How to install Kazaa lite and clean out Spyware.

Music and File Sharing, a little History.

Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing has proved to be an extremely popular use of the internet.

Napster was the forerunner of the whole MP3 file sharing revolution. But in 2001 the record companies finally got it shut down, they didn't like people freely sharing copyrighted music.

But the internet being what it is, file sharing of music was not to stay down long. Soon after Napster stopped, a whole new bread of file sharing programs and protocols emerged. The best, and most popular was MusicCity's Morpheus. This was a great program, based on the Fasttrack network protocol. But early in 2002 they forgot to pay their licensing fees to Fasttrack, and Fasttrack shut down their network to Morpheus users.

MusicCity soon released a new version of Morpheus based on the free Gnutella protocol, but that method of sharing files is horrid, slow and uses tons of your bandwidth passing around messages between users.

In comes KaZaA, also based on the Fasttrack network, but it was in Morpheus' shadow for a while. But that changed when Morpheus was forced onto the Gnutella network, making it unusable. Now KaZaA is pretty much the file sharing program to have. Not only does it let you download almost any song you have ever heard of in MP3 format, but also all kinds of videos, movies and software. (Remember, always buy any music or software you like or use)

The Problem, Spyware

So, all is rosy. Not quite, KaZaA is full of crap bundled software that automatically installs itself with KaZaA, uses your computer's hard drive, bandwidth and processor to do pretty much whatever it pleases. Buried in the licensing agreement you must accept to install KaZaA, is a clause that gives up any rights you have of you computer being yours and gives KaZaA permission to use your computer to do their doings.

Common problems you may notice with KaZaA installed are: reduced computer speed; increased hard drive activity; internet network usage when you aren't using the internet, popup ads,.... and more. Basically all bad for you.

The Solution

Kazaalite++, fixes all KaZaA's problems. It is basically a hacked version of KaZaA, with the adverts and the spyware removed. Kazaalite++ is getting harder to find, see below (Download Kazaalite++) for details.

How to clear out the Spyware (Windows)

If you have been using KaZaA, you need to get rid of all the junk it installs. It's a little tricky to clear all this stuff out, but if you follow these steps it will go painlessly:

• Move all the music files from your shared KaZaA folder to somewhere else.

• Use the Uninstall program with KaZaA to uninstall the bit you can see.

• Download the free version of Ad-Aware, a great program created by Lavasoft. It will remove all the spyware installed by KaZaA, and other programs on your computer that you probably don't know you have about. Do use the update option to keep the program up to date with the latest definitions. Do use the backup option, just in case, and see if any of your programs stop working. Some crap spy filled programs will not function without these components. But I would get rid of those programs, and find more honest programs.

• The new versions of KazaaLite++ contain a pre-made hosts file in the install. The option to install this is turned off by default though. If you don't install it initially, you can still do the process manually by following this instruction.
  You can skip this step if you want, it is no longer necessary with the new KL++ installs. But to get the benefit of reduced ads on all web pages you visit I recommend either doing this manually, or letting the installer do it for you. The installer simply adds the entries below those you already have, which can make a bit of a mess, so doing it manually is still the way to go.
  If you wish to stick to the standard Kazaa, then do not skip this step!

To edit your hosts file:

 Find you hosts file in:

Windows 95/98/Me		c:\windows\
Windows NT/2000/2003/XP		c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ OR c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\ (administrator access is required)

The hosts file doesn't have an extension. Open notepad and navigate to the above location and open the hosts file.

If a hosts file doesn't exist, open the hosts.sam file in the same location and save it as hosts. (with the ending . )

Once you have the file open add the following lines in below any other entries already there:

127.0.0.1 desktop.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 www.altnetp2p.com
127.0.0.1 alpha.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 shop.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.brilliantdigital.com
127.0.0.1 www.b3d.com
127.0.0.1 media.altnet.com
127.0.0.1 www.altnet.com
127.0.0.1 dev.bde.com.au
127.0.0.1 update.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 bravo.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 puma.kazaa.com

click here for complete list, which includes the advertisment servers, it's getting pretty long.

Close and Save

If you are having trouble finding or editing your hosts file, your can download a ready to go one here (right click and select save as...), save in the appropriate directory as shown in the table above. Note: By default, downloading this file will save it with a .txt extension, you do not want this. In the Save As dialog box, select Save as Type: All Files, then save as hosts. with the ending period.
This hosts file also contains lots of ad sites, so using it you will notice a lot of popup ads and banner ads are no longer present when browsing the web. This is of course good, as you don't waste bandwidth downloading the ads.
I've slightly modified this file to use 127.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1, this works better if you run a web server on your computer.

The hosts file tells your computer where to lookup and find web sites. What you have just done is tell your computer that the sites listed above are found at: 127.0.0.1 which is your own computer's internal IP address. KaZaA (the standard version) automatically opens up a special page on the net, and because it can bypass your normal browsers security settings, download spyware from that page and install it without you even knowing. By fooling your computer as to the location of the above sites, KaZaA cannot connect and download those programs.

To verify that your have edited your hosts file correctly, try browsing to:
http://shop.kazaa.com/ if it does not connect, or asks you for a password, you have succeeded!

 

Download Kazaalite++

Download and install Kazaalite++, it is getting harder to find, but it is still available.

The best place to try downloading from is (Updated 9 Nov 2004)

http://www.geocities.com/kazaalite243/download_kazaa_lite_here.html

http://crawlclick.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=299

You should never have to pay or give out your email address to download this program. If a web site asks you to, I would leave.

 I would stick to the K-Lite 2.4.3 version for now. If you want to experiment, try one of the later versions, but some need old versions to update, others don't, it gets a little confusing.

When installing select all the default options (or to your liking) if you wish to let the installer change your hosts file, select the last option also Supertrick.
NOTE: Do not click yes to any boxes that show up while downloading from any web site. If you do you will be installing other crappy software that is known to contain spyware. This is a very tricky business!

Enjoy!

Another small note, if you rerun Ad-Aware in the future, do not let it delete the cd_clint.dll file in you kazaalite directory. It sometimes mistakes it for spyware, but it is perfectly safe.

Delete Recent Searches

Different versions of KaZaA and Kazaalite have different ways to purge or delete  searches.  Try one of the following:

Kazaa Lite version 2 remembers your recent searches, so you can use them again. If you wish to clear out this search list, either:

• Click the down arrow in the search box, and select the first option
  Purge Searches or
  Clear Search History.

• OR Click on Tools > Clear P2P Search History

• OR Type 'Purge Searches' in the Search For: Box.
   

Need help, just email me below.