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Using P2P for Legitimate Applications?

Posted by Cliff on from the not-just-for-mp3s-and-pr0n dept.

scum-o asks: "Where I work, we move a lot of large weather data around and there's always a question of whether someone's already found the data that I need to use (many projects use the same data, but it needs to get refreshed several times a day). My brilliant idea was to use a P2P-like network to search for already-existing data and use that in my app (and if none found, go to the original source). My company has a fast network and I'd much rather have my app suck the data from someone else in my company who's already grabbed the data as opposed to pounding on the public ftp server (which is slow and horribly abused each day). Has anyone found any way to use the P2P-network for legitimate reasons other than just file swapping/sharing and stuff? Also, how would I go about this, can I just grab a gnutella API and start searching?"

9 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Get Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...and stop reinventing the wheel.

    It won't be a solution, because after a while people will get used to having the network and being able to find the documents on other people's machines, and they will ask for text searching, version control, and so on. Not sure what Microsoft wants for the Sharepoint and what are the Linux alternatives, but it seems to be worth it in your case.

  2. Why do you want to make things more complex? by 1in10 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's wrong with the simple solution of just putting a proxy server in to cache the data from the original site?

  3. What about Nullsoft WASTE? by Nagatzhul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't that what it was designed for in the first place? Peer to peer file sharing in a trusted enviornment?

    --
    "All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
  4. you've got it backwards by Feztaa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    File sharing is "illegitimate" because of the files, not the sharing.

    If you're a small garage band trying to advertize yourself, there's nothing wrong with throwing mp3s of your performances on kazaa. Anything else that you created yourself is legitimate, too. Same with uncopyrighted works (like the complete works of Shakespeare, for example).

    The only real problem with file sharing is that nobody wants that stuff, they all want the copyrighted stuff :)

    Oh, and I downloaded Mandrake, RedHat, and Knoppix ISOs from BitTorrent. Those were totally legit uses.

    1. Re:you've got it backwards by 2TecTom · · Score: 2, Insightful

      On the point of stuff no one wants, perhaps it might be because it's simply not that good. If the music was exceptional, than word would spread and the band could develop a fan base without relying on a record label.

      I believe some band will make it big this way someday and from that point other bands and artists in general will move towards p2p distribution.

      --
      Words to men, as air to birds.
    2. Re:you've got it backwards by Read+Icculus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some people do want the legal files. Furthurnet Etree.org Sharing in the Groove BT.phishhook.com Besides the dozens of ISOs I've gotten via BT and P2P I've also downloaded 100s of GBs of music and video. All of it legal. Plenty of people use P2P and other applications for legitimate uses, but piracy gets all the attention and therefore you have people asking silly questions like "Using P2P for legitimate aplications?". Of course it has legitimate applications, I thought this dead horse had been beaten.

      --
      Anti-social? My code is just platform-specific.
  5. Re:Video Game Application by TheRoachMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So if I'm not mistaken then that's a sort of Steam application, but not only for VALVe/Sierra games. That's quite good. If you guys manage to get a thing like that going, I'm sure it's going to be popular. It's like, All Seeing Eye with intergrated chat,resource downloads and everything. Nice idea, care to share the URL?

  6. uhhhh caching proxy by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just hang a squid proxy off your router with a huge cache... problem solved.

    Then go get a drink, for not having to re-invent the wheel, or cost your company much ( if any ) money.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  7. First thought was local mirror... then... by WoTG · · Score: 2, Insightful

    when I reread the article, I guessed that you might be asking about saving load on the public FTP server on a larger scale. I.e. providing an option for all other users of the same service an opportunity to help reduce the load. In this case, the best bet is to talk to the service provider and use whatever they are willing to use!

    Ask the public FTP provider to put up Torrent files, or equivalent, right on the FTP site, or in a README. Alternatively, if they aren't interested or are too busy to set it up themselves, ask them to put a description and link to a webpage that YOU control in a readme file. Something along the lines of, "Our servers are busy. A good samaritan maintains an alternate download method at this URL. You may get faster results from there." Perhaps toss in some MD5 hashes so that people can verify data if they so desire, and then hope for the best. With any luck, your company wins, other groups win, and the provider wins.

    Pretty much any P2P network would work, but you would probably have more support from IT groups for BitTorrent than eMule/eDonkey or Gnucleus.