File Sharing software, is a growing area in the Internet. It was brought to the public attention through the "Napster Debate". File Sharing software allows you to connect to the computer of another user of the software, and download files from specified folders on their computer. Other people can also do the same to you, hence the "sharing". It may sound a little "shady", but it isn't. By using the software, you give consent to people to copy files from your machine to theirs. Also, no one has access to your computer: they cannot look around your files and directories. When you install the sofware, you also tell it which folders it may use when sharing. The software works by letting users search for a file. If that file is found, then a list of other users that have that file is returned, and the person looking for it simply chooses who he wants to copy it from. They can only access that file, not any other, so your important documuments are safe, so long as you don't put them in a folder that the software is a lowed to search through for files.
Initially, File Sharing software only allowed users to search for one type of file (usually MP3). In a short amount of time however, new software has appeared that allows users to look for a range of file types, from images to sound files, video files to written documents.

So what can you do with these Online Music files once you have obtained them? Well, for starters, you could listen to them on your computer, using a player programme. This is the simplest thing to do with OM files. You can have a collection of your favourite songs stored on your computer, and play them one after the other, like having a jukebox on your computer. This saves you swapping audio CD's all the time!
Or, alternatively, you could write them all onto one CD. There are two ways you can do this: by keeping all the files as internet music files, using the CD as a storage device for them all, then play them through your computer with your player software. Or, you can convert them into audio CD tracks, and create your own compilation CD, for use in any CD player in the world. If you choose to go for the latter option, you MUST decode the music files, or they won't play on a standard CD player. The [HOW-TO] section will give you more information.
One other use for internet music files, is to buy a "Portable Digital Music Player". These have come around in the last year or two. Basically, they are a cut down PC sound card, with some memory, in a portable casing, very much like a "walkman". The [HARDWARE] section contains more information.

Where to next? [ SOFTWARE | HARDWARE | HOW-TO | DOWNLOADS | FURTHER ]

Page 1:

• [What is OM]
• [File types]

Page 2:

• [Player software]
• [Encoder software]
• [Getting OM files]

Page 3:

• [Getting OM files via File Sharing]
• [What to do with OM files]