Peer to Peer: Collaboration and Sharing over the Internet

by Bo Leuf

Released June 2002

Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional

ISBN: 9780201767322

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Book description

“The author has given a well-written and comprehensive overview of several representative peer-to-peer technologies. It is diligently researched and gives a lot of insights into a little-understood subject.”

—Erik Möller, Scientific Review Service and infoArchy.org

“Interesting topic, well organized, engagingly written, excellent illustrations; a good read. I think it does a particularly good job of balancing technical, functional, business, and legal information, and presenting it in a way that is useful for both executive and technical people (which is no mean feat).”

—Mitchel Ahern, Director, Business Development, AdTools Inc./SonyMusic

“It is technical enough that the reader can actually implement or model the methods used in the text. However, it is not presented at such a high level that nontechnical users would get lost in the math.”

—Austin David, Senior Systems Architect, Wink Communications, Inc.

“Peer to Peer offers a contemporary and intelligent insight into the popular technologies that are the building blocks of p2p. It cuts through the media controversy and is a useful resource for exploring these technologies. This book was a pleasant change of pace from my day-to-day technical reading.”

—John Wegis, Engineering Manager, Kana Software, Inc.

"Bo Leuf's book does a particularly good job of balancing technical, functional, business, and legal information, then presenting it in a way that is useful for both the executive and technical reader—no mean feat."—From the foreword by Mitchel Ahern, Director Business Development, AdTools Inc., a Sony Music Company

Moving beyond its grassroot and controversial beginnings, peer to peer (p2p) is now entering the mainstream of Internet communications and business as managers and technology professionals look to tap into the vitality of this widespread communication model. But without a common protocol, tool suite, or single networking structure to facilitate development, harnessing peer-to-peer technology is not a simple task. Peer to Peer: Collaboration and Sharing over the Internet provides the first comprehensive resource to help business and communications professionals get started.

This complete handbook presents everything industry professionals and interested users need to know. Readers will find a clear overview of peer-to-peer concepts, architectural models, and network applications; a practical guide to installation and deployment; information on specific protocols and tools; and discussions on legal and security issues.

Specific topics include:

The history of peer-to-peer network communications

An overview of atomistic, user-centric, data-centric, and leveraged p2p models

Security issues, including firewalls, tunnels, redundancy, and persistence

Legal issues, such as file sharing and intellectual property rights

Trade-offs inherent in various messaging technologies, including ICQ, AIM, and Jabber

File-sharing solutions, including Napster, Gnutella, and Madster

Distributed storage and content distribution p2p solutions, such as MojoNation and Swarmcast

p2p technologies for secure or anonymous publishing of content

New collaborative infrastructure solutions, such as Groove and JXTA

Discussions of legal and monetary issues in the content control wars

The book also includes several case studies that feature enterprise p2p solutions, trust and security issues in peer-to-peer journalism, and integrating peer solutions into the new Web.

Practical, insightful, and thoroughly entertaining, Peer to Peer: Collaboration and Sharing over the Internet brings to light the current and future capabilities of p2p technology and its likely role in the next generation of the Internet.