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Phynding new ways to cope: A year after demise of popular Grinnell file-sharing service, students find creative ways to download new music

BY BETHANY PROSSEDA & CHLOE MORYL

Once upon a time, Grinnellians could acquire unlimited music files at the click of a button. With a simple web search, students could choose from a huge array of files and download with little risk of viruses.

This sharing was facilitated by a website called Phynd, which allowed users to search an index of shared files and folders on the Grinnell network. This let network users play or download movies and music from other computers. However, in summer 2005, ITS divided the campus-wide ResNet network into 12 smaller subnets. With no campus-wide network to search, Phynd became a thing of the past.

Justin Abramson '08, like many upperclassmen, laments the loss of the program. "When I was a freshman, we had Phynd ... it was really cool to have and it is a shame that it was done away with, since there's not much downloading on campus at all anymore," he said.

With the loss of Phynd, students have been forced to find more creative ways to obtain new music. Some, of course, purchase CDs or purchase individual songs through internet services like iTunes and Napster. Students have also turned to illegal iTunes offshoots like MyTunes and OurTunes, which allow the user to download from others' iTunes music libraries.

Students may also use illegal downloading programs like Limewire and Kazaa, although college firewalls prevent the use of these programs. Firewalls are security schemes on the college network that control the transfer of some kinds of information within the network.

"I used to use file sharing all the time and I really wish that we could use search programs here at Grinnell," said Katie Battani '09. "It was convenient and easy, and now we have to find roundabout ways to do the exact same thing. People are going to find a way to do it anyway."

Megan Germer '08 shared Battani's sentiment. "Now, without any way to download music, I kind of feel like Grinnell is cut off from the music scene a lot," she said. "It's just a lot more difficult to share and listen to different music."

Some students, however, have found other ways to obtain music for free. Mike Kober '10, who like other underclassmen was never exposed to Phynd, has made use of his external hard drive. "I found someone on campus who had a lot of music that I wanted, so I copied the music from his computer onto my external hard drive, then copied the music from the external hard drive back onto my computer," he said.

The loss of Phynd has undoubtedly cramped Grinnell's music-sharing syle somewhat, and it isn't as easy as it once was to find "Like a Prayer" at the click of a button. However, between legal subscription services, illegal programs and old-fashioned sharing with peers, students are still finding creative ways to expand their music libraries.

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