It's always fascinating to see the way that applications such as this are marketed. In the same way as the raft of DVD 'backup' utilities that came to market recently, Steganos Secure Filesharing 6 has some nice ways of presenting its work, even though we're all aware that there are, in the minds of some, slightly shady reasons for using the software.

The idea behind this package is to destroy any traces of file sharing application usage. Supporting - at this stage - Kazaa, eMule, Kazaa Lite, Morpheus, iMesh and SoulSeek, the package encrypts in real time any data downloaded from these networks into a secure area on your hard drive.

Upon installation, you'll be asked to set up a new 'media safe'. You are then asked which of the popular file sharing applications you'd like to protect, with the program automatically detecting which are installed and which aren't. Then it works out how much space you should set aside based on how many files you've already downloaded from your file sharing application of choice.

Files downloaded in advance of installing Steganos Secure Filesharing 6 will automatically be included in the safe. Then you will be able to lock the safe to prevent anyone else accessing the files, plus you can destroy the traces left behind by your file sharing activity.

All that's left is for you to set up a password. The program is rightly fussy about 'common' choices (cross referencing against an extensive database of popular passwords). Then the long process of setting up your media safe begins.

This took a good twenty minutes on our test machine, and that was setting up a 13.6GB secure area on the program's recommendation. Once that work is completed, a new drive letter is appointed to the safe, which is only visible while the program is running.

When you then start up your file sharing app, Secure Filesharing 6 leaps into action. You'll be asked if you want to activate secure file sharing for your session, and assuming you click 'Yes', you're a password entry away from your safe being opened.

As files are downloaded, they're automatically encrypted, with the media safe holding up to 32GB of files, if your hard drive can support it. Then, when you close down your file sharing application, a window pops up telling you that all traces have been destroyed. And, when we went back into our file sharing app, all traces of our previous activities were indeed long gone.

We also tried a CTRL-ALT-DEL closing of a couple of file sharing applications, and this didn't fool the program. Neither, for that matter, was it fooled when they crashed of their own accord. When we subsequently tried to track down evidence of previous file sharing sessions, that was nowhere to be found, either. You could rightly conclude that the program does what it claims to do.

There's little doubting that this is an effective application, hampered perhaps by the limited number of file sharing programs it supports. How much you want to hide your downloads and activities is clearly the main determining factor behind whether you splash out £30 on the program. If you do, then you're unlikely to be disappointed.

This is very much a tool for the job, with few frills but genuinely effective results. But only you really know whether you need something like this. And bear in mind that it may still be possible for someone to track your downloading activities from your IP address.