Choosing the right P2P

When choosing a p2p program you must first examine what type of files you are looking to download. Different networks have a varying selection of files. For instance the Gnutella network generally has more software files than the edonkey network. Second, try and determine what program those around you are using. The closer in proximity and the higher the bandwidth usually the faster the downloads. If you have no frame of reference you may want to try Limewire because it is one of the most widely downloaded p2p programs.
For this post we looked at 6 different p2p agents. Kazza, Emule, Limewire basic, Morpheus basic, Shareazza and Aries lite. All of these are free downloading agents.
Five of us from different locations had all six programs.

Kazza and Kazza lite:
What we found was a network littered with corrupt downloads, spyware in the non lite version and not very impressive download speeds.
Aries lite: Aries was a smaller network which was nice because it lacked the massive amounts of corrupt or fake files that overwhelms the larger networks. The download speeds varied for us but were noticeably better than kazza.
Limewire:
which connects to the Gnutella network has an impressive selection of files and has respectable download speeds. The only problem with limewire that we found was the amounts of fake files circulating unlabeled. Also they charge money for their premium service.
Shareaza:
The shareaza program was the one we were the most impressed with. Shareaza allows you to download from multiple networks. It has a great selection of files. It allows you to label corrupt, fake or misnamed files easily and in plane view. It had the fastest download times of the six programs we tested and it was the most user friendly. Our only complaint was that it uses up quite a bit of your computers system resources.
Morpheus basic:
is built on the same idea as Shareaza with multiple network search. Unfortunately we did not get as impressive of results as we did with shareza. This may be due to the fact that morpheus charges for their premium service. As a whole though we found morpheus to be on par if not a little better than limewire.
Emule:
was the last p2p agent we tested. Emule had a lot of files that couldn't be found on other networks. We attributed this to its popularity in other countries. Unfortunately the downloads were kind of sluggish, some of the files we were looking for were hard to get and there wasn't an easy enough way to mark the files corrupt or fake and put it in plane view. The great thing about emule, however, is their constant evolution. They are continually updating their software and fixing bugs.