|
Gnutella is a free, open source project to create a true peer-to-peer file sharing network. Such a network would be a fully distributed alternative to semi-centralized systems like Napster. To date (February 2000), Gnutella has not achieved widespread success, due primarily to problems of scalability. |
|
Gnutella is a free, open source project to create a true peer-to-peer file sharing network. Such a network would be a fully distributed alternative to semi-centralized systems like Napster. Initial popularity of the network was spurred on by Napster's threatened legal demise. This growing surge in popularity showed serious flaws in the inital protocols scalabilty. In early 2001 some variations on the intial protocol by closed source groups allowed scalabilty to improve somewhat. This returned the network into a useable file sharing medium and once again this has caused a surge in its popularity. |
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)