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P2P Now and Then

Posted by Zonk on from the distributing-stuff-in-little-pieces dept.

brajesh writes "There was an earlier story on Slashdot regarding eDonkey overtaking BitTorrent in P2P traffic. The BBC story was based on this press release by CacheLogic. To expand on this, there is a comprehensive analysis of P2P trends in 2005 by the same firm. The report makes some insights into the present and future of P2P, particularly interesting in the light of recent steps taken by BBC -BBC iMP and others. The analysis also makes some observations about the break-up of P2P content."

14 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Now and then? by Kenja · · Score: 3, Funny
    Way back "then" P2P was used for nothing but the exchange of bootleged copies of star wars and porn. Now its used to exchange information noble of purpose that will enrich humanity for all time.

    Or it could still be the porn thing.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  2. To summarize: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting


    - There is a lot of P2P traffic.
    - This will not decrease.
    - P2P packages will come and go.
    - Industry had better embrace this.

  3. This Missing Slice by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Funny
    Would have been interesting to see a pie chart with a slice showing the amount of P2P traffic impacted by the ??AA lawsuits.

    Or maybe it was there and I just missed its sub-pixel width on my high resolution monitor.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  4. Re:a new conduit by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I may sound like an idiot for saying this, but does anyone ever get the impression that p2p is going to be the new conduit for the oppressed ( oppressed being everyone subject to coorprate america).

    I'm sorry but not being able to get music and movies for free is not oppression.

  5. They missed Share for Japanese users by Dracil · · Score: 3, Informative

    (Includes Winny)

    Not surprising since the program interface is in Japanese by default (and even with an English interface, you'll most likely still have to search for the files in Japanese if you want to actually find anything).

    But with its relative anonymity, plausible deniability (think Freenet), while maintaining really high speeds (although this may be more a factor of Japanese having much better broadband than we do), I wouldn't be surprised if this was their main source for P2P as well as a glimpse at the future of P2P as lawsuits just drive P2P users into using networks that afford a bit better protection.

  6. Why P2P is not like the printing press by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Printing presses are large, expensive, hard to hide, and easy to suppress. This is why they have such high Constitutional protections. Their problem is that whomever anc afford and control the press controls the news. For The People this is a double-edged sword.

    OTOH, P2P is small, cheap, everywhere, and hard to suppress. While it cannot merit the need for such heavy handed protection yet, it disseminates information broadly and uncontrollably. For The People this is often a good thing!

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  7. A couple of other interesting points.. by Marnhinn · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just some things I noticed...

    • P2P = 60% of All Traffic
    • Edonkey is gaining in popularity (and first in usage - in many locations), Bittorrent is next, then Fasttrack and lastly Gnutella
    • Edonkey Localized, More languages (and hence has more use) - localized versions have a large effect as seen in South Korea (Prune)
    • Video seems to dominate Fasttrack, eDonkey and Bittorrent as what is being shared.
    • Audio dominates Gnutells
    • Of Audio being shared, MP3 = 64%, OGG = 12%, WMA = 22% (roughly)
    • Of Video being shared - RM = 9%, MPEG = 15%, and they "say" that Microsoft has 75% (didn't know Xvid / Divx was an MS Product)
    • Of Other files types, there is a dominance of Unix file types (Linux Distros and whatnot - almost exclusively found on Bittorrent)
    --
    There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
  8. Re:mirror - Who modded this Informative??? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Funny
    analysis of worldwide Penis-to-Penis (P2P) traffic

    I would hazard a guess that whomever modded this Informative +1 didn't read it closely enough. You were suckered!

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  9. method? by adminispheroid · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The first question that leaps to mind, which none of the posted info answers, is how the heck do you compare gnutella to bittorrent? I mean, the gnutella network is used only for indexing, and the transfers are done by http, whereas bittorrent is for transfers (and there is no indexing). Did they take this into account? If so, how? Not clear to me how you'd figure out which http traffic was gnutella-related.

    I don't know squat about eDonkey and Fasttrack, so I don't know how these considerations apply to them.

  10. Re:a new conduit by Raindance · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe. There's nothing inherently egalitarian about the internet.

    Lessig's "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace" touches on this. Code is law-- how the 'net is structured determines how it's used, with the nigh force of law.

    The internet is fairly favorable to the "little guy" right now, but Lessig says there's nothing inherently unchangeable about the internet's Code. The battle for the internet *has not been won*.

  11. Can somebody enlighten me? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've tried to download files from edonkey for several months, without success.

    All i've got is "Queue #4339 of 4339" (in the worst case) and average of 140 people before me in my around 20 sources. And I mean anime fansubs, not pron (but it could apply).

    Considering that each file takes around 5 hours to transfer, my ETA would be equal to 29 days before my download actually starts.

    This makes me wonder if all the traffic in edonkey belongs to the 1/140 = 0.71% lucky guys who got to be the first ones in the queues.

    Gnutella, on the other hand, is my preferred source for downloads. I always get to download stuff.

    So... my question is... has any slashdotter in here been able to ACTUALLY download ANYTHING from edonkey? How long it takes before a download actually starts? Does the p2p client change your probability of success?

    Answers would be appreciated.

    1. Re:Can somebody enlighten me? by suitepotato · · Score: 5, Informative
      I run eMule on Windows and aMule on Linux (Fedora Core 3). I've downloaded over 100GB from that network so far of various things..

      • Always make sure to share some of your files with people. Don't move them out of a shared folder the instant you finish getting them. Don't squelch all uploading to others. That's considered "leeching".
      • Always make sure to check the file availibility. If the numbers are close to 1-5 you're not going to be getting it quick. If they are 0 showing online, you may wait forever.
      • Always check for the same file being listed under another name with larger availibility. Many files will be out there in different incarnations and the correct version will usually be the one with the most people sharing it.
      • Always make sure not to set everything to High priority, only those things which truly are and always make sure to swap all A4AF to an important file every so often. The clients tend to forget to recheck every so often for hosts popping online since the original download was entered.
      • Always make sure on broadband connections to carefully control upstream usage as unfettered upstream usage is a good way to get choked by your provider. I keep mine to 25% of my upstream maximum.

      eMule/aMule work fine for me. Way better than bittorrent ever has.
      --
      If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
  12. Did anyone see the products they offer? by MemeRot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On http://www.cachelogic.com/products/cachepliance.ph p/ they sell several configurations of a P2P file caching server, saying it will save the ISP money in bandwidth. But wouldn't it also remove their protection as a common provider? I mean the ISP would actually be hosting the files going around on P2P, which would mostly be copyrighted works.

    It sounds fine to me personally, the ISP saves bandwidth and I get sent the file from a server hosted right at my ISP, but it seems like an insanely risky thing for an ISP to do. A general purpose caching machine would be fine -HTTP, FTP, Bittorrent, etc. indiscriminately stored, but picking just p2p traffic.... what do you think?

  13. Hardware for P2P User Identification by airherbe · · Score: 4, Informative


    CacheLogic, the company which did this "comprehensive analysis" of P2P also happens to sell network hardware which does "Deep Packet Inspection" (read the specs on the device here).

    Innoculously, the technology can efficiently route packets to ensure better QoS, elimination of network congestion, and even provide cached streaming.

    But, one has to wonder if this technology, when used by the likes of the RIAA/MPAA would allow massive consolidation of data on P2P users. The above device specifically analyzes the content of the packet -- it's not a far cry that a company would create software for a device like this, which could automatically detect "flagged" files/hashes, and report them to "copyright owners" who have subscribed to the service.