menus, trailers and special features. DVD-5 disks can be backed up in their entirety to a single recordable DVD, whereas two disks are required to back up a DVD-9 movie assuming you do not want to lose any of the accompanying extras. If saving a recordable disk is a higher priority you can have DVD X Copy remove all such material leaving you with only the main movie which will comfortably fit on a single recordable disk. When you first insert the DVD you intend to copy, DVD X Copy will inform you whether or not it will fit on a single disk.

If it won't, the main movie is copied to the first disk and the extras are stored on the second disk, while particularly long movies are spanned across two disks. How the second disk begins playing when inserted is your decision - it can either begin instantly or be selected from the main menu. The exact point at which longer movies are split is initially decided for you, yet you always have the option to alter the default selection if it does not suit your requirements.

When you're happy with your choices you can press the 'copy now' button to begin transferring the files to your hard drive. If you have a separate DVD-ROM drive and DVD writer you may like to use the extremely useful 'output disk is ready' feature, which allows you to insert a blank DVD into your writer at the same time as you insert the source disk and have DVD X Copy begin writing to it once the creation of the temporary files on your hard drive is complete. Otherwise you will be expected to baby sit the process until the extraction is complete and then switch disks.

So there you have it; the ability to create one click, hands free DVD backups is now within reach. The decision to use this method should ultimately be based upon weighing up the advantages of speed and simplicity against the ability to have complete control over your backups. Personally I think it's a small sacrifice to make, and in any case since you should only be making copies for personal use, you only have yourself to please. If your backups are good enough for you, feel free to ignore the the ultra-picky elitists - most of them are just grumpy because people are less impressed by their skills now that your average silver surfer can achieve the same results with minimal technical know-how. ;)

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eMule and the eDonkey network unwrapped

eMule, more commonly known as "that really difficult to configure file sharing client", is a reworking of its more recognisable older brother eDonkey, and contrary to popular belief it's no more taxing to use than any other piece of peer to peer software. Let's face it, if you're prepared to entrust your file transfers to a ladybird and a chocolate spread and are still not satisfied with the results, what have you got to lose by putting your faith in the humble, patient and hard working donkey? If you pass up the opportunity to discover eMule's hidden depths based on mere folklore without first putting it through its paces then the biggest ass in this story will be you.

Unlike archetypal file sharing tools like Napster, eMule doesn't depend on a single, central server to function making it much trickier for big brother to stomp on. Instead it is the users themselves who operate the hundreds of independent servers on which the eDonkey network is founded. These servers are not designed to host all the files available to the network, but do store indexes of the files which users of the network have chosen to share. Whenever you conduct a search, it is these indexes and the servers they reside on which are called upon to provide the results and negotiate the transfer of files from one computer to another.

Even people who have never used eDonkey or eMule somehow instinctively know that its strength lies in the transfer of bulky files like CD images and movies. This isn't a misconception; although any kind of file can be exchanged, the eDonkey protocol is particularly well suited for handling the king-sized variety due to the way server requests are made. The more files a user decides to share, the more strain is put on the CPU of the server. If the server has to process thousands of smaller files, gigabytes worth of MP3s for example, then it can quickly be reduced to crawling speed and it is for this reason users are strongly encouraged to either only share large files or to compress their collections of smaller files into single archives before adding them to their shared folders.

In short, what you get with either of these pack horses is quality over quantity, something which if you've become accustomed to using Kazaa will undoubtedly come as a breath of fresh air. If used correctly you are far less likely to download falsely named files, viruses or trojans making for a much more pleasurable experience.

Aside from this, what sets eDonkey apart from most of the competition is its use of unique file identifiers, or 128 bit MD4 hash codes if you're into technical jargon. These codes consist of 32 case insensitive digits (of the form 0-9A-F) written in hexadecimal notation. So what? Well each file available to the network is assigned with a unique code. These codes are then appended to filenames and converted to ed2k links which can be listed on web pages, in emails or wherever.

eDonkey, being the canny beast it is, is capable of recognising these files irrespective of their filename or file size ensuring that what you end up with is what you intended to download. An added bonus is that this allows you to download the same file from multiple sources making for much faster downloads. This works in the same way as some of the more advanced download managers; eDonkey creates dummy files full of empty space which is then gradually filled in with real data as and when it becomes available.

To add files referenced using an ed2k link to your transfer queue you simply have to click on them as you would with any other web site link. The Windows registry, having been previously instructed to associate such links with the eDonkey client, coordinates the transfer of the file information to the program. The client takes the reigns from this point and drops the filenames into its transfer window where relevant sources will be sought before the files commence downloading.

Another very welcome feature available to eDonkey and eMule users is the credit system. Each user is allocated a unique hash ID and whenever they allow other users to connect to their computer, whether it is to download or upload files, the number of bytes transferred is recorded in their clients.met file along with the ID of the users doing the sharing. If a user connects to your computer and it is detected that you have previously shared data then you are rewarded with superior access to his or her files. The more you share with a particular user the better your share rating becomes and as a result your queue ranking is lowered allowing you to download and upload sooner than other users who have never shared files with this user. The old aphorism "you reap what you sow" springs to mind - you are rewarded for sharing and punished for selfishly hoarding files away where no-one can get at them - a step in the right direction if you ask me.

While eDonkey offers previously unheard of features like file hashing it also provides all the techniques and gadgetry which you have come to expect from any half decent file sharing client; it can handle the automatic resumption of interrupted transfers, you can search the whole network no matter which server you are connected to, it supports simultaneous uploading and downloading, it lets you preview partially downloaded files (providing you have the first and last segments of the file) and it can operate using any port you specify making it effortless to configure so as to circumvent the restrictions imposed by firewalls and proxies.

You may be wondering why, if eDonkey is so wonderful, is there a need for another client based on the same protocol. Firstly, eMule is open source so anyone with sufficient programming knowledge can contribute to the project by either updating the core client or creating modifications for it. This allows its development to progress much faster than would otherwise be the case and the end product, at least in theory, should be superior because bugs and flaws are exposed to greater scrutiny. In my opinion it has a sleeker, friendlier and more intuitive interface. It hogs less system resources, contains no irritating adverts and tends to locate and transfer files faster because it is able to compress files as they are transferred and acquire further sources from other users (a feature which is especially handy if you happen to be downloading rare files).

The eMule coders recognise that not everyone is content to trust software installation routines to do what they claim to do, which I assume is why they offer their client in two flavours, an executable installation file and a zipped archive. The automatically installed version is aimed at people who don't want to create shortcuts to the program and the folder it lives in themselves or first time users, and the zipped version primarily targets people who already have the client installed and want to upgrade it to the latest release.

This couldn't be more straightforward; open the zip file in your favourite decompression program and extract the eMule executable file to the folder where you previously installed the client overwriting the original file. Doing this allows you to maintain all your preferences, your server list, credits, partially transferred files and so on and also ensures that no junk is left over from uninstalling and reinstalling the application. If you chose not to use the installation routine, you may at this point like to create a shortcut to the client and place it in your start menu or on the desktop for quick access.

Before running the client I would recommend that you edit the addresses.dat file found in your eMule installation directory to provide an URL from which your server list can be automatically updated each time you start the program. This can be done by opening the file in Notepad and simply pasting an URL into the otherwise empty space and saving it (the best place to locate such an URL is The Donkey Network - click on the 'server list' link and then copy the address of one of the server.met files listed). If you choose just "the nice ones" your client will be updated with the most popular servers, those with the most users connected and with the most files indexed.

The purpose of this is to ensure that your client is kept up to date with lists of operational servers to maintain the fastest transfer rates possible. Note that it is advisable, but not imperative that you connect to the most popular servers as each server communicates with every other server to find out which files are available. Connecting to one of the "nice ones" simply allows you to speed up this communication process thereby reducing the time it takes to make source requests etc. For this to work effectively remember that once you have started the client you will need to enter the preferences menu and from within the 'server' tab tick the "auto-update serverlist at startup" option.

With this taken care of you can forget completely about server lists and use eMule as you would any other file sharing client. This aspect of configuring eMule is what causes newbies the most headaches and with this out of the way you can look forward to an easy ride from now on. Not so complicated when you know what you're doing is it? Without the server list the client is totally useless and if you didn't read around the topic before taking the plunge you wouldn't know anything about this necessity. For this reason many people give up on the client before they have chance to see what it's capable of.

Now you are ready to run the client for the first time. To do this double click on eMule's shortcut and wait for a few seconds while the server list is updated. While eMule attempts to make a connection to one of the servers in the server list keep an eye on the variable icon in the bottom right hand corner to give you a rough idea of your success rate. A globe with two green arrows indicates that you have established a strong connection, a globe with two yellow arrows indicates that you have established a weak connection (i.e. you have a low ID rating) and a globe with two red arrows indicates that you are not connected to the network at all.

If you have a low ID rating you may wish to make a note of it (see the 'serverinfo' box) and look up its meaning at the eMule home page. Knowing the source of the problem will aid you in finding a way to resolve it. When you are running the client minimised you can view your connection status by looking at the donkey icon in your task tray; a grey donkey denotes that you are not connected to a server and a brown donkey indicates that you have successfully established a connection to a server.

In the preferences menu the first thing to change is your nickname; the option which allows you to do this can be found under the 'general' tab. By no means is this essential to the operation of the client, but who wants to live life as a number? (or more accurately as the URL of the eMule home page). Before moving on to the next tab it's a good idea to click on the box marked 'ed2k' - this provides the means to associate eDonkey web links with eMule. If the box is greyed out it means that this has already been taken care of by the installation routine.

Next visit the 'connection' tab and click on the 'wizard' button to make sure eMule knows what kind of internet connection you intend to unleash the client upon. It is vital that you provide accurate information here otherwise you will find that you will not be able to utilise your full allocation of bandwidth or the client will attempt to transfer files at a rate which your connection is incapable of reaching - this will cause a jam with the result that you will not have enough free bandwidth to send file request data packets to eDonkey servers.

Also, because eMule automatically regulates your download/upload ratio you could find that people are attempting to download from you at a rate which causes your connection to grind to a halt making it impossible to do anything else with it. The wizard should be able to provide optimum settings based on your connection, but if you find that eMule is using more bandwidth than you would like, you have the option to tweak these settings yourself. Remember though that if you decrease the rate at which people can download from you, you also decrease the rate at which you can download from other users. eMule is firmly founded on a "give and take" philosophy, which I'm sure you'll agree is good news for the network as a whole and is worth the inconvenience of having less control over the client.

You may have noticed that there are two places to enter what seems to be identical information in the 'connection' section of the preferences menu. The values in the 'capacities' boxes are the upper limits of your upload and download connection speed and are used to construct the graphs in the 'statistics' window. The values in the 'limits' boxes, however, allow you to set how much bandwidth you would like eMule to utilise. For hands free operation, tick the "auto-connect on startup" and "reconnect on loss" tick boxes and move onto the next section of the preferences menu.

Here it is wise to tell the client that you would like to update the server.met file each time eMule is started; this is done by ticking the relevant box as alluded to earlier in this tutorial. From the 'servers' window it is also possible to add individual servers manually or by providing the URL of a server list whenever you feel it is necessary, but this I feel merely complicates the issue unnecessarily.

The options accessed via the 'directories' tab allow you to choose which files you would like to share with other users on the network. By default your 'incoming' folder (where completed downloads are moved to) and your 'temp' folder (where partially transferred files are stored) are shared. To share other folders you are required to scroll through the explorer-like directory tree and put ticks in the boxes next to the folders you wish to become accessible to other users.

The remaining options are probably best left alone unless you are experiencing difficulties, so let's close the preferences tab and see what we can find. You can add files to your download queue in a variety of different ways; some are more effective than others. The built-in search engine, surprisingly, is not the best way to locate files; more often than not it will return zero hits even if the files you seek are available to the network. I sense this is one aspect of the client which needs serious development.

But not to worry, the people who see eMule as a goldmine of files are not the ones using the built-in search engine. No doubt they are instead using an independent file database search engine such as the one at Share Provider. What these do is index all the files available to the network allocating each of them with a unique 'hash' code. If you know the hash code of a file you wish to download it can be pasted into eMule to be added to the transfer queue. A common misconception amongst newbies is that these files reside on the same server where they are linked from. If this was the case the service would quickly be shut down.

Actually what they do is provide unique file identifiers which can be obtained irrespective of the availability of the files themselves. For instance, if you add these file identifiers into your download queue, eMule will attempt to download them by scouring the network for relevant sources. If no sources are available, the file will remain queued until someone sharing that file joins the network allowing the transfer to initiate.

The advantage of using such a system is that you can avoid downloading fake files because you know exactly what you are getting before the transfer commences. Was that a sigh of relief from the 56k-ers amongst us? Also far more information pertaining to the files is available than would otherwise be the case. Along with the hash link you get a synopsis of the movie plot or game or reviews of music albums etc, file sizes, popularity information, media length, quality ratings and there's even a place where users can post comments about the files they've just downloaded.

At Share Connector you can either use the search engine to track down files or you can browse through the category listings. Because it's not possible to list every single file in each category you will find that only the latest releases appear here. This is a great option if you don't really know what you are looking for but want to see what's new by window shopping.

Once you've found something you want to download you can either click on the "add all files from this release to eDonkey 2000" link or you can add each link manually, if for whatever reason, your browser isn't capable of communicating with eMule. To do this, click on the link to be taken to the file details page, right click on the link and copy it into your clipboard. Now open eMule, click on the search button and paste the link into the direct download ed2k link box and press start. Again this will add the file to your download queue where you will be able to see it transferring providing sufficient file sources are available.

Share Connector is probably the best search engine of this kind, yet it is not the only one. File Donkey and eMoogle (German) provide eDonkey search engines, but without the accompanying information as you would find at Share Connector. Whenever you run a search query the keywords are matched with filenames and the most frequently occurring ones are chosen to avoid confusion. Share Virus and Share the Files are functionally very similar to Share Provider, as are more specialist search engine sites like Music Donkey and TV Underground.

When you have a selection of files queued to download switch to the 'transfer' window and have a peek at the pretty coloured bars - these are progress meters. These hues aren't random, they actually mean something. Who would have thought it, eh? The green bar at the top represents the total download progress of the file and the different shades of blue denote the current availability of various parts of the file (the darker the shade of blue the greater the number of available sources). Red areas indicate parts of the file which are missing in all available sources, black areas show the parts of the file you already have and yellow segments represent the parts of the file which are currently downloading.

If you click on one of the files a list of sources will drop down with yet more pretty coloured bars. Just to confuse matters further, the colours here have a slightly different meaning. Yellow indicates a segment of the file which is currently being uploaded to you, the green bits represent the segments of the file you already have, silver areas are the parts of the file which the source computer is also still searching for and the black sectors highlight parts of the file which you are still missing. Almost like swapping stickers or baseball cards at school isn't it?

If you look to the right of the progress bars you will see a column labelled 'sources'. In this column you will find a set of three numbers for each file which take the format 23/67(5). The first number represents the number of useful sources i.e. the ones which are available to you, the second value indicates the total number of sources for the currently downloading file and the value in brackets denotes the number of sources you are actually making use of at that moment in time (or the number of parts you are currently transferring if you like).

Click on a currently downloading file and a 'queue ranking' figure will be appended to the bottom of the 'priority' menu (QR: 100 for example). This value indicates how long you will have to wait before you can make use of this source - the lower the number the sooner you will be able to access the source.

So there you have it, you are now a fully qualified donkey rider - where you take your new pet is up to you. Like all fabled donkeys, this one just needed the right kind of carrot on a stick to get it plodding. In this instance, an up to date server list functions as the perfect carrot substitute - such a silly little thing to come between you and the open road, isn't it? Bon voyage!

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Share and share alike - file sharing clients uncovered

Following the immense success of Napster, it was only a matter of time before someone posed the question, why not develop a program that allows people to exchange other file types as well as MP3s?. A very good question, and one which was swiftly answered by a deluge of file sharing clients based on the now infamous Napster protocol.

For those of you who haven't been formally introduced to file sharing clients and are wondering what all the fuss is about let me explain. Despite the gamut of different interfaces and slogans, all file sharing programs share the same basic premise; they allow anyone with minimal computer know-how and an internet connection to become part of a gargantuan, global file sharing community. Once you've chosen your bandwagon and you're comfortably sitting on board, the sky's the limit; you can download any file format imaginable, no matter how large it is, or where in the world it's located. So in a nutshell, file sharing clients provide an efficient means of exchanging data over a digital medium.

While some clients hinge on the operation of a central server or servers and so are vulnerable to attacks from the lawyers of irate pop stars, others allow you to connect directly to the computers of other users and hence side step any legal wranglings which may ensue. The best example of the first variety of client is Napster. Whenever you connect to the Napster exchange, a list of the files you wish to share is automatically uploaded to one of the Napster servers. Your list is then juxtaposed with the lists of other users and hence can be searched by anyone currently logged into the network. Connecting to a central server inevitably means that you lose your privacy, yet it does have the advantage of providing faster searches and transfers.

On the contrary, peer to peer connections offer much greater privacy, but also bring with them the drawback of longer search times and slower downloads. These systems operate on the foundation that the computer of every user connected to the exchange becomes a client as well as a server. One of the most noteworthy examples of such a network is Kazaa, which we will be taking a much closer look at shortly.

Nevertheless, the story doesn't end there - your third option is to connect to a network without using a client at all. These 'gateway portals' are much like web search engines in that you simply pop along to a web page and enter your query into a search box. The results appear as direct links to files, which can then be downloaded using either your browser or a download manager. These aren't really exchange networks in their own right, nonetheless, the reason they have been included in this discussion is because they allow you to search other exchange networks set in motion by third party clients such as the ones made available by Napster and Lime Wire for example.

While you can download files from other users via these portals, you are never really part of the community because you aren't logged into the network using a client, and hence you are restricted from uploading files in return. Although this might not worry you very much now, keep in mind that if everyone took without giving, there would be no files in circulation at all! Successful file sharing demands a symbiotic relationship, so make sure you do your bit to maintain the equilibrium. The real beauty of these portals is their simplicity - the only prerequisite to using one is that you can type, and as they tap into pre-existing exchanges they have an instantly accessible user base of millions.

Aside from the latter variety, file sharing clients tend to be a fairly homogeneous breed so if you've dabbled in a spot of MP3 collecting, searching for other file types using one of the many Napster clones should be a breeze. So now that you have been acquainted with the basics, let us take a closer look at how exactly these clients operate while we consider the special charms of each particular program.

While some clients insist that you logon to their network using a unique username and password, Napster and Kazaa for example, others will let you jump in with both feet straight away without registering, take Lime Wire for instance. The advantage of obtaining your own username is that you become more involved in the community, you have a net name which you can use to identify yourself in chat rooms and you can recognise your friends (or enemies!) when they are on-line.

Also you can make note of other people's net names so that you can contact them to organise file exchanges at a mutually convenient time etc. This is especially handy if the network is set up in such a way that your username forms part of the email address you will use to sign in. If you wish to contact a member of a file sharing network which uses this arrangement you don't even have to be connected to the exchange to send a message, instead you can simply send an email using your usual email client. Conversely, clients which do not require you to register before joining the network offer the advantage of being much more anonymous; each time you logon you are nothing more than a series of digits (AKA an IP address). Again, Lime Wire is a good example of such a system.

On connecting to your chosen network, to enable you to regulate the extent to which other users can explore the contents of your hard drive, you are initially asked to select a directory where your shared files should be placed. It is also possible to restrict the types of files which can be remotely accessed by other users so that you are safe in the knowledge that no-one can tamper with any data that you don't want them to have access to. Whatever you store in this directory can be searched and downloaded by other users on the network, and obviously this works vice-versa. Although, if you're a real party pooper you can disable this option completely. This will allow you to download files from other users while preventing them from accessing your goodies - not very charitable at all! To combat this abuse of the system some programs will allow users to prevent free loaders from accessing their computers, so if you're being a scrooge, it's quite likely that the library of files available to you will be restricted somewhat.

Kazaa

No doubt you're eager to get started so let's take Kazaa as an example, dip our toes in the file sharing pool and see what we can find. Now that Napster is six foot under and pushing up the daisies, Kazaa is looking like a better prospect by the day. Most noteworthy is the fact that it uses a decentralised network so is less prone to attempts to shut it down. In addition, it speeds up download times by accessing parts of the same file from multiple sources simultaneously, is capable of resuming broken downloads, includes a built in IRC client which can be used to chat to other users and even provides its own media player which lets you view partially downloaded files.

Furthermore, since Kazaa has such a colossal user base there is a very good chance of you tracking down whatever it is your heart desires, whether this means finding the latest music albums, full games, applications or movies. Absolutely any file format in existence can be downloaded providing a currently connected user has chosen to share it. In short, it's pretty damn good.

As much as I hate to knock Kazaa, I feel it's only fair to point out its limitations as well as its strengths so you can see the wider picture. One minor niggle I have is that the client can be quite slow and clunky due to its reliance on a web based interface, yet I've also heard reports that the transfers themselves can be slow at times. Not that I'd know anything about that - I've known snails to overtake my 56k modem!

Most significantly, however, is the fact that the FastTrack network, which serves as the backbone of the client is riddled with misleadingly named files, viruses, worms and trojans, which if you're not careful can bring your computer to its knees in the blink of an eye. People have been known to spend many hours downloading monster files, only to realise when they unzip them, that they in no way relate to what they were led to believe they were transferring because they have been deliberately renamed to trick them.

Worse still, you could discover that what you've downloaded is actually malicious code designed to infect your computer! Nevertheless, providing you are aware of these pitfalls they shouldn't be cause enough to deter you from continuing to use Kazaa. What is called for is a combination of common sense and a reliable virus/trojan scanner. If you search for a CD image and the hits returned consist of tiny exe files, your alarm bells should be set ringing. These files will definitely not contain the data you're seeking.

Compressed archives can be turned into non-threatening, self extracting exe files, but since there is little point in doing so (who hasn't got Winzip or Winrar installed on their computer these days?), you should be very suspicious of anyone who claims to have turned their shared files into self extracting archives.

If the size of a file appears to be realistic, yet the format is executable I would still recommend steering well clear of it unless you know for certain that the original format should be exe, as is the case with many shareware applications for instance. Of course, anything you download from Kazaa, or the net in general, should be scanned for viruses and trojans regardless of how suspicious you are of their legitimacy.

A final handicap to note is that the search results appear very cluttered because the program simply tries to display too much at once without segregating the information properly. The column widths of the results window can be manually resized to make things a bit more organised, yet frustratingly the client is incapable of remembering your settings the next time you return to the search window. Despite a few minor niggles though it's one hell of a good client and will only get better with time.

OK, are we sitting comfortably boys and girls? Then we will begin. First of all I should point out that it is not recommended that you download the official Kazaa client, but instead opt for its much improved, cut down, younger brother, Kazaa Lite. This takes all of Kazaa's superfluous, bloated and privacy intruding 'features', mercilessly hacks them out and throws them in the trash can where they belong leaving a much leaner, more stable and most importantly of all, 'clean' client.

When I say that Kazaa Lite is 'clean' I'm referring to the fact that it no longer contains spyware, adware or banners of any kind. Many people erroneously believe that the lite version of Kazaa also contains spyware, yet if they had done their homework they would know that what their spyware scanner is actually detecting is a kind of spyware emulator rather than the real thing. You see, Kazaa will not function if it detects that its spyware has been removed, and this is why it has to be replaced with a dummy file instead. In Kazaa's case, the integrated spyware file responsible for invading your privacy is known as Cydoor and has the filename 'cd_clint.dll'.

If after installing Kazaa Lite, your spyware scanner insists that you banish this file from your system, you should inform it that you know better and tell it to leave it be. Once this file has been identified it would be a good idea to add it to your scanner's exclude list to ensure that it isn't removed by accident in future.

Sooo, moving swiftly on. Download the program, install it and then click on its icon to get it up and running. When the wizard prompts you to enter a username and password, follow the instructions and then proceed to connect to the network. If you're using a slow connection it would be wise to set some limits before we move on, so click on the 'tools' button located on the menu bar and select 'options'. Now click on the 'uploads and downloads' tab and reduce the number of simultaneous connections; sadly, two is more than enough for us poor 56k-ers.

While we're here you might also want to set the directory in which you would like to store (and share) your files - make sure it's located on a drive with plenty of space. When that's taken care of click on the 'search' tab, select which file types you wish to search for, type in your query and hit the 'search now' button. Wait for the results to appear and then double click on whatever takes your fancy to begin downloading it. You can do this with as many files as you like without straining your internet connection since they will not start transferring immediately, but will instead be added to your download queue.

As your current files finish downloading, new ones will begin transferring automatically analogous to the way in which your download manager works. To check that everything is going according to plan you can click on the 'traffic' button. From this menu you can cancel, pause or resume your transfers in addition to being able to send a message to the users you are downloading from. Once a couple of files have finished downloading you might want to preview them using Kazaa's built in media player, which is located under the 'theatre' tab. That's all there is to it. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Gnutella

Gnutella began life as a file sharing client much like any other, however, the original program responsible for spawning a multitude of clones has now been abandoned and the developers are urging people to stop using it. Nevertheless, this isn't the end for Gnutella - it is merely the beginning of a new era. A common misconception is that Gnutella refers to a particular client which connects to a single, self contained exchange network - this simply isn't the case. It is a free for all, decentralised peer to peer network which can be accessed using a variety of different clients, all of which are far more advanced than the original vanilla flavoured version developed by two Nullsoft (you know, the Winamp people) employees.

No doubt the first question on your lips relates to the origin and significance of the name Gnutella. According to the FAQ on the home page, the 'Nutella' part refers to a "chocolate and hazelnut spread that is phenomenally popular among Europeans". The 'G' tacked onto the beginning is reminiscent of the Unix-like operating system, GNU, which was the seminal work of the Free Software Foundation.

Richard Stallman et al believed that source code should be made freely available allowing people to modify it to create their own software with the caveat that whatever is produced may also be recycled - Gnutella was built with the same philosophies in mind which is precisely why there are so many variations of the original client to choose from. I'm sure the addition of the 'G' also helped to avoid legal battles over patented trade names. I hope that serves to satisfy your epistemophilic urges. ;)

Pushing semantics aside for now though, what advantages does Gnutella offer over centrally indexed networks? Well, the first thing you will notice is the fact that Gnutella needs no centralised server in order to share your files, unlike programs such as Napster, for which this is a necessity. The reason for this is that the users themselves create the servers in a peer to peer network model. In layman's terms this means that you connect directly to the person's computer from which you are transferring data. As a result, no logs are kept of your searches, so anyone who is paranoid about the existence of echelon or an omnipotent 'big brother' can relax safe in the knowledge that they are anonymous.

Also, because no central server exists the system cannot be shut down, and since there is no single individual or company that can be held responsible for its creation, Gnutella is practically bullet proof in that it is capable of withstanding attacks from the FBI, lawyers, earth, wind and fire (did I leave anything out?). Another rationale for this fact is that Gnutella is basically a protocol, which in theory can be used for illegal purposes, but was not specifically designed with these intentions in mind. Analogously, the same can be said for cars, hammers, kitchen knives and all sorts of other seemingly harmless objects, and no one is likely to attempt to ban mundane items such as these are they?

But enough talk, it's time for action! To get started you're going to need a client to tap into the Gnutella network. In the early days you had an extremely taxing decision to make; you used either Gnutella 0.56 or you used Gnutella 0.56, but nowadays the options are much more varied so if you don't instantly gel with one client you can simply banish it to the recycle bin and test drive another. If you try counting all the different varieties on offer you'll run out of fingers and toes in no time. Many of these are a waste of time and bandwidth so let me save you the hassle of separating the wood from the trees by directing you towards the best of the bunch from the outset. These include Xolox, Lime Wire, Bear Share, Gnucleus and Phex and I'll deal with each one in turn below.

When Gnutella first took off it was necessary to manually enter an IP address into the client to allow you to join the network. Any old IP address wouldn't get the job done - it had to be the address of a user who was already connected to the Gnutella network, and to find out this information you had to visit a central repository of IP addresses. This was very inconvenient as you had to find a new address each time you wanted to logon, so to circumvent this problem the client developers introduced a system which gathered these IP addresses and automatically connected your computer to them whenever you opened the client. Consequently, if your client still asks you to manually enter an IP address it is likely to be very outdated, in which case you would be best advised to update it.

Because there is no central server which deals with all the file searches and transfers which go on between users, the system must rely on direct peer to peer connections. While this process is now completely automated, what your client is actually doing when it starts up is looking for users who are already plugged into the network. When it spots these users, it connects you to a small selection of them and in turn these users will be connected to a further group of users in such a way that eventually all the computers in the network will be daisy chained together. Whenever you perform a search, in the blink of an eye your request is filtered through thousands of computers across the world before the results are presented on your screen.

So all in all it's quite an impressive system, don't you think? Gnutella is the future, embrace it with open arms zombies... erm, I mean people, commence dribbling and chant after me, "Gnutella is our leader, we love Gnutella".

And now, without further ado let's welcome on stage the reviews...

Xolox

The Xolox developers have chosen to take the Microsoft approach in that they've designed a client which insists on doing absolutely everything for you whether you like it or not, the result being that half the people who have tried it loathe it with a passion, and the other half think it's the best thing since sliced bread. The majority of the features you will find incorporated into rival clients are missing with the exception of an IRC chat applet, and again, this can either be a bonus or a curse depending on your level of experience of the Gnutella exchange.

If you're a Gnutella novice this is the perfect client for you because there are no options to tweak; run the client and a plug and play style auto configuration system takes care of the rest leaving you to get on with the task of searching for and downloading files. Gnutella doesn't get any more idiot-proof than this - if you can't fathom out Xolox you shouldn't be let loose on a computer.

Other benefits include the utilisation of 'background intelligence', which in theory allows the client to maintain connections and continue downloading in spite of transfer problems without any intervention from the user. Downloading from multiple sources, known as 'swarming', is supported effectively boosting transfer speeds, no spyware whatsoever is installed along with the client with or without your consent, plus the client itself is tiny and extremely resource light.

Further enhancing Xolox's almost 'hands-free' operation status is its ability to automatically complete search strings a la Internet Explorer. Each search query is conducted within its own window allowing you to multitask, and search results are continuously updated as and when new users join or leave the network to keep them current. Downloading of partially completed files is also supported providing many more connection outlets from which to download in addition to reducing the strain for those users who possess the complete file you wish to transfer.

Until recently, the Xolox project had been all but abandoned. The resurrected version therefore has a bit of catching up to do before it can compete with the better established clients in terms of stability and reliability. If you're looking for hassle free downloads and are prepared for a few teething problems I'd enthusiastically encourage you to give Xolox a whirl. If on the other hand you were born to tweak I would advise you to look elsewhere for your Gnutella fix.

Lime Wire

The most striking thing about Lime Wire is how pretty it all is. It uses those perfectly rounded aqua-effect buttons throughout, which are all the rage on web sites at the moment and the whole thing smacks of Apple Macism (look, I'm allowed to make up my own words, it's my site), which is no bad thing seeing as Mac applications are so much more aesthetically pleasing than PC equivalents. Oh and another thing, the startup logo reminds me of one of my favourite t-shirts, which is nice (well it matters to me, OK :p).

Pretty graphics do not a good file sharing client make, so what else has it got to offer? Well my inquisitive chum, for a kick off, because it's built on the foundation of the very popular Gnutella network there are always plenty of files to go round. What's more, while many file sharing clients are restricted to use on Windows based computers, because Lime Wire is coded entirely in Java it will run equally well on Windows, Mac or Linux systems.

Another major bonus is its ability to search for any file type, not just MP3s. The logical way it handles downloaded files is worthy of a mention too. Files are first downloaded into an incomplete downloads directory, and only when they are complete are they moved into your shared folder - a nice touch which should help to reduce the distribution of incomplete files.

A final plus point to consider is Lime Wire's extremely intuitive interface, which really couldn't be any easier to navigate. In fact one of the program's major benefits is that you can jump right in with both feet and start searching without so much as a glimpse at a FAQ entry or tutorial.

Sadly, the flip side of this particular coin is also one of its most salient drawbacks. Because the Lime Wire development team have done their best to aim for simplicity, you often find yourself somewhat restricted in terms of the potential search refinements. For example, you cannot specify minimum or maximum files sizes, connection speeds, file quality ratings and so on, so much of the filtering has to be done by hand.

Another feature considered both an advantage and a disadvantage simultaneously is the 'punish freeloaders' option, which allows you to prevent people from downloading your files if they refuse to share their own. This sounds logical in theory, yet the program offers too many options to limit the number of simultaneous uploads and the bandwidth allocated to each upload. While this should encourage more people to share their goodies, it also leads to a situation where you find yourself sitting around in endless queues while you wait for other user's free upload slots to become available.

Yet another limitation arises, not as a result of the program itself, but due to the network its operation hinges on, the Gnutella exchange. Because so many people are all scrabbling around for the same files at the same time, the speed at which transfers commence can suffer and it can also take quite a while to connect to the network in the first place. Nevertheless, this will be the case no matter which Gnutella client you choose, so we can hardly hold Lime Wire responsible for this.

My final whinge is that unless you choose to opt out of installing the bundled software which is integrated into the installation package, your system is infected with spyware. You aren't forced to install these privacy invading 'features' yet I'd be much happier if they weren't on offer at all. This represents half of Lime Wire's revenue model. The other half involves the implementation of revolving ad banners. These are present only in the free version of the client; the pro version, available for a small fee, contains no ad banners or spyware.

Buying into this 'less is more' upgrade may be cheap, but why you'd want to bother at all when there are much better alternative Gnutella clients available for free is a mystery to me. In any case, if you really wanted to, you could use the free version of the client to locate and download the ad-less version to save yourself a few quid. Personally I'd rather use Gnucleus instead.

Bear Share

If only Bear Share was a bit more like Yogi, smarter than the average bear that is, we might have a half decent client on our hands. As it is, the only pluses can be attributed to the Gnutella network rather than the program itself, and since you can enjoy these benefits using any client which taps into the Gnutella network, they aren't worth restating.

While Bear Share does come bundled with a host of irritating third party spyware junk, it doesn't insist that you install it. It is an optional extra and providing you don't just click 'OK' at every stage of the installation process it shouldn't concern you. On the other hand, the second source of intrusion, the banner adverts, can't be avoided unless you upgrade to the pro version. The same goes for the automatically generated pop-ups thrust into your face periodically whenever you run the client. Furthermore, the whole thing is riddled with marketing gimmicks which desperately try to draw you back to the Bear Share home page like a neurotic human magnet.

As if these invasions of privacy weren't bad enough, Bear Share also brings with it certain security risks. For example, it will quite happily display your IP address for all to see so that anyone with the right computer know-how can access any part of your system with minimum exertion.

What is also very disconcerting is the constant flow of traffic between your computer and the servers you are connected to - even when your transfers have completed, the program still maintains a persistent level of incoming and outgoing data. A logical explanation for this has yet to be ascertained and therefore it should be treated as a major cause for concern. While we're on the subject of security, another worry is the fact that the developers haven't even bothered implementing a filter to protect you from the Gnutella worm, again putting users at risk.

You want more reasons not to use it? Well it's also plagued by an inability to refine your search queries, which results in endless lists of irrelevant files. The downloads are particularly slow and unreliable, even when taking the inherent network problems into account. When you uninstall the damn thing it leaves spyware files behind, the interface is particularly uninspiring and isn't nearly as intuitive as that of Lime Wire. Finally, in terms of available options, the client offers only the bear necessities (actually this isn't true, but I couldn't resist getting at least one bear joke into this review :D).

In fact, Bear Share's only saving grace is that it employs 'swarming', a technique which enables you to download files from multiple sources simultaneously to speed up transfers in a similar way to that of Flashget. That said, this is rapidly becoming a standard feature of all the best file sharing clients so is hardly a sufficient reason to warrant using this CPU hogging piece of BS (hey, don't blame me, I didn't name it!).

Gnucleus

Having extensively researched the whole conglomeration of Gnutella clients you get the feeling that once you've seen one you've them all, yet this is exactly why Gnucleus comes as such a refreshing change. While it's not going to revolutionise the Gnutella experience, it does have one or two unique features which set it apart from the crowd, and after all, when you're presented with such a homogeneous bunch of programs it's the little things that count.

While the interface is far from visually inspiring it excels in terms of functionality; it's clean and uncluttered and only presents the most salient options initially, making it simple to use even for the most uninitiated Gnutella newbie. Also, because you are not instantly bombarded with options and menus Gnucleus has a very gentle learning curve allowing you to begin downloading within seconds of running the client. This isn't to say that Gnucleus lacks the more advanced features of other clients, it's just that they are neatly tucked away out of sight so that only the people with the necessary knowledge to understand their purpose will stumble across them if they wish to delve a bit deeper.

Another facet of the client which you are unlikely to find in rival software is its ability to use multiple windows, allowing you to multitask just like you would in Windows with a capital w. Best of all, this provides the means to conduct as many searches as you like simultaneously, so for instance, if you have a vague idea of the name of the file you seek you could type in five slightly different variants of it and then sit back and watch the hits filter through without delay.

Also worth noting here is the fact that searches have no definite end state; they are constantly updated as and when new users log on or off ensuring that you always have an accurate impression of what's out there, and more importantly what's available at that precise moment in time. These search results can be further refined using none other than the 'refine' box. How's that for intuitive? This allows you to locate your desired files with pinpoint accuracy as it provides the means to filter out irrelevant hits. What's remarkable about this function is that it works in real time so each time you type in a character, the results are instantaneously updated so you can type, delete and type again without having to actually submit your query in the usual manner. In practice this works much like one of those grappling hook games you're likely to find at a fun fair, except that it's free and isn't rigged to make sure you lose nine times out of ten.

While these extras are great, they wouldn't be much use if the client couldn't perform the more rudimentary functions which define Gnutella clients, and luckily Gnucleus is no slouch in this department either. Conducting search queries is very straightforward and options are available to limit your results to particular file sizes and minimum transfer speeds. Some might say there aren't enough options to help you narrow down your search queries, but then adding all sorts search toggles and modifiers would clearly be detrimental to the developer's much cherished KISS philosophy. If you ask me they've got it spot on; anyone wanting more control over their search queries would be advised to be more imaginative with the keywords they use, by also entering file extensions for instance.

What you see is what you get with Gnucleus. It contains no spyware files and no encrypted information is passed between you and the Gnucleus HQ in the background. In addition, it isn't plagued by intrusive banners or other marketing gimmicks as are so many of its rivals. Again on the plus side, the client is compact and fairly resource lean when compared to the competition, and perhaps best of all, it is 'open source'. This means that the code can be scrutinised, updated and rewritten by anyone with the necessary technical know-how, and because its success and future development does not merely rely on a single person or team of programmers it is much more likely to stand the test of time and grow from strength to strength.

There's always a 'but' though isn't there?, and as wonderful as it is, Gnucleus's 'but' is quite a biggy I'm afraid. While you can locate almost anything your heart desires in a matter of seconds, the problem lies in actually downloading it to your own computer. Files are very often unavailable and servers can get extremely busy. When downloads do eventually kick into action they can be unbearably slow and frequently 'time out' before they are complete. Nevertheless, despite these transfer problems I refuse to give up on this one as it has so much to offer. I remain hopeful that with time and a bit of tweaking the situation will improve.

Phex

Like Lime Wire, Phex is written entirely in Java, however, whereas Lime Wire is a standalone application, Phex has to be propped up using the Java Runtime Environment (available free from Sun Microsystems). The client itself is a mere 670kb, but don't let that fool you into thinking you're getting a compact application as the Java environment setup will add another 5mb to your system. Why the developer decided to go down this route is a complete mystery to me, but I expect he'll create a standalone package in future versions if only to silence the critics. You'd think that writing an application entirely in Java would provide some benefits, yet the rationale behind this arrangement is completely paradoxical. Because Phex is a pure Java application it doesn't have to be installed, yet this advantage is instantaneously counteracted by having to install the JRE, without which the package is useless.

In its defence, Phex is open source which means that the developers can't get away with hiding any privacy intruding 'features' in the code - not that I'm suggesting for a second they ever had any intention of doing so. I'm sure you know what I mean; open source applications are generally more 'honest' than... erm closed source alternatives. Complimenting Phex's open source status is the fact that the client contains no spyware or revolving ad banners of any kind, which is always a huge bonus considering the current era of dwindling personal privacy we now find ourselves in. Yet another plus is that Phex is a multi-platform application equally capable of running on Windows, Linux or Mac systems.

It has been said that this isn't a client for the Gnutella newbie because it incorporates so many advanced configuration options, yet it's really no more difficult to use than any other client. What initially baffles some users is the fact that the package consists of a single 'jar' file. Without installing the JRE this will appear as a standard compressed archive providing you have Winzip or an equivalent decompressor installed. The confusion sets in when people try to find an executable file within the package and realise that there isn't one. This is because pure Java applications do not use executable files, instead they only spring into life when double clicked after the Java runtime environment has been implemented. Once this is installed the file's icon will change along with its associated application so that it can be opened in the same way as an executable file.

While this isn't a huge inconvenience it does tend to put people off. I'm certainly not saying it's a bad client as it does have much to commend it, most notably the way in which it intelligently and efficiently manages file transfers, but when there are so many other excellent alternatives available I can't think of a single reason why you'd want to choose this one over the competition. In conclusion, Phex is a solid, reliable client, but unless some unique features are implemented in future versions to set it apart from the other better established clients I can't really see it taking off.

Non-Gnutella client reviews...

iMesh

I once said that:

"If we're going to compare what's hot and what's not in terms of file sharing clients, iMesh definitely belongs in the below freezing category. It's a lot like a fish finger which has been forgotten about and left to rot in the bottom of your freezer - it should only be handled with extreme care whilst wearing rubber gloves and a nose peg".

Yet since then the interface has been completely overhauled and the client now connects to FastTrack, the same network shared by Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus before it switched to Gnutella. This means that users of iMesh now have far more files available to them than ever before and since the newly revamped version of the client supports swarmed downloads and resuming, even the 56k-ers have little to fear.

Whilst the Grokster and Kazaa clients are almost impossible to tell apart, the iMesh interface offers a real alternative. Search results are far less cluttered and the GUI is skinable and extremely intuitive. Because the client plugs you into the FastTrack network, the speed of transfers and the number and variety of files available should be identical. Nevertheless, many people are reporting that somehow iMesh manages to improve their experience on all three counts.

So there's the good, the bad I'll discuss in a moment, and now that it comes equipped with a skinable interface, it's only as ugly as you choose to make it. One thing which hasn't changed since I declared installing iMesh on your computer to be the equivalent of demonic possession for the cyber age is that it is still riddled with spyware and an excessive amount of other bundled junk. Technically it is the third party software which contains the malware, but why split hairs? If it comes in a single package it amounts to the same thing in my book.

In iMesh's defence, you are given the choice of whether or not to install this extra filth, so it isn't all forced on you without your consent. It's a shame the same can't be said for the ads, yet why worry about any of it when you can visit the iMesh Lite home page and download the much more compact, de-junked version? As for the negatives, I can't think of any others. It's no longer "as stable as Del Boy's Robin Reliant", as I once complained, and it's not the system resource guzzler that it used to be.

If you love the FastTrack network, but yearn for a break from off-the-peg, carbon copy clients like Grokster and Kazaa this is definitely worth a shot. Yet the critical deciding factor should be your preference for ladybirds - I bet the programmers are inundated with bug reports! Ha-de-ha-ha!

Removing spyware and ad banners

As I've already explained what spyware is, and why you would want to avoid using spyware ridden software in the anonymity tutorial, I'll skip the definitions and move straight onto to telling you what you can do to rid your system of it. File sharing clients, as I'm sure you are well aware by now, are renowned for including spyware files in their installation packages. While spyware files can be tricky to remove without completely disabling the application they came bundled with, it is possible. The way in which this is done varies from one client to the next, yet I'm not going to provide detailed explanations of how exactly to go about this for the sole reason that it is a waste of your time and mine.

Why so? Well, since Dr Damn of Clean Clients fame has already gone to great lengths to hack the spyware out of many of the most popular file sharing clients and made his much improved modified versions available to anyone who wants them, there seems little point in using the official versions and doing the dirty work ourselves. Unsurprisingly web hosting companies aren't exactly falling over themselves to host Dr Damn's creations and as a result he's currently websiteless. Not to worry though, I'm sure a quick search at Google using the keywords "dr damn" and "clean clients" will bring home the bacon.

If you want to use a client which hasn't been given the Dr Damn treatment I would suggest using Ad-Aware to remove the spyware manually. This operates much like a virus scanner, but instead of detecting viruses, it searches for spyware, and once found, it gives you the option to have it removed. If you find that you can't remove the spyware from an application without completely disabling it, I would encourage you to uninstall it and look elsewhere for an equivalent spyware-free program - there are plenty out there so there is no reason you should settle for second best. Not sure if the program you want to install contains spyware? Whack its name into the Spy Checker search engine and find out. Prevention is always better than cure!

Another good tip to aid your war against spyware is to install a firewall. You should really have setup a good firewall long before now, but if you haven't, do so now. An excellent free firewall can be found at Zone Labs, but if Zone Alarm isn't your cup of tea refer instead to my other recommendations in the tips section. With a firewall installed you will be able to veto applications before granting them access to make external connections. Zone Alarm is one of the few firewalls that will ask your permission before taking action of any kind, which is why it's such an effective anti-spyware measure.

Other firewalls will also deny spyware files access to the outside world to relay information regarding your surfing habits etc, yet more than likely they will not alert you to the fact that these attempts are being made at all. If you are kept informed of which programs are talking behind your back, you can stop them in their tracks by uninstalling them and removing any orphan spyware files using Ad-Aware.

Sometimes the challenge is not ridding your computer of spyware, but eliminating banner adverts from applications. You may consider these annoying or distracting rather than intrusive, but many of them are akin to spyware or web bugs in that they are capable of transmitting details such as the OS or browser you have installed, your screen resolution or even your IP address to third party advertising companies.

Be that as it may, eradicating this further source of intrusion can usually be done with 100% effectiveness and without tampering with the application in question because the majority of ad servers transmit their spam by the same means. The solution to this problem requires you to edit your operating system's 'hosts' file. This is nothing more than a simple ASCII text file minus the extension and so can be edited using Notepad or an equivalent text editor.

Because different Windows operating systems can place this file in various locations I would advise you to use your operating system's built-in search tool to track it down - simple type in 'hosts' with no extension and click on the find button. Once found, right click on it and select 'open with', choose Notepad and click OK to delve inside it.

The reason this file is on your system to begin with is to allow you to map web site addresses to their corresponding IP addresses. It isn't strictly necessary that you go anywhere near this file normally, yet doing so brings with it certain benefits. For instance, if you know what the IP addresses of the sites you visit most often are, you could enter these into the hosts file to allow your browser to contact the server they are stored on and load their contents faster. If no such information is found in your hosts file, your browser will instead look to your ISP for the IP addresses that are required to contact the sites. Once this DNS information has been determined your browser can proceed to load the site.

How does this help you to block out banner adverts? Well, the trick is to enter your computer's own IP address (127.0.0.1) into the hosts file alongside the address of the ad server you wish to block to deceive it into thinking that the ad banners are located on your own hard drive. For example, if you discovered that the ads being served to your file sharing client emanated from www.adserver.com, to block them you would enter "127.0.0.1 www.adserver.com" into your hosts file. This isn't rocket science; all you need to bear in mind is that each individual server you wish to block must have its own line and there should always be a gap of at least one space between your computer's IP address and the web address of the server you intend to block.

With these changes in place, whenever your file sharing application attempts to call an ad banner it will look to your own computer for the files rather than the real ad server. Because the request is being made from and to the same computer, the application either assumes it has located its target and displayed the ads correctly, or after failing to locate the ads it simply gives up, leaving you with a blank space where the ads would ordinarily appear.

This isn't the only way you can use the hosts file to your advantage. Say there's a web site you visit regularly which you know is laden with ad banners. If you find out the IP address of the server which is making these ads available, you can block those banners too using the same method described above. It's also possible to block access to whole sites if you so wish - this can be particularly useful if you have young children who you want to protect from objectionable material etc.

Surely it's not possible to make ad blocking any simpler? Well yes, it is strangely enough - you could use a dedicated program to edit your hosts file, or you could even download a pre-configured hosts file and use it to overwrite your empty one. You can further your knowledge of both these techniques and much more besides by talking to the Gorilla - don't worry, he only bites snoopers and marketing people.

More of the same...

No sooner have I finished telling you about the dynamic duo that is Gnucleus and Kazaa and the very promising, but strangely titled Gnutella the market is flooded with new contenders for the file sharing trophy. Not to worry though, by checking back here every so often you can ensure that you are always kept up to date of any new developments:

Audio Galaxy - A lightweight, unobtrusive music sharing client, which uses private (non-Napster) servers to route traffic. Supports auto-resuming and even has the ability to download music from users who aren't online... well sort of anyway. It'll make more sense when you try it :)

Blubster - Refer to my MP3 tutorial for an in-depth review/tutorial.

Direct Connect - As the name implies, Direct Connect allows you to access shared folders on the hard drives of other users in a peer to peer fashion without the need for a centrally indexed network. Incorporates public and private chatting and an integrated search feature. Currently basking in a surge of popularity amongst the warez community, but no use whatsoever unless you are prepared to give as well as receive - before granting access most hubs will you require you to share a pre-determined minimum amount of files... and we're talking in terms of gigabytes, not megabytes. Not one of the most user friendly file sharing clients available.

Carracho - What sets this one apart from the crowd is the fact that it is designed to be used exclusively with the Mac OS.

E-Donkey 2000 - One of the more impressive non-Gnutella clients. Doesn't rely on a centralised network, allows you to share any file type and also includes that all important resume function. A particularly good source of full movies and ISOs, but be warned, it is not recommended for newbies since to get anywhere with it, configuration tweaking is a necessity. I can't believe I managed to describe this one without cracking a single donkey joke!

Grokster - Plugs users into the FastTrack network to facilitate peer to peer transfers of many different file formats. Almost identical to Kazaa, so which one do you choose? Toss a coin maybe?

Morpheus - Re-branded, outdated version of Gnucleus with added marketing garbage. Stick with Gnucleus instead.

Soul Seek - No ads, no spyware, no clutter. A free music sharing client which boasts a GUI which is as simple to use as the grandpa of all peer to peer clients, Napster, once was. Looking beyond the obligatory functions, most noteworthy, it allows you to download whole folders full of MP3 files with a couple of clicks and supports 'wish lists' which simplify the process of performing repeat searches for your favourite music.

URL Blaze - Not your average file sharing client. In fact, it's not a file sharing client at all - what it shares are URLs to files. It monitors the locations of the files you download from web servers and subsequently makes these addresses available to other users who may be searching for the same files. More of a link harvesting gadget then.

Win MX - Allows you to simultaneously connect to many established networks based on the Napster protocol, but unlike Napster any file type can be downloaded. Supports download resuming and offers anonymous transfers.

For more reviews and links to file sharing clients check out Zero Paid.

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Quiet computing a reality?

The problem

Since embracing the holy grail of quiet computing I've lost touch with the mental anguish and exasperation associated with excessive PC generated noise. In an attempt to reacquaint myself with said torture and empathise with your plight I will be reporting live from a state of the art vertical wind tunnel. As well as simulating the free-fall skydiving experience I'll be looking at a number of ways to tranquillise your noisy beast of a computer, allowing you to once again appreciate the glorious sound of silence (or something not so far removed from it).

I'll begin by discussing the cheapest and easiest solutions available and gradually escalate the level of technical expertise required and cost involved so you can pitch your degree of dedication just right. You'll have to excuse me for shouting - I am competing with a 120 mph updraft. ;)

Your adversaries in the melee against PC noise pollution are primarily the fans required to keep your computer's components cool. Gone are the days when CPUs required so little cooling it was possible to dispense with fans completely. Today the progression of computer technology and specifically the competition between the two CPU manufacturing heavyweights, Intel and AMD, has resulted in the snowballing of chip speeds, and hence the intensity of active cooling demanded to keep these behemoths functioning. The faster the CPU, the faster the fan on your heatsink has to spin to maintain a safe operating temperature. Inevitably, greater airflow results in a steep rise in the volume of white noise, and this leads to increased stress levels and lower productivity (being fragged by an online opponent in Unreal Tournament just doesn't bear thinking about, lol).

The first step - temperature monitoring

We've identified the problem, now let's the look at possible solutions. You should start by finding out how hot your system is running so you'll know how much leeway for making adjustments you have. Providing your motherboard has built-in temperature monitoring sensors you can use Motherboard Monitor to pinpoint exactly how hot your hard drive(s), CPU, motherboard and graphics card are running at any given moment.

Furthermore, it can be used to set upper temperature limits for each individual component and issue a warning or shutdown your computer if these boundaries are crossed. If your CPU happens to be running at a cool 25 Celsius, for instance, it will be perfectly feasible to reduce the speed at which your heatsink's fan is spinning using a utility called Speedfan without causing any damage to your processor through overheating. You would do this by gradually decreasing the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the fan while monitoring the change in temperature.

If you have an older motherboard which isn't supported by the array of hardware monitoring software available you can instead use a small device called a Fanmate. As this is a hardware solution it will entail opening your computer case, but not to worry; this isn't one of the trickier modifications discussed in this article. Fanmates are designed to form a bridge between your motherboard's fan connectors and the fans you intend to hush up allowing you to adjust the voltage delivered to them via a small knob, and hence alter their operating speed.

The hottest component in any PC

CPUs can generally run very hot and still be stable, but it isn't advisable to push them to their limits because this cuts short their lifespan significantly while increasing the likelihood of crashes. Ask people what they deem to be a safe operating temperature and you will get widely diverging opinions. Personally I would use 45c as an upper limit - if the temperature rose above this level I would step up the airflow output a few notches to bring the temperature back down again.

An alternative, more radical view is that you can run your CPU at blisteringly hot temperatures as long as your system is stable because you are likely to upgrade your CPU long before it dies from overheating.

If the noise emitted by your system is now at an acceptable level you can down tools and enjoy the peace and quiet. If not, the next thing you might like to try is replacing the fans in your PC with higher quality, less audibly intrusive ones. Two models which admirably fulfil this criteria are the Panaflo FBA08A12L1A and the Papst 8412NGL.

If you can't manage to get hold of either of these, be on the lookout for fans which generate lots of airflow while keeping noise volume to a minimum. CFM and DB are the key acronyms you will need to pick out in specifications pages. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute i.e. the amount of air fans are capable of pushing through a heatsink when running at full speed, and DB is short for decibels, or in other words, the amplitude of undesirable background noise emitted.

Generally CFM ratings increase uniformly with DB levels though the extent of the relationship depends on the quality of the fan in question. You should aim to find a fan which emits no more than 20 DB (the level of a whisper), obviously the lower this figure the better providing sufficient airflow is rendered. Also, only seek out fans with a three-pin connector - the third pin is used to monitor and control RPM levels; such an attribute is therefore vital if you intend to manipulate them via software.

Fans come equipped with either ball or sleeve bearings. Ball bearings are considered to be the more reliable and long-lasting of the two types so elevate these to the top of your shopping list when given the choice to ensure long term quiet operation. Most heatsinks are supplied with small 60mm fans. These are very difficult to run quietly because they have to run faster than larger fans to provide the same airflow capacity. As a result they produce a higher frequency, whiny, ear piercing noise which can quickly grate on your nerves.

60mm fans can easily be forsaken for quieter, slower running 80mm ones providing you can find a way to hold them in place over your heatsink. You can achieve this using a Zalman fan bracket, a 60mm to 80mm adapter or any other creative customisation you care to devise (a spare fan grill attached directly to the heatsink can serve as an adaptor for example). Bear in mind that the fan doesn't necessarily have to be attached to the heatsink itself to deliver adequate cooling to your CPU.

Another source of fan noise can be traced back to the vibrations transmitted through the heatsink; you might like to attempt to absorb these using rubber grommets or whatever material you have to hand.

While we're on the subject of dampening vibrations, now would be an apt moment to briefly draw your attention to sound absorbing material such as Dynamat. This can be cut to size and used to line your whole case to stop both airborne and structure-borne noise in its tracks. Not very effective in isolation, yet coupled with the other silencing techniques discussed in this article it can be the icing on the cake.

Sinking the heat

Next up; the heatsink. Ones with more intricate, folded fins are thought to be more efficient at carrying heat away from the processor. Silver is king when it comes to thermal conductivity but is rarely used because of the prohibitive costs involved. Copper is the next best thing for heat dissipation, followed by aluminium - other materials are to be avoided. Because surface area is directly proportional to the ability of a heatsink to dissipate heat, the bigger the better.

Among the best heatsinks on the market are the Thermalright SLK-900U, Zalman 6500B-Cu and certain Swiftech and Alphatech models. You will find more specific advice at reliable hardware review sites such as Anandtech.

To aid thermal conductivity between your CPU and heatsink it is imperative that you use high quality thermal compound. Heatsinks often come complete with a thermal pad attached, though these are a poor substitute for thermal paste bought separately from specialist CPU cooling stores. Arctic Silver is thought to be the most efficient thermal paste as it contains a higher proportion of micronized silver (a superb heat conductor) compared to competing brands.

The often overlooked noise maker

Your power supply is also a source of noise because it will almost certainly contain a fan, and unless you have specifically sought to buy a quiet model, this fan will not be especially low-key. Silencing a PSU can be achieved in one of two ways - you either modify the one you're currently using, or you replace it with a new one which provides minimal noise intrusion out-of-the-box. Replacing a PSU fan is straightforward enough, but can be lethal if you aren't careful since the coils contained within the enclosure can withhold their charge for up to several days after they are switched off.

If you don't have the patience to let a PSU discharge of its own accord, make sure you steer well clear of these coils - dead people can't use PCs, noisy or otherwise. Once you have opened the case you will need to clip the cables connecting the fan using a pair of wire cutters and attach the new fan using a soldering iron.

Some PSUs may contain proper connectors to allow you to switch the fan more easily, but it's unlikely that manufacturers would encourage this practice as it could lead to hardware (or wetware - that's you) damage. Few PSUs contain temperature monitoring sensors so it's difficult to know how hot they are running without sticking a probe in there manually. This is why PSU fans should be replaced like-for-like in terms of CFM ratings where possible.

The other option, buying a quiet by-design PSU, entails spending more than double the cost of your average bog standard model. The advantage is clear - there is no hassle involved and there is no risk to your health or the health of your computer. 'Intelligent' cooling brought about by temperature monitoring techniques is now a standard feature in better quality PSUs and this also helps to reduce noise. Two of the quietest PSUs currently available are made by Nexustek and Enermax.

For an astronomical fee, completely fanless (passive) PSUs can be purchased. Personally, I have found the claims of 'fanless' operation to be a blatant lie since such PSUs can overheat without the addition of an exhaust fan to expel hot air from your PC case. Since the PSU fan is designed to double up as an exhaust fan, it is a necessary evil for systems containing hot running components such as fast hard drives or graphics cards so you may as well learn to live with it. If you bought a passive PSU and later discovered that an extra case fan was crucial to maintaining safe temperatures then you'd be right back at square one, only with a lot less money in your pocket.

Can't cool, won't cool? Buy a new CPU

The relationship between CPUs and heat is a simple one - CPUs which draw less power (measured in watts), generate less heat. Therefore buying a low-powered CPU provides a good foundation on which to build a quiet PC. VIA C3 processors fit the bill perfectly, the caveat however, is that they pack a punch equivalent to that of a lethargic gnat so don't expect to be able to get good performance from modern 3D games.

AMD processors are half the price of equivalent Intel ones and offer excellent performance, though they run extremely hot and hence require faster spinning fans to keep them cool. For this reason they are best avoided if quiet operation is your top priority. Intel processors are far superior in this respect because they make use of more efficient heat spreading and dissipation techniques; for example, they are automatically underclocked (or throttled) in the event of heat surges to prevent meltdown.

If you are in the market for a new CPU, pay close attention to ones which use the lowest micron process available and which run at a lower voltage (the P4 pre-2.0 GHz Northwood range for instance - these can be identified by the presence of an 'A' tacked onto the clock speed in the product code). Very briefly, these are easier to cool because they draw less power from the PSU and hence generate less heat.

Something else you may like to research is 'underclocking'. This entails running a CPU at a lower clock speed than originally intended by the manufacturer by altering (reducing) its core voltage and clock speed in your BIOS. Modern processors are protected against tampering in this way so first have to be 'unlocked'.

It's also necessary that your motherboard supports 'undervolting'. Underclocking is clearly not for the speed freaks among us though is a very useful technique for silent PC enthusiasts to master as it results in a dramatic drop in processor generated heat and a reduction in the need for vigorous active cooling. Take the underclocking trick to extremes and you may even be able to go topless! (your heatsink that is, you know fanless… passive… oh forget it).

Data storage devices give you headaches too

Swapping a loud, screeching hard drive for a quieter model is a quick and easy way to reduce noise if you have cash to spare. The Barracuda V, made by Seagate, is currently the quietest drive on the market so should be riding high on the wish list of anyone wanting to subdue a droning PC (the Samsung SP1604N and Hitachi 180GXP are also highly regarded in muted PC circles).

Because the platters found in such drives are sandwiched between noise dampening materials they have a propensity to run hotter than your average hard drive. Even so, it is unlikely that additional active cooling will be necessary to keep the temperature within safe limits - that would defeat the purpose now wouldn't it.

Nearly all modern hard drives now support S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) making it possible to detect internal operating temperatures with tools such as Motherboard Monitor or HDD Temperature; my point being that if you install the right software it will give you a nudge to let you know if the temperature of your drive is creeping up to too high a level, giving you chance to implement counteractive measures.

To avoid noise and overheating issues you could buy a slower hard drive which spins at a relatively sedate 5,400 RPM (these days most drives are of the 7,200 RPM or higher variety). 2.5 inch drives designed for laptops also run cooler and quieter than average desktop hard drives so there's another alternative if cost is not a primary concern.

'Silent enclosures', as can be found at Quiet PC, can help to muffle the noise emitted by more sluggish hard drives though aren't recommended for higher RPM ones because they are apt to overheat with so little room to breathe. Hard drive vibrations won't help you in your quest for quiet and can be marginalised using rubber grommets, or more exotic rubber suspension mechanisms (also available from Quiet PC).

If you have a creaky drive and aren't prepared to, or can't afford to replace it you could use RAMDisk to load your most commonly accessed data into RAM to quell its screaking. This will also help to accelerate access times.

Mobo gadgetry makes all the difference

For anyone intending to overhaul their PC from the ground up, keep in mind that not all motherboards are created equal in the tranquillity stakes. Aopen boards, for instance, have an integrated 'SilentTek' BIOS which utilises feedback from temperature sensing diodes to adjust CPU, exhaust and PSU fan speeds to maintain an optimum noise/heat balance. You can either specify fixed speed settings manually or let the BIOS handle these adjustments on-the-fly in response to fluctuating system temperatures ensuring that your PC is only ever as noisy is it has to be. Asus's Q-Fan smart cooling system aims to provide the same function yet isn't quite as sophisticated. Whichever motherboard you settle on make sure it doesn't have any additional fans attached to the Northbridge heatsink.

Noise, noise everywhere and not a chance to think

CD drives are notoriously noisy when spinning at full speed, however, this problem is easily obviated using CD emulation software such as Daemon Tools (covered in detail in the ISO tutorial and the ISO FAQ of this site). The premise is simple - move the entire contents of your CDs to your hard drive and you won't need to access them via your CD drive at all. No spare hard drive space? Why not use a speed setting utility instead? Vibrations be gone!

Modern graphics cards shuffle data back and forth across their circuitry so quickly they demand a dedicated cooling system of their own - more often than not this comes in the form of a small whiny fan. If you can't live without a top of the range graphics card you're going to either have to learn to live with the noise generated by the fan, or see if you can replace it with a passive GPU heatsink. Making this kind of modification will of course void your warranty and if anything should go wrong the manufacturer won't want to know. A less risky alternative is to buy a lower spec card to begin with, one which doesn't require active cooling. A good candidate is the Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440 as it offers excellent 3D performance without the need for air cooling.

Out of the box solutions

Now here's a novel idea; why not buy a complete system which was built from the ground up with the auditory bombardment of your poor neglected ears in mind? Surprisingly, the distracting nature of noise pollution isn't something that all that many manufacturers have given credence to in the past. The limited number of quiet systems which are available are outrageously overpriced and can only be found at highly specialist outlets or online stores. If money is no object, the following solutions may be of interest to you...

Apple - Sadly both of Apple's silent, fanless models have now been discontinued (the original G3 iMac and the G4 Cube). Modern Power Macs can be deafening though luckily the latest LCD iMac is fairly subdued in the noise department.

ARM Systems - Manufacturers of the Stealth PC. Very quiet, but nothing revolutionary here. All the noise reduction techniques and modifications incorporated are equally available to the average end user. Follow the advice in this article and you can achieve the same or better results (and for a lot less moolah). Marvellous for lazy technophobes. :p

Dell - For as long as I can remember Dell have gone to great lengths to construct unobtrusive computers. This has been accomplished through the use of enormous, passive heatsinks, ducting systems, large, slow moving fans and high quality, vibration-free cases.

Mini-ITX - Mini-ITX is a form factor rather than a PC manufacturer though you can still buy complete systems from here (as well as the individual motherboards for those of you who like to mix and match). These boards are the smallest you can buy anywhere in the world so are perfect for building hi-fi or home theatre PCs. They come supplied with an embedded, low powered CPU, some of which can in theory be run passively. I say "in theory" because I bought the M6000 motherboard and beg to differ - temperatures rapidly escalated to 65c and the Northbridge heatsink became so hot it would burn my fingers. To keep my hard drive cool inside the diminutive case it became necessary to run the two tiny exhaust fans, which emitted quite a piercing screech. In the end I returned it and got my money back. You would be wise to regard claims of fanless operation with scepticism to avoid disappointment.

NEC Powermate Eco - Comprises a fully functional computer built into an LCD monitor which uses a low powered Transmeta Crusoe processor that doesn't require active cooling. The PSU is of the external laptop variety so no fans here either. Extortionate price for what you get and it's certainly no 3D gaming powerhouse - the main drawback of totally passive computers. Perfect for office environments with limited desk space.

Pandora Digital Media Systems - the (now discontinued) Tranquillity PC comes equipped with a cool running C3 processor so only needs sporadic air cooling during high stress periods. Very quiet, though understandably not a high performer. Well suited for running office applications, web surfing, emailing etc. A new P4 version is currently under development. This will use a cool running 1.6 GHz CPU and a range of other quiet components. As with the Stealth PC, Do-It-Yourself and pocket the change.

Conclusion

*Nose dives towards the ground as the wind tunnel fans are disabled*. A bit of warning wouldn't have gone amiss, but no matter, I can always have reconstructive surgery later. :D Silencing my PC has been a frustrating and costly voyage of discovery, which has demanded many hours of web research and has entailed searching far and wide for quiet components. Has it all been worth it? You bet! Now I can barely hear my PC over the background noise I choose to listen to, in fact, it's no more intrusive than a purring kitten. That's progress for you, and just goes to show that it is possible to own a PC that is both powerful and quiet.

With a bit of patience and effort you too can claw back your lost sanity and once again bask in the serenity of auditory nothingness. And if you think I'm obsessed, you ain't seen nothin' yet. I haven't even begun to touch upon water cooling, PC burying (yes, I said burying), DIY heatpipes, PC claustrophobic torture or computer relocation (without relocating yourself that is!).

Quiet is the new loud, enjoy the revolution!

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