It is no surprise that the file-sharing phenomenon is transforming the way we buy and listen to music. You've probably heard of Napster and Gnutella, and you may be curious to know what other programs are available. ZDNet Music reviewed the top five Napster clones. CuteMX, one of the new MP3-swapping programs, wildly caught our attention.

CuteMX, developed by GlobalSCAPE Software, is another in a series of "cute" applications developed by the company. Generally, these programs produce a user-friendly experience instead of a more technical and complicated experience, which involves writing web pages and uploading them to servers. Developed in the same vein, CuteMX is designed to be a simple way to swap files - easier than Napster and as powerful as Gnutella.

This guide provides you with step-by-step instructions for using this innovative program to find music, files, movies, and graphics from other users on the Internet. As always, ZDNet Music encourages you to use file-swapping programs responsibly and respect the artist's legal copyrights.

The Basics

In order to get started with CuteMX, you must first download the latest version of the client software from ZDNet Music. Then naturally, you double-click the downloaded file, follow the installation prompts, and when it is finished, you start the program.

To identify yourself on the CuteMX system, begin by using the New Account Setup Wizard to create a unique user ID. Both your ID and password must be limited to 12 characters or less. Confirm your password and select Next. You will be prompted with two options: the speed of your connection, and the folder on your hard drive from which you want to share files. By accurately selecting the speed of your connection, you will experience improved downloading performance. When selecting a shared folder, we recommend you do not use the same folder where you store all your music. Rather, create a separate one so you can limit which music and files you would like to share with the world. By default, the public folder is called "shared," which is located inside the directory where CuteMX is installed.

Once the registration process is complete, select Finish, and you should be connected to the CuteMX network.

Next: Getting connected