| We’ll
start with a little background on peer to peer networking,
so you know a little about what you’ll be working with.
A P2P computer network is a network that relies on the computers
and internet connections of the participants (you and your
computer) in the network, rather than servers.
A pure peer-to-peer
network does not have actual clients or servers, only equal
“peer” computers that simultaneously function
as both "clients" and "servers" to the
other computers on the network. Since there is no central
location or computer, there is nothing to “shut down.”
All clients provide resources, including bandwidth, storage
space, and computing power. So, as new users arrive and demand
on the system increases, the total capacity of the system
also increases. Many people sharing the same files is like
an automatic backup, so there is no single point of failure
in the system.
So, basically P2P
is a “web” of computers that are connected and
share files and information. These networks have millions
of users with billions of files. The redundancy of the network
insures that the whole thing will not “crash”
if one computer or a hundred go down.
There are a few
different networks you can use. I'll show you some clients
(programs) you should use to access each network, and some
setup, installation and search tips.
The programs below
are all extremely easy to use, and very simple. They are the
easiest of the P2P programs. Once up and running, all of your
searching and downloading is done from one program.
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