A Blog With Unlimited Bandwidth (Beta 1.2)

jcr13 writes "konspire2b is a new content distribution system that essentially turns the standard p2p model upside down. This simple change gives the network several nice properties, including log-bounded distribution times (logarithmic in the number of nodes that receive a file) and a refreshingly different (and somewhat blog-like) user-interaction model. Comparisons have been made to other systems, including BitTorrent (with in-depth analysis), but k2b stands alone as a unique system tackling a different problem than other p2p systems. Recent Slashdot attention gave the network an effective stress test and provided the first real-world measurement results. The new beta1.2 release contains fixes for all of the issues encountered during this traffic surge."

Comments

So so

[indros]

I tried this a couple of weeks ago.. It's so so, but as a user you didn't really have the ability to get files you want, but what other people want you to get, and it seems very unpredictable as far as start time, length of download, etc. Of course it was still beta so I expect to see improvements yet.

OTOH, it's nice just to sit there and let the pr0n roll in.

Works nicely

[Eloquence]

I've been running K2B for the last few days and it's quite impressive (the web-UI could still use some polishing, though). You can choose from several channels to subscribe to, such as "mp3jackpot", and automatically get the latest files broadcast in these channels while your node is running. At this time there are actually no illegal channels, at least I've seen none; the mp3jackpot channel above is run by mp34u, a site where music fans choose and rate freely available songs. Some of them are actually pretty good, and it's about time the net is used more effectively to promote the free music that's floating around.

There's even a channel called "publicdomain4u" which broadcasts very old music from the 1920s and 1930s. If you have something to say, you may consider setting up your own channel on k2b and use it to broadcast text files, music, videos etc. It is possible to share the private key to your channel so you can collaborate with others to broadcast files in it. I for one will be keeping an eye on the new channels that pop up. For those running other p2p clients: K2B doesn't normally take much bandwidth, you can use it in parallel.

P2P broadcasting may very well be the next important development. It's a bit like Usenet, but fully decentralized, and with some quality control (K2B has recommendation channels, and only users who own the channel private key can broadcast files in it, eliminating the spam problem).

Re:Web Based Interface

[dew-genen-ny]

Try MLDonkey

It is a cross p2p network client, capable of connecting to eDonkey/Overnet, Gnutella, Fasttrak, Shareaza, and a whole host of others. It's also a fairly decent BitTorrent client.

It has a very nice html interface, and that is a major bonus, since you can also then set it up so that you can start new files downloading at home, while you're at work (but be careful folks, make sure you've got your setup pretty tight, or I'm sure you'll have script kiddies downloading hardcore pRon for you all night long)

Really can't recommend it enough.

Re:BitTorrent analysis - is it crap?

[kryptkpr]

I'm a developer of a BT client, so I know what I'm talking about here.. and I must defend BT :)

Pretty much the entire analysis of k2b vs BT is wrong. Hell, even the diagram for how BT propagates is wrong.. it isn't a bunch of trees, it's a mesh (check the official BT site)! Everyone is connected to everyone.

BT splits a file into smaller bite-size chunks (256kb - 1MB in size), and then sends these chunks arond. So Alice, instead of sending the whole 512MB file to Bob, only sends him the first 256kb chunk. Then, Alice proceeds to send the second chunk to Joe, who's already downloading the first part from Bob..

This (almost) guarantees that once Alice has sent out 1 full 512MB file, it's already well spread throughout the network and there are MULTIPLE complete sources, not just 1. And if someone leaves/crashes, they can jump right back in.

With BT, you can launch a .torrent, and the file will start coming in right away from many sources at once.. with k2b, -one- of the people who has the file needs to decide that they want to send it to you.

The only "benifit" k2b has is that it's push instead of pull.. and the benifits of that are greatly debatable...

All clients are not created equal

[cryptochrome]

The simplified view of BitTorrent that the author proposes supposes that everyone has a DSL line with identical properties. This is a false and misleading assumption. Some lucky users have bad-ass university broadband, other poor bastards are trapped on modems. The randomized, dynamic, slowest uploader dropping behavior of BitTorrent sees to it that fast clients will eventually find each other, while slow clients will be pushed down to others more appropriate to their level, even as speeds change. As far as I can tell, k2b does not appear to have any way to do that, and T1s can end up trapped behind DSL while cable modems end up squandering their speed on phone modems.

Another point I should make is that as BT makes files easy to distribute not only because it spreads the load, but because it virtually eliminates all of the difficulties of setting up and maintaining a server. In many of these swarms, a large percentage of people actually WANT to help spread the file and are willing to serve much more than just their part. Some of them distributed through other more complex means before (irc bots, hotline servers, etc.) but others never went through the trouble. In any case, it makes it easy (and obligatory) to serve, and so these channels have much more serving power than they ever did before.

Re:WTF is a MiByte?

[nr]

1 KByte = 1000 bytes
1 KiByte = 1024 bytes
1 MByte = 1.000.000 bytes
1 MiByte = 1.048.576 bytes