Ah, a Rose by any other…Excuse me, a LimeWire by any other name is Rocket MP3. This Gnutella peer-to-peer files sharing utility is almost identical to its progenitor, the aforementioned LimeWire. Basically, you define a shared folder, search for files, download them and keep them around for others to download to their PCs. It works quite well–there are tons of MP3 files available–however, in my short perusal there were still the numerous malware and ad-ridden downloads that LimeWire suffered.
The MP3 Rocket Web site makes it appear as if you have to pay money for MP3 Rocket; however, you click on the tiny developer link at the bottom of the screen and choose Get Basic, or simply download here for the free version. The $20 pro version removes the nags and ads and promises 25% faster downloads. As long as you’re aware that the vast majority of the files you’ll find are infringing on copyrights in one way or another, go right ahead–there’s still a thriving Gnutella community out there.
Tip: Don’t download MP3 files that look undersized, say less than 2MB. It’s most likely not the file you want and probably contains an embedded URL that takes you to a Web site, possibly a dangerous one.