Using p2p file sharing software on an external harddrive

[RedDem0n]

I was wondering if there were any complications in having file sharing enabled for p2p software on an external harddrive vs a standard internal harddrive. I have a western digital 320gb external harddrive on a usb connection, but basically what I thought was it'd be more secure if I enable file sharing to the world to my external harddrive rather then my internal harddrive. Feel free to put in your input

[Guest Joalaielna]

nothing illegal I hope.

 

Other than that you shouldn't have any problems...

 

You can't download/upload fast enough to make a difference.

[wingspar]

It’s just another hard drive. As long as you have it turned on, should work.

[Donski]

what I thought was it'd be more secure if I enable file sharing to the world to my external harddrive rather then my internal harddrive.

No, there's no security advantage. A hard drive is a hard drive whether it's connected as internal or external, the world sees it all as one computer.

[red930]

No, there's no security advantage.

 

There is a security advantage to sharing a completely different drive than the one your OS is located on.

[Donski]

There is a security advantage to sharing a completely different drive than the one your OS is located on.

I'd be interested in knowing what that is, providing it's not simply the option of disconnecting or hiding the drive from Windows. The reason I mention this is because the original post is about using the external drive for P2P and not simple file sharing. So I'm assuming he's talking about something like LimeWire or BitTorrent. Now if he has an FTP server and allows others to upload files to his computer, then he could run into trouble if it's on his OS drive because it could get filled.

[red930]

I'd be interested in knowing what that is,

Simply having the file stores on a different drive letter adds an extra layer of security at the OS level.

 

This is one reason you map drive letters instead of using UNC shares.

 

Honestly, this is pretty common knowledge to most every network administrator but "home" users don't encounter it very much.

[General Septem]

There's a security advantage to having it on a different drive than your OS but it does not have to be external.

[red930]

There's a security advantage to having it on a different drive than your OS but it does not have to be external.

 

Yes! That wasn't entirely clear in my earlier responses.

[Sorrento]

Also there is some data fragmentation involved when using the current P2P programs... since they receive small parts and then put them together when all the parts are received: this means the entire partition or HDD would be quite a mess.

 

This is another reason why using a separated partition or HDD is good when working with these P2P programs.

[General Septem]

In addition, many of these programs also do not download efficiently. With eMule, for instance, you may encounter a 3 GiB part file for a 1 GiB download that's only a few MiB completed.