BitTorrent is another p2p application that has fast caught on the fancy of the p2p community. It uses the same concept of networking but is a little different in the way it needs to be operated. Even with BitTorrent, you will need to download and install the software before you start using it.

Once you have installed the software, you will need to locate a Web site that will let you download an archive header or a .torrent file. There are a number of such sites that have updated file lists and let you download the header files, which add to the client software and then download the complete archive. This file contains a location that tells the BitTorrent client where to go to find the tracker that manages the uploading and downloading of the archive.



Once you have downloaded the .torrent file, your BitTorrent client will kick in and connect to a managing computer that then connects you to others who have the files. So why would you want to go to Web sites first to download the header file? What makes this network different from any other? Speed. This is the biggest advantage on the Torrent network.

Unlike earlier P2P networks, downloading using this network is a dream since you are only limited by bandwidth and the number of seeds available. If both are high, rest assured, downloading gigabytes of data is all in a day’s work.



The Web sites listing the torrents are called indexing sites and have become very popular. Their popularity has come at a cost, though with the MPAA and law enforcement agencies shutting them down. There is also no shortage of sites to go to so long as you know which are currently being used, as they come and go rather quickly these days. Most indexing sites have a system of listing the number of Seeders and Leechers for a particular archive. Seeder(s) are those users who have at least one complete copy of the archive with them and are sharing it on the BitTorrent network.However, for any user’s download to complete, you will need at least one seeder who has the complete copy. Under certain circumstances though, there may be no one seeder but enough people with all the parts to make up the whole archive, which is called a distributed copy.



Leecher is a user who starts downloading from the BitTorrent network and then carries on downloading by connecting to different seeders. In the BitTorrent network, though, a leecher is part of the network and is uploading as well, many times more KB than they download. This ensures that all users on the network get an equal opportunity to download the file. BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 are the most used networks today. Web sites and forums that support the use and expansion of this network and community are available and there are new users getting their first taste of P2P every single day. However, there is a concern regarding the existence of these software and community. How long will these networks survive given the legal system (read American hegemony) and big American corporations worldwide who are trying to put an end to P2P once and for all.

The “Digital Millennium Copyright Act Of 1998” The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was enacted in 1998 and is an extension of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conference. Simply put, this act lets US companies protect their works from being abused in any manner using legal action. There are certain clauses in the law that let companies take individuals or organisations to court, who they think are infringing on the copyrights of their artists or their work.


The main benefactors of this act are the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) who have their legal eagles keep an eye on the P2P community. There have been a number of instances where the DMCA Act has led to the closure of a number of P2P Web sites and individuals and groups have been sued and sentenced by the court, thanks to the DMCA act.

However, some countries, especially the Nordic and Asian ones do not have a legal framework in place that will prevent the distribution of software or applications or music using the network. These countries are the ones responsible for keeping the P2P community alive. But with growing US pressure, the future seems uncertain. Is this warranted, though? To an extent, yes. If you are someone who burns the midnight oil to get a fantastic music album out on the streets only to find it being pirated and sold online or downloaded for free by people, our guess is you will go the legal way. But that does not mean P2P is illegal.

There are Web sites available that let you download 100 per cent legal software, movies and music. Agreed, these are few in number, but it is a beginning. Another factor that makes business sense is the downloading of software that takes place from Web sites. Using BitTorrent, this can be done much faster and also be spread to other users. Therefore, the bottomline is that P2P software can be put to good use. Will it catch on? That is a question, which can be answered only a few years on from now.


Read more...

eDonkey was released in September 2000 and was hence tagged with the name eDonkey2000. It started out as a very small community but the subsequent fall of Napster and growing problems on the Kazaa network, suddenly made this software one of the 
most viable clients for the P2P network. 

What took off slowly suddenly became a storm that brought down the P2P planet. If you were one of the hip crowd, you just had to know what eDonkey2000 was!




eDonkey2000 was a third generation P2P software by a small developer group who called themselves MetaMachine. eDonkey was based on the same centralised server concept as Napster, but there was one vital difference. 
Emule, a freeware client for the eDonkey 2000 network Napster had all their servers located at a single location in Silicon Valley, CA. MetaMachine, though, went the opposite direction and released their server software in the community. It was akin to letting salt dissolve in water with the water being the P2P community. 

Now it became the community’s responsibility to take care of the server and update it with the latest information to attract more users to use the software. MetaMachine develops the technology, but it is the responsibility of the community to maintain the network. 






The eDonkey network requires some maintenance for operating at optimum levels. First, every user needs to install the eDonkey2000 client and then download the server.met file from a 
specified website. This file contains the latest information of all the servers available and provides server address to the client software so that it can connect to faster and live servers. 



Once that is done, the client makes a connection with a server and gets connected to the network. Now you can use the integrated search box in the client to search for whatever you want ranging from applications to movies to albums to just about anything. Other applications that are modified eDonkey2000 clients and utilising the same network are eMule, Shareaza, aMule, eMule plus, Morpheus and many more for the Windows platform. For Macs, you can use software such as hydranode, iSwine and of course eMule and aMule versions for Macs. Similar clients are also available for Linux. 







The eDonkey network set the standard for hashing files. What is file hashing? Hashing is the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string. Hashing is used to index and retrieve items in a database because it is faster to find the item using the shorter hashed key than to find it using the original value.

So, if you have a database of Digit magazines consisting of records of articles from June 2001 to July 2005, trying to access data by typing in “Digit-February 2002-Insight-Quick Start-30 Minutes Expert” you will be better off by giving this a shorter value such as “DigFeb02-IN- QS-30". Not only will the search be faster but also be better indexed which will let retrieve data faster. 



Now imagine the same thing being done with over a billion files on a network. There is bound to be confusion and ultimately chaos. Therefore, what happened was each file that was uploaded to the edonkey network was hashed uniquely and checked and then made available. 



This made downloads simple, quicker and reliable. But the same problems that affected the Kazaa network, which were spyware, viruses and Trojans, also affected the eDonkey network. To overcome this, the community came out with Web sites that listed verified content that was being made available on the eDonkey2000 network. Since all of these downloads were verified 
and checked, there was a large reduction in the number of fake applications and the network survived. 




Once again, though, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) swung into action and started proceedings for legal action against several network communities and the process still goes on. With all of this going on, something was coming and it promised to revolutionise...


Read more...

The difference between download options offered by Kazaa and Napster was massive. While Napster only indulged in song swapping, Kazaa was a virtual pirate bay. Any application-music, video, documents that was shared on a computer could be accessed (as long as the data was kept in “My Shared Folder” in the Kazaa directory. Plus, an mprovement in the network performance due to a decentralised system allowed users to download anything they wanted with ease.


Users who could understand file-sharing had a lethal and potent software at their disposal, which would get them everything that they wanted without paying a penny in the process (of course, not considering the Internet access charges). Suddenly, everything was on Internet.





You want Windows XP, connect and download it. You want Shrek the movie, connect and download it. You want Sheryl Crow’s music, connect and download! Everyone had everything and the share and share alike adage was catching on like bushfire. What also got Kazaa going was a deluge of Web sites that were dedicated on making Kazaa the only place to get software and other stuff. Links on these websites could be clicked on and would be automatically added to the software saving users the pain of sifting through junk results thrown up by the internal search in Kazaa. Nevertheless, there was an inherent problem that users were not aware of and which became public only later.

The Kazaa client that users installed in their computers had a spyware that would pass on personal, sensitive information to Sharman Networks. When this became public, there was a huge public outrage and people suddenly started using alternatives such as iMesh, Grokster and Kazaa Lite K++. While iMesh and Grokster were similar software using the same network, Kazaa Lite K++ was a hacked Kazaa without the spyware and all the modifications which made it one of the best P2P clients ever.




However, there was one problem. Sharman Networks quickly made this software illegal and users using this software started getting low results and download speeds were capped making it excruciatingly slow for users of Kazaa Lite K++. However, other software such as iMesh and Grokster kept users enticed and downloads all over the planet reached a peak in 2003 with over 140 million PCs connected to the network at any given time using one or the other version of software. Other than the spyware issue, there were many other issues plaguing Kazaa users. Primary amongst these were the fake files that people started getting after finishing a download.




Other issues included viruses and spyware planted in downloaded programs which only became evident after programs started malfunctioning or the system started misbehaving. There was no solution for this and the only solution was to download and scan and check all software.Music companies by this time were hopping mad and soonenough, they started closely monitoring the FastTrack network,which is being carried on even at this point in time. Eventually, music companies started flooding the network with fake music files with authentic tagging information to discourage downloads. Software companies followed suit and the legal battle ensued.


The battle rages to this day with the recent MGM versus Grokster case, where the Supreme Court ruled that Grokster was actually violating copyright laws and issued an order against it. Soon enough, users started trying other software, which included
eDonkey and the recent BitTorrent.


Read more...

Kazaa is a file-sharing software similar to Napster barring minor differences. Firstly, Kazaa is second-generation P2P software and is not based on the centralised server principle. This particular software is based on the FastTrack network and is currently owned by the Australia-based Sharman Networks. Niklas Zennstrom from Sweden and Janus Friis from Denmark, though, were the original programmers who invented KaZaA. The FastTrack network supports other P2P clients such as iMesh, Grokster and Kazaa Lite K++.

kazza
The principle utilised in the FastTrack network is simple. There is no centralised server. Instead of a central indexing server, the FT network dynamically assigns indexing features to other connected nodes or peers based on criteria such as machine uptime, data availability and system performance. These peers are called Supernodes and it is to these machines that other peers or nodes are connected.


There are a large number of supernodes present on a network at any given time and clients or peers connect to any available Supernode irrespective of the priority of the client. As long as there is a Supernode available on the network, you can be connected. The principle of having a Supernode on the network increases scalability without affecting network performance and also catering to a large number of users at the same time.


Read more...

This article has been moved to

Napster - The ultimate Software for Downloading Music





Read more...



P2P is a strange topic to talk about since in normal network jargon it refers to connecting computers across the network to share resources and in some cases, to work as one (cluster computing). In this section, we will talk about P2P software and its history. What attracts users across cyberspace to this and what is the software available and why are the authorities working overtime to make P2P a thing of the past? All that and more as we move on. The traditional way of networking is client-server architecture. In this type, there are dedicated computers (servers) which let other computers (clients) access it and use its resources. In the P2P type,all computers are connected to a network and at any point of time any computer can act as a server and another computer that uses its resources is the client.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing is based on this protocol. When you install software such as Napster or Kazaa on your computer and access the Internet, it connects to other computers to download any stuff that you have searched using the client.Based on this protocol, Napster was launched in May 1999. This was the first P2P software but not in the truest sense of the word. This was because it still needed users to connect to a central server and once the client was identified, further file transfer was passed on to the nodes. This was furthered by software such as Kazaa and eDonkey. However, with each new software came a different implementation of the technology. We will talk about this when we go and pick apart each of the software.

Since 1999, there have been many changes in the P2P world. Napster has since closed down owing to a ruling by the American courts. Napster is still available, but in a form where it is no longer attractive enough for P2P users. Newer P2P software such as BitTorrent has reared its head in recent years and is the latest rage amongst P2P users. Filling the gap between Napster and BitTorrent was eDonkey, which was going strong until BitTorrent appeared. eDonkey is still pretty much available, but its favourite rating amongst users has dropped to a very large extent.

In the coming section, we will discuss the most used P2P software worldwide and how to use them. But before you start reading it, remember that downloading illegal stuff of the Internet such as movies or music you do not own or do not have a copyright of is illegal.

We do not condone such activities and the information provided here is only for the sake of informing you as a reader and not to give you ways of downloading stuff illegally. Please be aware of what is legal on the Internet and steer clear of activities that could potentially land in you in jail. With that said lets look at the software mentioned above and understand how it works.


Read more...


‘Blog’ is Internet lingo for a ‘Web log’. As the name suggests, it’s for logging your activities on the Net, something like your personal Web diary. To put it more elaborately, a blog is a Web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (usually in reverse chronological order). Although most early Web logs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of somesort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of‘blogging’.



Blogs cover a wide range of topics, from individual diaries to political campaigns, media programs, and even audio updates like a radio station. A blog may be authored by a single individual or by a collaboration of a large community of writers. Sites such as Gizmodo.com are essentially blogs. Many blogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centred on the blog. Like any technological community, the bloggers’ community, too, has developed a language of its own. The totality of Web logs or blog-related Web sites is often called the blogosphere.


When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere,it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm. So who were the precursors of these phenomena? Electronic communities existed before internetworking. For example, the Associated Press newswire was, in effect, similar to a large chat room where there were ‘wire fights’ and electronic conversations. Another pre-digital electronic community—amateur (or ‘ham’) radio—allowed individuals who set up their own broadcast equipment to communicate with others directly. Ham radio also had logs called ‘glogs’, which were personal diaries made using wearable computers in the early 1980s.


Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, e-mail lists and bulletin boards. In the 1990s, Internet forum software such as WebX created running conversations with threads. Many of the terms from Web logging were created in these earlier media. The term ‘Weblog’ was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. The shorter version, ‘blog’, was coined by Peter Merholz. One of the most popular blogging tools, Blogger, was developed at around this time by Pyra Labs. Google purchased this sometime in 2003 and launched blogspot.com, one of the world’s most extensively used blog sites.


Blogging rose to major prominence during the aftermath of the tsunami that struck South-east Asia in December 2004. A number of relief operations were co-ordinated using blogs. This led to blogs gaining prominent media status. The idea of distributed journalism also caught on because of this.

Blogging today is something as common as using e-mail. Moreover, a number of news sources are looking at tapping the ever-increasing number of journalists who use their blogs as points for dispensing information.


Read more...

A general reader might be forgiven for thinking that apart from online shopping and corporate Web sites, the Internet is just a teenager’s paradise. This is not true, though—the get-rich-quick brigade has found that the Internet is a very nifty tool to dabble around in the stock market.

Sites such as 5paisaonline.com and ICICIDirect.com let you sell and buy shares online. All you need to do is open a trading account with them. The Internet also allows you to buy and sell shares live as the market moves without the help of the broker. All you have to do is install software from a broking house such as Sharekhan, and lo and behold, you have a trading terminal. You can now go and make those much-desired millions or lose all your money to the vagaries of the stock market.


Read more...