You don’t let strangers into your house to tramp around and go through cupboards to share your cds, do you, just so you can have a bit (or a lot) of free music? So why let people into your computer to tramp around its registry code and system files or stroll through your personal data? Instead just buy the music you want on iTunes for 99 cents each. That way your favorite musicians can earn money for their work. And you won’t compromise your computer’s security 24 hours a day.¬† Having your hard drive constantly reformatted is a lot more expensive!!

Peer-to-Peer networks (otherwise known as P2P) usually come as a package that includes adware, and sometimes spyware, malware, and viruses, so you’re asking, just asking for trouble from the very get go. And then, when you’re sharing music, all that traffic in and out of your computer slows it down and the music files you receive in return can be infected. LimeWire, Bearshare, Kazaa, Morpheus, Nutella are a only a few of the P2Ps. If you must download free music, and I know some of you must, then make sure you have a real-time spyware catcher in your system. Spy Sweeper is excellent. Let Ducktoes install it for you. Or if you’re not in the Calgary area, download it from their website or buy it at a computer store. And use a good virus checker, AVG has a free one for personal home use, and Spybot and Ad-Aware are good programs to run along with Spy Sweeper. No one software can completely keep you safe.