While StrangeSearch can be used for illegal materials, it also has value to search for legal materials. In many cases, there are large downloads that can be avoided, and received much faster, by pulling them from on-campus systems.

Things I’ve used StrangeSearch for in the past year include …

Linux ISO downloads: While AAFUGIT can host a lot, they can’t host everything. ISOs are usually 700 megabytes in size, and some installs take several disks.

Game update patches: Often times getting a patch requires trying several download sites to find one working at a decent speed. Or, search on campus, click and install.

Abandonware: When a company has finished making money off an old product, it is often released into the public domain as Abandonware. Old DOS games often fall into this category. There are systems on campus that keep archives of Abandonware, making it easier to find programs than many of the Web sites devoted to it.

Operating system updates: Downloading a 150 megabyte service pack from a system down the hall is a lot faster than downloading it from Microsoft directly, no matter how fast their servers might be.

Benchmark utilities: 3DMark2001 SE, Sandra bench-marking suite and several other programs are free, but are large downloads. Pulling them on-campus is fast.

Free music: Despite what the RIAA would have people believe, there are artists who have embraced the Internet for music. Parallex, a local band, and many MP3.com bands come to mind.

StrangeSearch (and the clones) are simply search engines. It does not determine the content of the network — the people sharing do. While much of the content is copyrighted, not all of it is. And there are still many legal files shared on the network.

Remember, the Internet connection to the campus is limited. If people are downloading all their patches/OS updates/etc. from on-campus sources, then that leaves more bandwidth to the public Internet for things that cannot be found on campus.

Russell Graves

Junior

Computer Engineering