Using link exchange programs

[viper682]

I am involved in link exchange directories to promote my store however since I am not a member I have limited exchanges per day. I have also emailed the top ranking sites with my keywords to exchange links again a very slow process. I wanted to increase my page rank at a rapid rate so I recently joined some exchanges that have unlimited exchanges and use php so that it is almost like a ring you can link to everysite in the directory. I have two questions

First I know that the engines go by relevance and the links rank. Irrelevant sites may not help your rank but do they hurt it?

Question 2
I have read that there are many manipulative ways out there to fake out the engines but if caught they ban you. The directorys I recently joined do not manipulate the engines they are true link exchanges using php is this a bad thing still?

I just can not see linking one site at a time it would take a long time to get any ranking especially since some of the top ranked sites have thousands of links.