P2P twists
The term P2P has been around in the networking world for years, but the latest twist on this technology adds two new factors to the definition: applications designed to specifically exploit peer relationships, and using the Internet as an extension of the local network. Napster, for example, enhances the P2P process with a user interface that runs outside the browser window to let users share and download files over the Internet. Napster gains efficiencies by aggregating the distributed storage capacity of all the client systems.
Other P2P applications use a similar strategy to gather unused resources (either processing power, memory, or storage space) from computers connected to the Internet and then apply them to a specific task. SETI@home, for example, is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Users willing to install the client program allow SETI to co-opt computing cycles from their computers when they're not using them. Then, SETI steps in and analyzes radio telescope data in its search for life on other planets.
Other popular pure P2P systems include Popular Power, Freenet, Gnutella, and Aimster. Each leverages unused resources of various computers connected to the Internet. For example, SETI uses processing power, and Napster uses storage because songs are stored on a central network.
Despite proliferating P2P-related technologies, many are wondering what P2P's big hook is.
