Peer Guardian
 

Just out of curiosity, how secure is "Peer Guardian"? Does anyone know of anyone who was still caught while using it? Is there anything better?

I've been using it for a few months now as a level or security for my downloads, but I'm just curious if I should be even more careful.

I know that with PG, users out there can see that you are sharing, and get your IP, but they can't make a physical connection to actually download anything.

It's always worked fine for me. I've downloaded thousands of mp3s since the RIAA went Super Saiyan on us, and haven't got any letters yet. Peer Guardian for life. Of course, by the end of a good night's downloading session, I have blocked hundreds (if not thousands on occasion) of IPs from using Kazaalite K++. Works like a charm.

The blocklist update is awesome. Anyone who finds an IP that is suspicious can contact the PG guys and they will add it to the blocklist, then you can update PG and it adds it into the list without you having to do anything but hit "update blocklist."

Keep in mind that PG doesn't work for all file sharing programs. KrazyKemist was busted last month because it won't block them on BT.

No sharing program is foolproof. Things like PG only lessen the chance of getting caught, the risk is still there.

Yep, exactly. Keep in mind that nothing you send across the internet, unless it is encrypted, is secure. If someone wants to find out what you are doing, they can.

I've always wondered, 1) how exactly RIAA went about finding the people they sued, and 2) were they searching specifically for the people who were sharing?

I use PG on my second box as one of my lines of defense. The only issue with PG is that is uses all of my available CPU just to run, regardless of the version.

Thats why you should just use programs that include an ip blocker instead of peerguardian. For instance, Azureus allows you to install a plug in called peersafe that blocks ip's automatically at startup--it updates from peer guardian's ip database and doesn't hog all your resources like pg.

Kazaa ++ has an ip filter that can be used w/ the blocklist updater.

Shareaza has a blocklist/filter that can be updated. Likewise for eMule.

This way, by only using P2P software that allows for blocking ip ranges, you don't need to use PG, as it can and will occasionally just "stop working" just for the hell of it and it keeps wasting all of your cpu anyway.

I have nothing but pains importing ip lists into software firewalls and don't really want to run one since I'm firewalled w/ my router anyhow.

Using p2p w/ blocklists makes life easiest, in my opinion.