When peer-to-peer sharing of files first started, they utilized a centralized server to maintain the files. This was to become known as the first generation of P2P networks and is known as the server-client-protocol. When a client wanted a file, they would search the centralized server and in return the server would facilitate the client with a list of other users who have that file.

The two biggest examples of the first generation server-client-protocol P2P networks are that of Napster and eDonkey2000. Although eDonkey decided to become decentralized to update with the times, Napster instead chose the other option which was to become a paid-for service.

In general though, server-client-protocol networks were in existence long before Napster and eDonkey2000. Since the dawn of the internet era, small private communities could use a web server to store their files and facilitate the downloads to other members, but it was Napster who did this on a large enough scale to be noticed by the various copyright authorities who in-turn shut Napster down then began legal proceedings against various teenage youth who often used the network.

There have been numerous server-client-protocol networks throughout the hay day of the first generation of P2P networking. Some of these networks included Audiogalaxy who shut their doors in 2002, Napster who closed in 2001 then reopened as a pay-service, Scour Exchange who was Napster’s biggest competition but has been completely shut down as well as Soulseek which is still up and fully operational with over 120,000 members world-wide.

Although the first generation of P2P networks is considered to be out-dated, they still exist just like the old Atari consoles, their strong following and large community has allowed them to stay around for much longer than most people would have figured.

P2P networks are very popular with not just the young teenage crowd, but many people who you would never expect are involved with the various P2P file sharing networks around the world. You seriously have to think about it though. How would the average teenager get an advanced screening version of a movie before it is available in the theaters? Many of the pirated films of movies in theaters may even have been made right from the projection room.

Regardless of your age, you are always welcome to join in the P2P file sharing revolution and be part of one of the largest communities in the world, the bit torrent community. There are some internet service providers who might go as far as saying that more than 75% of the world is already active in the bit torrent P2P file sharing network. So why aren’t you? The more time goes by, the more you fall behind in the technology. It is changing almost daily and if you wait too long, you may just find yourself on a website looking up a term that is used by the program that you have no clue as to what it means.

Popularity: 21% [?]

With the continuing advancement of the peer to peer file sharing protocols and clients, there was a new need for anonymity in the peer to peer networks. It is on these ideals that brought forth the third generation peer to peer file sharing protocols. The anonymous peer to peer networks! By default these new protocols give pseudonyms to the clients connected to the network which allows for the free flow of information regardless of their legality without the repercussions associated with the data sharing.

As the years go by, more and more governments and copyright authorities have been hounding the users on various peer to peer networks in an attempt to get some type of retribution for the losses associated with sharing copyrighted data. Many of these organizations including the British Phonographic Industry along with the Recording Industry Association of America have managed to bring legal action against peer to peer network users who have utilized a form of peer to peer client that doe not support an anonymous connection.

By using the pseudonyms, one user cannot directly tell who another user is, nor can they distinguish the other party’s IP Address as it is converted into a name to represent that user. Since there is no identifiable information, this for of anonymous file transfer can put a halt to the tracking of downloaders.

Due to the fact that many peer to peer networks do not allow a direct connection from peer to peer but rather all connections are routed through another one, there is no sure way to determine if one user is requesting the data for itself, or for another node in the network.

Even government organizations have funded as well as supported the development of many anonymous tools in order to assist with intelligence gathering without the mole’s worry of repercussion of being found out since it cannot be easily tracked.

There are many pros as well as cons to the allowance of anonymous peer to peer file sharing. While many may like it in order to share copyrighted data, those same people may have problems with certain types of pornographic material that can be transferred using it. There has also been speculation that the anonymous peer to peer networks have also aided in the sharing of terrorist activities and information by using a predetermined set of searchable keywords. There is also a small portion of users who only utilize the peer to peer file sharing for legal issues and not the sharing of copy righted or illegal information and data, albeit small.

Regardless as to the intentions of the various users on the many peer to peer file sharing networks, the file sharing community continues to grow without any hesitation. As each new generation enters into the technological age, many new users will be joining the file sharing community.

As long as there is information to be shared, whether legal or illegal, the peer to peer file sharing networks will continue to grow and advance to overcome any obstacle in their way.

Popularity: 7% [?]

It was 2005 when Gnutella was the third largest file sharing protocol in the world. Even today, Gnutella maintains their rank as the third largest regardless of the fact that FastTrack has declined and the bit torrent protocol has taken over. Gnutella was first developed back in 2000 right after Nullsoft was bought out by American Online. When the program was finished, its release date was announced on Slashdot and the first day it was available, people swarmed the site to download he client applications which were open source.

Due to the fact that AOL now owned Nullsoft, the day after the public release, American Online stopped the project completely due to the possibilities of legal implications. Thanks to the fact that this was released as an open source program, that one day was all that was needed. Within a matter of weeks, the program was reverse engineered and re-released as open source clones. All maintaining the original protocol developed for the Gnutella network.

It was in 2001 when Napster was hit for legal issues, many people left Napster as soon as they found out and chose an alternative. The number one alternative they chose was to use the Gnutella cloned clients. It was because of these Napster refugees, that the Gnutella network discovered its weakness when the entire network began to bottleneck, but thanks to the newly developed FastTrack, Gnutella was redeveloped to include their ultrapeer protocol which prevented future bottlenecks in the network.

By 2001 and 2002 both LimeWire and Morpheus were using the open source Gnutella protocol in their networks as it allowed for a semi-centralized network versus the fulle decentralized bit torrent protocol.

The difference betweek Gnutella and the bit torrent protocol, is that when a client side node is booted up, it searches for ultrapeers. Ultrapeers are nodes that maintain the information of other clients in the network. Basically an Ultrapeer is a client that is never shut down and therefore has a complete list of nodes in the network. It will then try to connect to a certain number of these nodes in the network until it reaches its quota of connections.

Once it makes those connections and compiles it own list, it then takes over the position of the ultrapeer, but only to those node in which it is connected to. Basically a first come first serve basis. The fist node online helps the other nodes connect to each other. From there, in order to build up the database of files, one client would d a search. In this search function, their client contacts only the nodes that they are connected to requesting that file, the nodes it is connected to then forwards the search to the nodes in its connection. Eventually the search goes through the entire network and the number of available sources is slowly reported back to the requesting client application.

Gnutella has come a long way and still maintains its standings in the peer to peer file sharing networks. P2P is here to stay and it is not going anywhere, so regardless of the program and protocol you choose, you are bound to find what you want.

Popularity: 6% [?]

In 2003, the latest peer to peer file sharing protocol was WASTE which had been developed by Justin Frankel who worked with Nullsoft. The name of the protocol was actually decided based on a novel that was written by Thomas Pynchon that was entitled The Crying of Lot 49, in which their was an acronym of the same which stood for “We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire” and was an underground postal service in the novel. In the same way, WASTE is an underground postal service designed to deliver data rather than mail, but it has the same effect of being underground and a means of delivering something.

Right after the development of WASTE, Nullsoft was bought out by American Online. During the initial release of WASTE, the parent company, AOL, realized the possibilities of legal implications and pulled the release from the website. Luckily, since WASTE was an open source project, those who downloaded still made it available long after AOL had attempted to stop the distribution. It did not take long for the source code of WASTE, to get reverse engineered and implemented into many other peer to peer file sharing clients that are still available today.

Since the time when American Online pulled the release of WASTE, many of the original development team has gathered to covertly maintain the protocol in which the only true source of this project is still available in its originality at Source Forge. Source Forge is the home to many of the open source peer to peer file sharing clients. Thanks to Source Forge, these open source projects can stay open source since there is no cost to the developer. For a long time, many have believed that the internet should be free and anything within its domain should be conformed with this belief. It is with this idealism that many of the internets best software is open source and can even be found there at that site.

WASTE offers many of the same features that virtually any peer to peer file sharing protocol and client share, but is an anonymous client with built in chat capabilities. Chatting has always helped during the downloading process. There is an entire community of people out there who enjoy using the peer to peer file sharing clients and some are always looking to talk about their hobby. Feel free to start a chat will a fellow file sharer and keep the internet free.

Popularity: 5% [?]

There are many peer to peer file sharing protocols out there and even more variations of the original open source code, many of these are anonymous, while still many are not. One of the anonymous peer to peer file sharing programs out there is known as ANts and is written in Java back in 2004.

The ANts peer to peer file sharing program and protocol is an open source peer to peer file sharing protocol that encrypts all incoming and outgoing connections between clients in the network which makes the detection of the originating IP Address extremely difficult. The Java based peer to peer file sharing program is automatically updating and features not only point to point encrypting, but also end to end encryption as well. The software also makes multiple connection paths in order to route packets of data easier encase a node is lost. This makes the network redundant and less prone to failure and bottle neck incidents. It will automatically give preference to faster connections allowing them to be more than equal and to become part of the network’s backbone as a super node.

ANts is also capable of supporting the eDonkey links for downloading and features a built-in automatic searching capabilities. Like many other peer to peer file sharing protocols, is can support has and can fully index your files if you want t to. The network can also use a chat service; however, this chat capability is not anonymous.

All of the queries are asymmetrically encrypted so that only the original query source can view the results. Although anyone can read the query strings, the asymmetric approach means that anything another node reads, can not be interpreted by the average human mind.

In order to ensure that a node stays anonymous, all files are transferred across several nodes and the system never allows a direct download from another. All of this has been done in order to prevent another client from figuring out your client’s true location. Furthermore, ANts allows you to run a proxy such as TOR along side of the client side Java program to help further the inability to determine the originating IP address of any user.

Much effort has gone in to ensuring that not only is the network redundant in order to prevent failures, but is also completely anonymous in order to protect the various node from detection not only from their ISP, but from anyone who may be watching downloads. Unlike some peer to peer networks in existence today, their have been virtually no incidents reported in which an ANts user has had legal charges brought up against them for downloading or sharing copyrighted data.

This is not to say it is impossible, but it is not easy in the least.

Popularity: 7% [?]