P2P in Detail - File Sharing

Today I'll be giving a more detailed example to how File Sharing clients, like Ares and LimeWire, work. These clients are used mostly for downloading music. Torrents are still used more than P2P clients, but clients are still widespread and are used a lot anyways.

How do these clients work?

There are different clients that use different P2P networks. Some of the more known networks are Gnutella and eDonkey. If you've read my previous post, you should have a good idea of how files are shared in BitTorrent networks. The same concept is used here. Let's say a guy is using Ares P2P client. Most P2P clients ask you to share a folder on your computer. This means the files in that folder are uploaded whenever someone requests to download the file. If you're connection is off, he won't be able to leech the files from you. More uploaders means higher download speed.

The files in your shared folder are connected to your clients' network. LimeWire, for example, uses Gnutella. Gnutella was and still is one of the most used P2P networks to date. It is being used in around 10 clients including: LimeWire, BearShare and Shareaza. The client uploads these files to the network, where people can search for them and download them from you. If there are more than one file under the same name as yours, the download speed increases. Once you shut your connection or computer, the files stop uploading and people can't download it anymore (unless someone else is sharing the same file).

eDonkey works a bit differently than other networks. You first have to connect to a server, before you can start searching for files. Each server has a user limit. Once a certain number of users is reached, you won't be able to connect to it anymore. Most of the other networks don't need you to connect to servers, but eDonkey clients have a larger variety of files than other networks.

This is a simple introduction, so you can understand how the system works. There are many networks other than Gnutella and eDonkey, but these two are the most used in File Sharing clients.

Where can I get a client; How do I use it?

1. Check out this link for a list of clients.

2. Once you've downloaded one of the clients, install it then click on the Search button.

3. Always check for the highest number of sharers; the higher, the better.

4. Enjoy!

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