Peer-to-peer, this simple yet powerful technology amazingly provokes a plethora of emotions from a vast spectrum of people. Otherwise known as p2p, this connection and collaboration tecnology is seen by some as a god send, as an evil thiefing technolgy, as others see it as a cost-efficent form of buisness protocol. P2P has rewritten the status quo of online distribution and networking, from the offices of the corporation to the campus dorm. When everyone is connected to a p2p network, each client becomes both a user and distributor, or in other words a "node." Since there is a lack of a trandial central server, clients instead make direct connects to each other, since everyone can download and upload accordingly. The very first internet, ARPANET, was created not with a tradtionla client/server protocal, but rather with the very first p2p setup, with each node being able to connect and share resources without a centralized server. Since then, P2P has taken off and is today a very provoative technology. Popular with the college students for the way it facilates the sharing of multimedia, it is likewise hated by the executives of the entertainment industry who have been working vicousouy to kill the widespread practice of filesharing. Caught in the middle is the business world, who invision many fantastic positives to implementing the P2P protocal into their business. Either way, p2p is here to stay with it gaining premise each and everyday. .
What is peer-to-peer? .
Some may respond by saying, it's Napster! Well certaintly that is true in point. Roughly, "P2P is symbiotic networking that directly links computers and allows users, or peers, to swap files"( tech industry swoons, p. 1). It allows anyone connected to a P2P network to become a server, or in other words a "node." This node now is able to share whatever it deems fit to share to other clients who are also connected thru the network .