Gnutella: First among equals

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Author: JT Smith

NewSecientist.com has a feature on Gnutella. “Gnutella was designed to create a more pure peer-to-peer network. The first version
removed the need for Napster’s central servers by sending requests for files to every
computer on the network …

Ironically, Gnutella is now moving back to a system reminiscent of Napster. Recent
refinements to Gnutella and related software reduce the burden on the network by
stopping clients with slow connections acting as servers. Instead, proxy servers – called
reflectors – host information for the slower clients and reduce the overall strain on the
network.”