(6/29/2009)
The audio book broadcast listings at
gutterstar.net/streaming have been updated. The new broadcast includes: Horizon Storms, by Kevin J. Anderson.
All of these scripts are plug-ins for the Jaws For Windows screen reader. System requirements are listed with each download, and complete script documentation is included within the script download, as well as on the website for your convenience.
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File sharing usually follows the
peer-to-peer
(P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. Most people who engage in file sharing on the Internet both provide
(upload) files and receive files (download).
P2P file sharing is distinct from file trading in that downloading files from a P2P network does not require uploading, although some networks either provide
incentives for uploading such as credits or forcing the sharing of files being currently downloaded. Napster started this whole wave and has since became
a legal spot for downloads with a fee schedule.
The first generation of peer-to-peer file sharing networks had a centralized file list. In the centralized peer-to-peer model, a user would send a search
to the centralized server of what they were looking for. The server then sends back a list of peers that have the data and facilitates the connection and
download.
The first file-sharing programs marked themselves by inquiries to a server, either the data to the download held ready or in appropriate different
Peers
and so-called
Nodes
further-obtained, so that one could download there. Two examples were
Napster
(today using a pay system) and
eDonkey2000
in the server version (today likewise with
Overnet
and
KAD
- network decentralized).
Webhosting
is also used for file sharing, since it makes it possible to exchange privately. In small communities popular files can be distributed very quickly and
efficiently. Web hosters are independent of each other; therefore contents are not distributed further. Other terms for this are one-click hosting and
web-based sharing.
File Sharing On The Social Graph
Recently,
Facebook
opened up its
API
to 3rd party developers that has allowed for a new type of file-sharing service to emerge. Box.net and FreeDrive.com
[3]
are two examples of companies that have specific Facebook Applications that allow file sharing to be easily accomplished between friends.
Server-client-protocols
• Audiogalaxy
- Service ended in the middle of 2002.
• Direct Connect
• Napster
- Closed in its original form in July 2001, since changed to a fee-based service.
• Scour Exchange
- The second exchange network after Napster. No longer exists.
• Soulseek
- Still popular today despite being relatively old, with more than 120,000 users online at any time.
• TinyP2P
- 15 lines
Python
- SOURCE code
• WinMX
- The original Frontcode servers were switched off in
September 2005
, but alternate servers can be used by installing MXPie Patch. MXPie Patch and WinMX can be downloaded at
MXPie.com.
list end
Second P2P-Generation: Decentralization
After Napster encountered legal troubles,
Justin Frankel
of Nullsoft set out to create a network without a central index server, and Gnutella was the result. Unfortunately, the Gnutella model of all nodes being
equal quickly died from bottlenecks as the network grew from incoming Napster refugees.
FastTrack
solved this problem by having some nodes be 'more equal than others'.
By electing some higher-capacity nodes to be indexing nodes, with lower capacity nodes branching off from them, FastTrack allowed for a network that could
scale to a much larger size. Gnutella quickly adopted this model, and most current peer-to-peer networks implement this design, as it allows for large
and efficient networks without central servers.
Also included in the second generation are
distributed hash tables
(DHTs), which help solve the scalability problem by electing various nodes to index certain hashes (which are used to identify files), allowing for fast
and efficient searching for any instances of a file on the network. This is not without drawbacks; perhaps most significantly, DHTs do not directly support
keyword searching (as opposed to exact-match searching).
The best examples are
Gnutella,
Kazaa
or
eMule
with
Kademlia
, whereby Kazaa has still a central server for logging in.
eDonkey2000/
Overnet
, Gnutella,
FastTrack
and
Ares Galaxy
have summed up approx. 10.3 million users (as of April 2006, according to slyck.com). This number does not necessarily correspond to the actual number
of persons who use these networks; it must be assumed that some use multiple clients for different networks.
Multi-Network-Clients
See
Multi-network applications
Further networks or clients
See
other networks
Third P2P-Generation: indirect and encrypted
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