Similar to Limewire

In fact, FrostWire has more than just a few similarities to Limewire, although unlike the latter, it does not carry advertising and there are no annoying pop-ups. Just as Limewire was, FrostWire is straightforward and easy to use. A simple search bar, divided by category, makes it a breeze to browse for a file, whether it is a video, image, audio, or program. FrostWire also has a What’s New button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged.

One particularly handy feature of FrostWire is a special direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and FrostWire will browse to that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone you know although it would be even better if you could enter the username of a user rather than the IP address.

Built in media player

In terms of speed, much will depend on the speed of your own connection. It definitely helps though if you've correctly opened your router's ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. To avoid the risk of downloading copyrighted or adult material, FrostWire also allows you to apply content filters. Another handy feature of FrostWire is a built-in media player. Video and audio can be tested using Frostwire’s media player, which gives you an immediate preview of your file.

Not for profit

It should be noted that FrostWire is basically a stripped-down version of Limewire, but is a not-for-profit project. The developer claims it will never support Digital Rights Management (DRM) or any type of advertising. However, the demise of Limewire due to legal issues mean that FrostWire may well be targeted in the future for closure.

Conclusion

FrostWire for Mac is a hugely popular alternative for anyone who misses Limewire.

Download FrostWire 5.5.6 in Softonic

The difference being that UseNeXT is far more powerful in terms of the hits you'll find and the speed you can download them. UseNeXT provides anonymous and ad-free access to over 200 terabytes worth of MP3s, videos, games, pictures, and software. In addition, it's home to over 60,000 Usenet discussion boards and most importantly, the subscription system means it's legal and allows it to use it's own servers for super-fast downloads.

UseNeXT even comes with its own browser that can unpack and repair failed downloads as well as feature a built-in media player that allows you to preview files before they're downloaded. Using it is pretty easy. When you UseNeXT's the main interface, you have a list of 'Newsgroups' along the left-hand side where you'll find content organized by category. Beware if you're allowing minors to use it because there is a substantial amount of adult content, which you can choose to hide on first use.

Double clicking on any file will immediately take you to the download manager. Alternatively, you can use the search box in UseNeXT to hunt for specific content. By clicking on the newsgroups, you can see the most popular download content by category in an instant.

For those who don't want to waste valuable bandwidth, there is also a 'Free Downloads' section that allows you to download content without reducing your monthly download limit. Finally, the latest version of UseNeXT features coverflow for spectacular viewing of multimedia content and images.

UseNeXT is an extremely impressive network that might not be free, but offers significantly more content and speed than free P2P clients.

Download UseNeXT 5.27 in Softonic

Limewire is a very popular peer to peer filesharing application. Users of the latest release will notice the radical redesign, bringing it aesthetically up to date.

Like Vuze before it, LimeWire appears to be encouraging legal downloads with the LimeWire Store. The library is so far a little limited compared to competitor download stores, but we expect this will expand.

Otherwise it's business as usual on LimeWire, but with a much simplified and cleaner interface. Because it's a new release, there are still some bugs, but the basic file sharing functions as well as ever. The new design makes scanning your search results much easier, and downloading files is totally intuitive.

The built-in player is still unintrusive and useful for checking audio and video files, but no more. LimeWire goes out of its way to check you are aware of the legal implications of illegal filesharing, on installation you have to agree not to infringe copyright, and if you download a file for which LimeWire can't find a license you will be warned and can stop or continue at your discretion.

The Friends function has been much improved. You can sign in with your Gmail, Jabber or LiveJournal accounts, and share files between any of your friends there who are also on LimeWire. This is much easier than tapping out IP addresses, and if enough of your friends use LimeWire, it could become great community sharing tool.

LimeWire searches remain within the P2P network, but you can open torrent files with it, and it functions very well as a torrent download client. This is not the most advertised feature of LimeWire, which may a way of keeping legal challenges at bay, but it's a shame that you can't search for torrents within the program.

The official release of LimeWire 5.0 makes for a much improved P2P experience.

Download LimeWire Basic 5.5.14 in Softonic