What is Peer 2 Peer?

Peer to peer is a form of network where all the participants provide one another with resources. Everyone gives and receives resources (bandwidth, storage, processing power) or knowledge (facts, opinions, techniques).

There are many existing p2p communities on the web. At any given time there are seven million people sharing or downloading files using systems such as fast track (kazaa, grokster), Gnutella (Limewire, Bearshare) and eDonkey (eMule, MlDonkey).

Why use a P2P structure to distribute audio-visual works over the net? A search for independent or critical material rarely yields anything but disappointment. Instead the products of the marketing and promotion

V2V is a community of people who share resources such as storage space and bandwidth and form communites of video users and producers based on a shared user-assembled infrastructure. This allows the widespread distribution of video at a speed otherwise accessible only corporate groups who pay large sums and have favourable deals to provide their files.

How is the speed of my download determined? Some systems transfer files directly from one user to another - this limits the speed of the line to that of the slower user. Later versions simultaneously download from different locations and thus reach faster speeds. The best systems also allow the sharing of partially downloaded files. Some people don't share their files and just download - this reduces the transfer capacity of a given file in the network. Bit torrent obliges users to share the files that they are downloading, increasing the speed.

What is the difference between Gnutella, Fast-Track, EDonkey and Bit Torrent? Each system uses different methods to search and download files

What are P2P links?

What is hashing and why is it useful? Hashing is the process of generating a cryptographic checksum unique to a given file. The hash is a function of the number and organisation of bits in the file; thus two files of the same size will still have different cryptographic hashes.

Hashing is useful in file sharing due to the prevalence of corrupted files on the networks. Sometimes these are fakes inserted by users but the media and entertainment companies are now employing companies to propagate these useless files in the network with the intention of annoying the file-sharing community. Cryptographic hashes allow us to verify the contents of a file before it is downloaded -- as long as the source of the cryptographic hash can be verified.

How do I play these files?

What is a release group?

Release groups developed amongst those making available the first copies of digital works, transferring video or DVD to a compressed format and securing servers to function as an initial distribution layer, so that the load of data created by demand on its availability is spread between sources. Usually they then produce a cryptographic checksum so that the authenticity of the file can be guaranteed - preventing the downloading of a corrupted or misnamed file. This checksum is then posted on a webpage and the user can then use it to search the file sharing network.

Where can I get news on the politics of peer2peer and on the latest file-sharing programs?Infoanarchy is probably the most interesting site covering peer 2 peer news and reviews of innovative applications.

Zeropaid and Slyck are the best sources for breaking news.

Zeropaid also provides a useful to the applications available under different operating systems: Macintosh: http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php?frm_where=1&frm_where_type=mac

Windows: http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php?frm_where=1&frm_where_type=win

Linux: http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php?frm_where=1&frm_where_type=nix