File sharing for Firefox users

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File sharing for Firefox users

August 26, 2006 in Software | Permalink

Screengrab_8 Peer-to-peer technology has been used for all the wrong reasons and received a lot of bad press. It's technology that enables you to both download and share files, online, between a number of users (peers). It generally means files are nearly always available to download, as there's always someone connected to the Internet with the file you're after. However, this means that the technology has been used to share pirated music, files, pornographic material and mo vies.

This is all about to change. It's rumoured that, due to bandwidth restrictions and the size of downloading (or streaming) movies across the Internet, peer-to-peer technology may be used to stream movies to your computer in the future. Peer-to-peer technology is also surfacing in other areas and one of them is through AllPeers, a Firefox extension that can be used to share files with authorised friends and family. As it is based on around a private file-sharing network, you can share your personal photos and movies in the knowledge that they won't appear outside your network.

AllPeers has had mixed reviews so far and shouldn't be used with the beta of Firefox 2.0, but check it out and make your own decision.