Shareaza Review

Shareaza lets you download Music, Movies, Games, TV Shows & Software!

Shareaza has a staggering 15 billion shared files and it connects you to one of the largest file sharing networks around. Shareaza lets you download unlimited music files, MP3s, music videos, software, TV shows and episodes, videos, eBooks, pictures and even high quality movies!

Shareaza has been around for a while and it shows by the amazing amount of shared files and online users, and the high software version number that it currently has. The smooth and intuitive user interface allows you to perform several different searches at once. One very good feature which we found very useful, is the ability to narrow your search results even further by filtering them to find exactly what you want. This came very useful when our original search was too broad (as we were not sure on the exact filename or song title).

Shareaza allows you not to share files with others if you wish - this way you can maximise your downloads. You are able to perform several different searches at once. Each search result is also rated in quality from 1 to 5 ticks, the number of users sharing this file, the size of the file and the internet connection speed of the users sharing this file. This displayed information helps you decide which file is best to download based on the best quality while giving you the fastest download speeds.

As well as being able to perform several searches at once, Shareaza allows several simultaneous downloads at once. Shareaza is intelligent enough to maximise your internet bandwidth without hogging it. This means that while downloading and searching, Shareaza will use the maximum available internet bandwidth whilst still allowing you to surf the internet uninterupted without impacting your internet performance. So you can still surf the internet and not notice Shareaza downloading or searching in the background! This is a real bonus if you are downloading high quality movies that may take up to 2 hours.

The members area is full of free software downloads to give all the tools you need to download music, movies, software, games and software - and to be able to burn them to CDs and DVDs. The free software also protects you from spyware/adware and viruses to make sure that your PC stays clean and secure while downloading. If Shareaza detects a corrupt file, or virus, while downloading it stops immediately and alerts the user. The user has the choice to either continue, stop, or remove the infected file.

Shareaza also has a Downloads and Uploads window that shows all uploads and downloads currently being performed - from here you can also preview downloading files to check if you are donwloading what you actually wanted. Shareaza also provides a "Library" window so that you can manage and search for all your downloaded files. Shareaza's Search window has a "Browse User" service so you can browse other files being shared by one particular user - helpful if you are wanting to download a whole album when you have just searched for one file.

Even though Shareaza's 1 and 2 year membership joining fees are relatively expensive, the life time membership is $5 cheaper than its competitors!