New and improved peer-to-peer

Most discussions about peer-to-peer networking center on the kinds of files that are downloaded and whether it's legal or illegal. What I want to talk about today is the actual technology of peer-to-peer networking and show you how it has evolved and improved over the last several years. To do that, I'm going to give you a simple diagram. I'm going to show you how it used to work and how it works now.

So, let's say in the old days, several years ago I'm over here and I want a file. There's a particular file I want to get and there was a directory here that tells me, you know, connected via the software. Let's just say there are 3 different locations, each of which has that same file here on the hard drive. Once I know that using the software I try to make a connection to one of these and I try to pull that file across and download it. So it's a good early way to be able for people to share files. But if this file is big or if my connection isn't very good, and if this breaks down in the middle, you know, what happens if I lose my connection mid-way through? Well, you know what, the file is worthless. I've got to go out and try to make a connection with another place where that file is located and I could have the same problem. So that's the old way of doing things.

The new and improved way of peer-to-peer networking has the same players. I'm still sitting over here and I want to get a file, and there's a directory that tells me, Hey, there are, let's say 3 locations, each one of which has that same file on its network. But now, I put in a request to get that file and the directory breaks up my request and breaks up the file request into many different pieces and goes out and initiates connections between my machine and these machines and I'm pulling down bits of this file from each one of these and pulling it across so the bandwidth requirements and the constraints on the connection are much lower because I'm only taking bits of it at a time and since I'm tracking the individual pieces of the file.

If at any time I lose this connection, the software can go ahead and point me to another location and I can pick that up. It also know what parts of the file I have and what I don't and it can keep assembling that file and I don't lose any of the stuff I've already done. So what does this tell us? It tells us that the new generation of peer-to-peer networking is more efficient, has a lower failure rate, less stress upon the networks of the players involved and is a much more likely way to get files, especially large files transferred easily.