Some time ago, my interest was aroused by a program called "ShareSniffer". My interest was based on the fact that it provoked all sorts of ethical questions, rather than the fact that it was yet another "peer to peer" data-sharing tool. I wrote an article about the subject of ShareSnffer, entitled Peer to Peer Takes an Interesting Twist. I actually attracted the attention of the author of ShareSniffer in the process, and my subsequent interaction with him is documented in another article entitled Sniffing Out Trouble.

Since then, ShareSniffer has mysteriously gone missing, then just as mysteriously returned, and now it appears to have gone again. (The DNS name "sharesniffer.com" currently resolves to address 10.10.10.10, which is not a routable address on the global Internet.) I notice the comings and goings of ShareSniffer primarily because of an increase in hits from search engines on my ShareSniffer-related pages — even when I've instructed search engines not to index those pages!

My summary, for those of you who are looking for ShareSniffer, is as follows. I have no idea what their current status is, but I expect their little venture has gone the way of the dodo, or at least the way of zillions of other failed dot-com type ventures, so move along! There's plenty of other "peer to peer" type sharing stuff out there, and/or lots of script kiddie tools for finding open shares. I'm sure you can find them if you care to.

But I'd advise you to not waste your time further with ShareSniffer. I'm not going to.