Napster Concerns

[westmich]

I was interested in installing the Napster software on my computer, but I had a couple of concerns. If you're familiar with Napster or have some other opinion, please feel free to reply.

1) Are there any known security concerns or hacks?

2) I have a cable modem. I had heard that your connection type is listed with Napster and most people prefer downloading from a high-speed source. Is there anyway to turn off the ability for others to download from you? I don't want to be greedy. In fact, I wouldn't leave my computer on so that others could download from overnight or when I'm at work. It's just that I don't want to be bombarded every time I get on-line.

P.S. I am not trying to start a debate on the moral and legal ramifications of Napster

[James]

To answer your questions in order:
1) Yes there are some security holes in Napster but they are not well known and not really worth worrying about..however I do recommend getting a personal firewall program like ZoneAlarm or BlackICE Defender to add an extra level of protection.
2) Yes you can disable all downloads from you - Head to File > Preferences, then the Sharing Tab. Set the number at the bottom to 0. Every time you load Napster you will get a warning message asking if you want to enable sharing again, but it won't force you

Hope that helps!

[Nicky]

Napster requires you to share a folder on your PC so what you can do is share an empty folder so that when users do a search they will not see anything!

[Edited by Nicky on 10-25-2000 at 05:12 AM]

[James]

While you do have to share a folder you can make it so that users cannot download from that folder
Effectively it disables sharing...see the instructions in my post above to achieve this.

[TWTCommish]

It's not much of a concern at all I don't think - I've used Napster with a DSL and a Cable Modem many times and the most people I've ever had downloading at once was 3...it's usually never more than 1 or 2, and usually none at all.

[westmich]

Thanks - I'll give it a try.

Hopefully, all the other Johnny Cash fans won't want to download from me all at one.

[mjames]

I'd say it is a definite concern, especially for broadband-connected users. How do I know this? On my personal firewall, ZoneAlarm, the number of people who try to ping my computer goes up CONSIDERABLY... I might get 10 a day when I'm off Napster, but if I stay on for many hours, I can easily get over 500 pings, and that's on a dial-up. Call me a security freak, but I would at least get a personal firewall.

I usually just get on Napster occasionally when I want songs, then I sign off. I don't ever leave it on because it slows my computer down and hogs system resources.

[James]

I personally think personal firewalls (either ZoneAlarm or BlackICE Defender) are essential, whether or not you use Napster!
For the small amount of time it takes to set one up, I think it is definitely worth it. If you have either Win2k or WinNT they are not quite as necessary as these OSes are designed to be especially secure, but it is still a good idea to have a firewall.

[PeterW]

This could be unrelated.. but.. I was developing a winsock program, and was using sockspy. I also had napster running. The only other (internet related) windows I had open were Internet Explorers and they were only on plain text RFCs..
Some of the text going in and out of my computer was *interesting*