Peer to Peer
From Baruchnewmedia
Contents |
Peer to Peer
Peer to Peer file sharing is a big part of New Media. It allows anyone to share virtually anything in a very cost effective way. Of course, much of the stuff available on Peer to Peer networks is pirated, however it doesn't stop millions of people from using it on a daily basis.
Peer to peer sharing works in a decentralized system where all the peers share information amongst each other. A peer downloads files while at the same time uploading it back and contributing to other users. (Rather than a Server - Client method, where there is one server which just uploads all the files to users who only download.)
Besides pirating movies and music there are other benefits to P2P which you may not even be aware of such as the features offered by Skype and video streaming services such as Joost which uses P2PTV
Beginnings
The need and idea for Peer to Peer started many years back on UseNet, which was a Newsgroups network. This is still actually used to a great deal in the P2P pirating world as it allows much higher download speeds than torrents usually would.
Besides newsgroups another earlier player in the P2P world is IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Before torrents and even before Napster the IRC network EFNET would have thousands of chat rooms where people would exchange files. Depending on your status in the "community" you might have access to FTP servers with high speeds for such files and other things.
Napster to Present
The invention of Napster brought P2P to the mainstream. Before if you wanted to use P2P, you had to be computer inclined. With Napster, any 10 year old was able to download an unlimited amount of songs. This is when the recording industries finally started to see losses and see that P2P was a big problem for them. They were eventually able to get rid of Napster, however things just evolved since then.
Kazaa, Limewire, Gnutella, and more came out to step in for Napster.
Finally, in the last 5 years or so, torrents became widely popular. They offer faster speeds, with easier access and more anonymity than previous programs and can be used by anyone.
Torrents originally started in a small computer programming community looking to share large files efficiently. Other users started seeing how well it worked and it spread like wildfire.
Sites such as The Pirate Bay isoHunt offer basically everything you could ever want to download using torrents.
Other uses for P2P
P2P doesn't necessarily mean file sharing between two users. In reality P2P is just transmission of data from one peer to another.
The idea of P2P works very well with Skype. Skype offers a great service for audio/video communication and chatting while using very little of their own server resources. Their servers are only used for login and account purposes; the actual data transmission is done through you and the person you are talking to. This is VERY efficient.
Also the idea of P2PTV works great with such services as Joost. With P2PTV you do need a server, at least one, which will transmit the data to a certain number of users, now those users while receiving and watching the video will transmit the same data they are watching to other users who want to watch the same thing. This GREATLY reduces the server load and increases the efficiency of the service drastically.
The way a P2PTV system works:
References
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~salman/publications/skype1_4.pdf
