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 Peer-to-peer networks: what you should know
January 25, 2005 - Part I
Introduction
The Internet has greatly matured; it has become a more versatile and powerful tool for folks who know how to use it effectively. Some of them are using the Internet looking for the latest news, sports results, and weather; others look for fresh device drivers and program patches. The third group connects to it to play online games and send instant chat messages, while some others exchange files on the peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
In this article, we will focus on the issues surrounding the latter group of individuals -- the ones using peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
P2P explained
What is a P2P network?
P2P is a network of computers on which data is exchanged directly between its member machines without the participation of a central server. Each machine, called a node, is equally able to send or receive data, depending on whether this machine actually stores the needed file or requests it from other neighbors. All machines in a P2P network are equally subordinated and therefore are called peers. Unlike server-client networks, where the server takes the highest level of command and authority, peers can be both server and client, depending on who uploads (server function) and downloads a requested file (client function). In a peer-to-peer network, if a requested file is stored on several machines, it can be downloaded from these simultaneously, with one part of the file being downloaded from one machine, while the rest of it comes from the other machine storing a duplicate file. This distributed download would save time, processing power, and bandwidth on machines that supply data to a requesting peer. Each of the P2P nodes must run special software called P2P Client in order to be able to distribute network-shared materials correctly.
P2P networks are widely used on the Internet to distribute company-specific data in a password-protected network. They allow company staff to exchange data and documents remotely. So, for example, Officer A traveling abroad can obtain the latest report from Officer B's computer and upload its corrected version to Officer C's desktop.
On the consumer front, P2P communities have sprung up in hundreds and are offering its members free exchange of music, videos, pictures, and documents.
But this easy access to practically an endless array of Internet resources may come at a cost, which we will consider later in the article.
It doesn't take much for a regular user to become a member of a P2P community. All he or she has to do is to download a P2P client application, register it, and leave it running on an Internet-connected PC. After this is done, the person becomes another member (peer) of a P2P network.
History of peer-to-peer networks
It all started when 19-year-old Shawn Fanning created the Napster program. Sitting in his dorm room at Northeastern University in Boston, he heard his roommate complain about dead MP3 links pointing to used-to-be-downloadable items. That's when he came up with the idea for Napster.
"I had this idea that there was a lot of material out there sitting on people's hard drives, and I had to figure out a way to go and get it," he said. He wanted to find an easier way for music listeners to share their favorite recordings. He knew enough about Unix programming to believe that such a program was achievable and dedicated all his time and effort to reaching his goal. Once completed, Napster was a huge success and became one of the fastest-growing sites in history, reaching the 25 million mark in less than a year in operation.
Napster began providing constant up-to-date MP3 files and movies and pictures in a single location that everyone knew about. Users could register with the searchable Napster network name space and find files easily through Napster servers, which had information on registered hosts and multimedia data. The servers dealt with the transfer of files between clients but didn't actually store any of the music themselves. Napster's network protocol created direct peer-to-peer access between clients. It is the simplicity of use that peer-to-peer provides that helped with the success of Napster and other applications that use it.
But then came bad times for Napster, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) taking it to court on numerous copyright-infringement cases. RIAA was able to prove that Napster knew about the aggravated violations of piracy laws and didn't make ample efforts to stop them. What was even more lethal to the entity was that RIAA could show that Napster used a server that actually directed network traffic and acted as an intermediary between downloading parties by storing links to pirated files found on disk drives belonging to supplying peers.
Napster's legal problems led to its demise, and now it is one of thousands of pay-per-download services with a bright past and a bleak future. Its creator has long since left the company and is working for SNOCAP creating the software that would help distinguish copyrighted contents within a poll of materials distributed over P2P networks.
Many Napster copycats then followed, but they have fully departed from centralized server management and location services, and now comprise peers independent of a central server.
The number of modern free P2P networks is quite sizeable and at the present moment includes such names as KaZaA, Gnutella, BitTorrent, Freenet, eDonkey, Imesh, and many others.
Read next:
Continue to Part II
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