Ares P2P was designed to be user friendly, intuitive, and simple to get to grips with. While perhaps not as sympathetically implemented as the excellent Ares Lite, Ares P2P goes some way to simplifying the file download and sharing process. The makers have taken out some of the superfluous functionality and only left the user with those bits that really matter. All the functionality you will need on a day-to-day basis remains in the software. The interface looks great, too. It doesn’t go as far as Ares Gold in making sure that every aspect of the program looks just right, but it retains an element of the ‘wow’ factor about it.



An integrated media player means that you can listen to or watch your downloads without switching programs; while the operation isn’t as well implemented as in some other versions of Ares, neither is it as badly implemented as some. This is a user-friendly version of Ares which, if the issues noted below were addressed, would be in the running for a commendation.

What we liked
The user interface is friendly enough and looks good; those functions that haven’t been chopped out work as they should, which is more than can be said of some alternative versions. The software works well with older, slower machines, which is a godsend to those users still running Windows 98 or ME. It doesn’t fare as well with Vista, though, so consider your options carefully before going with Ares P2P. Installation is easy and it is difficult to get wrong. Uninstallation, rarely a polished or satisfying process, works very well, and the software was cleanly removed when we wanted it out of the system.

What we didn't like
Ares P2P just seems to be missing something. It’s like the creators simply chopped out bits that they deemed unnecessary, without considering the consequences of such a zealous cropping process. Whereas Ares Lite seems to be reorganized around the cut-down functionality Ares P2P just seems to be missing chunks, and it shows. We found the menus a little clunky at times (possibly because they had been designed around a more comprehensive set of options) and we did struggle to find one or two functions that appeared in odd places. The configuration options, too, were set out in an unusual way and we struggled to find a coherent route through the setup process. Connectivity seemed to be a problem for us, and we think that Ares P2P was having trouble interfacing correctly with Windows’ firewall. Cutting off halfway through a juicy download is more than annoying; cutting off during an upload just serves to alienate you from other users, and if that user is the only one with a copy of the file you need then you may be in lasting trouble. There is no one thing that puts us off Ares P2P, but a legion of smaller niggles and rough edges serve to make its software very frustrating indeed.
For these reasons, we would NOT recommend Ares P2P.