What is P2p or Peer to Peer Networking?

P2P - Peer 2 Peer Networking

Torrents and p2p are the internet’s gifts to us. You’ll understand this as you read on. Torrents and p2p have created some of the very popular and highly controversial sites like old Napster and the current Limewire, which is still engulfed in a massive court case. So why is this so controversial?

P2P, also known as peer-to-peer, is a file sharing network that allows people to “share” files from one computer to another. But first, let’s examine the traditional method. The usual way of downloading a file from a website goes like this—first, you click on a link on a webpage to download a certain file. The web browser software (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox) will tell the server computer, that holds the file that you need, to start copying it to your PC. This entire process is policed by the HTTP and in a short while the file is yours. However, P2P is slightly different. With P2P, instead of using the normal web browser to search for the file, you use a software program to search for computers that have the file(s) you want. These computers are called peers instead of servers because they are your hood buddies, your peers--they are ordinary computers just like yours.

So how does P2P work? Well, it’s still as simple. First, you open the program and type in the file that you want to download. The software searches for other computers that are running the P2P software and are on the internet, and scours their hard drives for the file and then the download begins. Note that they can also get the file from you if it is on your hard drive. However, some selfish people would simply download the files they want and turn off their P2P program, thus making it harder for people to find peer computers. This is called leeching.

Torrents on the other hand are a tad bit different as well. The most popular would arguably be Bit Torrents. Most torrents off-load the files to a main server called a tracker. Another useful thing is its tit-for-tat principle--you have to give one to get one; no more leechers. Another great aspect is the fact that the more files you share, the faster your download speed would be. One more great feature is that Bit Torrent, like most torrents, will download different parts of the file that you want from multiple computers, instead of getting the whole thing from just a single PC, thus making the whole process faster. Remember, both are P2P but torrents are a different kind of P2P.

A Computer Guy

P2P - Peer 2 Peer Networking