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% [?]

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% [?]

The Invisible Internet Project, or I2P for short, is an open source peer to peer file sharing protocol that allows for a 100% redundant yet still anonymous peer to peer network. I2P is a layer that can be added to another peer to peer application to allow a simple, yet secure connection between nodes. These nodes can then have their own blogs, file transfers and even surf the internet completely anonymously.

The Invisible Internet Project uses a message based connection or IP. This is not to be confused with an IP address but rather, when you hear the term TCP-IP it is that IP. It is also capable of handling library add-ons which are similar to TCP and can now even utilize UDP connections.

The system then encrypts the data using a pair of encrypted keys that can then later decrypt the data on your computer thus making your connections secure and anonymous. While I2P may not technically fall in the peer to peer file sharing network, it has been added due to the fact that it has been designed to run in conjunction with them. You can also use the I2P with Usenet, IRC, E-mail and many other internet based applications that you may need a secure or anonymous connection with.

Even though the Invisible Internet Project is in development, they have also asked that due to the issues associated with high profile sites like Slashdot, they have asked not to be publicized until the program is fully tested and ready. As of current the Invisible Internet Project is a Super Alpha program.

But like many other applications that are associated with file sharing, the Invisible Internet Project will most likely see the use as a form of making anonymous downloads of copyrighted data. As long as there is music and over priced data, movie and music files, there will always be piracy, and there will always be the need for a more secure file sharing application. Already, many people that have used the bit torrent families of peer to peer file sharing applications have had legal charges brought against them in various counties since the network is not anonymous. The Invisible Internet Project will allow one to use a bit torrent client, or any peer to peer file sharing software for that matter, with complete anonymity.

This is just one of many steps that are being taken to help advance the file sharing networks and protect the users from possible court cases. As time goes by, many copyright authorities will go the extra mile in an attempt to shut down these file sharing networks, but unfortunately, the more they try, the more that members of the peer to peer file sharing networks will stand up and make advancements in the security of the network that will be able to countermeasure anything the copyright authorities can come up with.

Although they will not say so, as there is always a legitimate way to use all these protocols, the sole intention in these peer to peer file sharing protocols and security protocols is to help their clients download any file they want to download without having to over pay for them.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The idea of encryption when it comes to the various Peer-To-Peer networks, was created in an attempt to allow the continuous and uninterrupted use of the bit torrent and other P2P clients. They need to be continuous and uninterrupted due to the fact that various ISP have been trying to stop the use of bit torrent and P2P clients on their network due to excessive bandwidth usage.

You have mainly 3 different forms of encryption for the bit torrent and P2P networks. These three include the PE or protocol encryption, the MSE or Message Stream Encryption as well as the PHE or Protocol Header Encryption. The ones that are more commonly found in the bit torrent clients is the Message Stream Encryption and the Protocol Encryption.

Since the various Peer-To-Peer clients’ traffic make up an average of 1/3 of the entire internet traffic, many ISPs, rather than increasing their allotments, do what’s known as throttling the signal. In other words, the slip fake connections into the data stream which causes the client to stop connecting with other clients. The various encryption capabilities, make it harder for the ISP to detect and locate a particular stream of bit torrent connections and therefore can not throttle the connection.

Although one of the oldest, the PHE is not widely used anymore due to the fact that it only encrypted part of the stream and therefore could still be detected. Originally debut in 2005, it was quickly replaced by the MSE form of encryption only a year later.

First seen on the Azureus bit torrent client software in 2006, the Message Stream encryption completely encrypts the entire data stream making it virtually invisible to the various ISPs that throttle traffic.

Within a matter of only days after the creation of the Message Stream Encryption, it was picked up and adopted by many bit torrent clients even though it was not finished yet and still lacked some key components to its design. This form of encryption had many problems which included the incapability to hash check some files, but ist would later be remedied and become a part of the main stream bit torrent client networks.

By the end of 2006, almost all bit torrent clients had adopted the Message Stream Encryption, coupled with the Protocol Encryption and the Protocol Header Encryption slowly died off.

Although this for of encryption is by no means strong, as it is only 60 bits, it was intended to be fast. It dose just that. It allows for you to literally make thousands of simultaneous connections that are virtually invisible to the various ISPs around the world. This is not to say that the ISP will not find a way around it, they will eventually, but till that happens, this form of encryption is considered to be the best suited. When the eventuality occurs, a new for of encryption will be designed and released. It is for this reason, that you should always make sure to maintain the updates and patches for you bit torrent client. You never know who maybe watching you online.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In order to allow the transfer of bit torrent files between the many peers on the bit torrent networks, the concept of web seeding was introduced. This is by far one of the most important aspects of the bit torrent content delivery. Basically, what this involved, was a web server that maintained the .torrent or tracker files. From this server, one could visit the site and look for the file they wanted and download the tracker file.

While still today, many people have opted to utilize the HTTP download protocol, but some people still prefer to save money. To do so, a programmer who created a new public use program, could upload the .torrent file to a web server, give a description and then when someone wanted to download that file. They would get a bit torrent client, download the .torrent file then actually download it from the developer’s own personal computer. This saved a lot of money in terms of monthly bandwidth allotments that most if not all web servers regulate.

Then to further help the network, each client on the network sends out an RSS feed of all the sharable files on their hard rive with the rest of the world. This would allow someone to connect with others in the network, by querying the RSS feed for the hash key of that particular bit torrent file.

This RSS feed is also encrypted and the hash key allows for uncorrupted file exchanges. Changing a file by just 1 bit, can drastically change the hash key, and therefore helped prevent someone from inserting a virus into an already released bit torrent file.

Furthermore, thanks to the use of an RSS feed, any site who uses an XML file can bring up the torrents and make them available to the rest of the world without even having the particular .torrent tracker file on their servers.

Today, many site use integrated PHP and API programming to make the use of the RSS feed that is created by the bit torrent network’s protocol. The main reason is very obvious. That is to simply help spread the use of the bit torrent network as well as the ability to help spread a file out quicker and easier which allows for faster downloads of virtually any type of bit torrent file.

The internet is about community, people and files. The largest community on the web today is that of the bit torrent network. Regardless of which bit torrent client you are using, if it is on the bit torrent protocol, then you are part of something big. Very big in fact. The bit torrent network has such a large network, and it is only getting larger and stronger by the day. The larger it gets, the easier it will be to share content with the world.

Popularity: 2% [?]