p2p security question

[delraysol]

Hello all, I am new to the forum and hoping to learn a thing or two.

I am student doing research on p2p and its various applications/capabilities. I have little to no understanding of p2p in practice. If I were to subsrcibe to a platform such as limewire or fileswire what type of security would I need? Does having either of those programs running on my browser make any file on my computer accessible through file sharing?

Im running mac os x

Thanks, delraysol

[Lord of the Rings]

LimeWire is not a browser. And programs like fileswire if it is a p2p browser type program, I've heard lots of criticism about. Not to mention my own criticism having used such a type ... oh yeah it was FilesWire by coincidence. Such a program is known as a 'leecher' type by the p2p community. By default does not share files, simply takes files from others without giving back. Fileswire also lacks many of the tools the regular gnutella programs use which includes bitzi lookup to check the files are ok.

Recommended are a good firewall with firewall exception for the p2p program. Anti-virus with up to date definitions. Anti spyware & adware. Anti malware. WARNING: Viruses on network you should be aware of! (click on blue link)

For OSX, there are anti virus & such programs out there. Obviously the virus definitions are usually only for windows & perhaps OS 8 & 9.

[ken]

Norton anti virus is beauty