The concept behind file sharing and exchange (file swapping) is the same concept that gave birth to the net.
Source: Book of Kazaa Glossary: P2P
How does P2P file sharing work
Previous computer networks consisted of one master computer and a group of "dumb" computer terminals connected to it. If the master computer stopped working, the whole "network" went down. In contrast, on the net each and every server has the options to enable the standard protocols (telnet, gopher, ftp, http, etc.). So, if somebody destroys or handicaps any server, all the other ones are still up and running.
Following this principle, peer-to-peer networks allow users to exchange files and data without going through any centralized mechanism or technology. The Internet protocol itself allows individual users to connect directly to one other and to initiate exchanges and file transfers of any kind at their will.
P2P networks are actually parallel Internet universes to the popular Web and email universes.
In addition peer-to-peer networks add also:
· the ability to easily search across such distributed networks for specific content
· the technological facility to download the same content from multiple users simultaneously, as to lighten the bandwidth load on their computers as well as to speed up the overall process
· the option of directly contacting individual users, and to exchange messages or to even chat directly with them
This turns them into collaboration networks, in which the power is created by the effective distribution and accessibility of knowledge and content.
Popular P2P networks include:
· FastTrack
· Gnutella
· eDonkey
· Blubster
· Direct Connect
Obviously, the bigger the network is (i.e. the more users it connects), the easier it is for you to find the content you are looking for.
FastTrack and Gnutella are currently the two most popular P2P networks. However, eDonkey is growing very fast and might soon get ahead of the other networks.
In the next article I will look at P2P tools in more detail.
Robin Good
