17 replies to this topic

[LeeBoy]

Is there a P2P program for Linux?

[ntheory]

I use mutella in a bind. It's a console-based gnutella and it works decently.

Aside from that there's pyslsk (Python SoulSeek). I've only tried to use it once with minimal success but I have a few friends that swear by it.

[ChZ]

Depends on the protocol.
There are quite a few that can handle napster, my favorite is lopster.
Soulseek: pyslsk
Direct connect: dctc
Bittorrent: Bittorrent
There are plenty of gnutella clients, but gnutella sucks. There aren't any kazaa or winmx clients to my knowledge but they can probably run under WINE.

That's about all I can think of.

[White_Raven]

Are your interests in p2p technical at all? I too belive the gnutella network kinda sucks.. its too slow, cant find itself on a network, and isnt truely peer based..

From what I understand, kazza lite will run under wine, but I have never done so.

[hacnslash]

i like gtk-gnutella, it has a very simple graphic interface (not very intuitive tho), and its on the gnutella network, which I found to be one of the best (maybe kazaa is better but its full of spyware and crap...) I also use gnutella (gnucleus client) on windows. All in all i like gtk-gnutella.

[LeeBoy]

ya I do have a technical interest in p2p.
And I was wondering what was out there.


Thanks guys for all the great stuff

[White_Raven]

Once you get into the technical aspects of it you gain a better understanding of just how primitive the current "standards" are.. I took a week off other stuff and took a week to learn gnutelle 0.4, 0.6 and some other p2p protocols for a project Im working on.. gnutella 0.6 is simply at most a limewire extention, basicly a greedy person trying to brand it as there own basicly.. and kazza preached "true p2p" buit they use a central server for first getting on it, just as gnutelle does, as both protocols are blind, at least from the docs I read.

One thing they did get right is header styles based on http, however they are broken and too many people are trying to add to the gnutelle network with so called "extentions" that other clients dont support.. so right now you have all these different people trying to brand it as there own or change it to fit there idea of what it should be, broken and wastfull as that is.. the problem is its not expandable and doesnt allow for SOCIAL changes and tweaks and the always present human need to leave its mark.. its not enough that its there, some people just feel like fucking with things they shouldnt to leave "there" mark.. it tics me off to no end.

Needless to say, I have ideas....

[LeeBoy]

Wow that is really cool
Do you have any links that would
be of help to me and get me in the right direction?

Thanks

[White_Raven]

I dont have all my links, but here are the ones I bookmarked and managed to save from that now dead hardrive:

http://www.blubster....ticle.php?sid=6
http://capnbry.net/g...la/protocol.php
http://www.rixsoft.c...ml#authandtrust

All links I find that say they are info on gnutella version 0.6 lways go here:
http://www.limewire....jsp/med_require


http://openp2p.com/t...s/p2p/gnutella/

As you will see, gnutella is largly becomming to standard becouse it was based off of the old napster and was simply there at the right time.. the problem with that is the protocol sucks ass and is not expandable or even upgradeable - rom what I have seen its developers are more interested in debateing p2p politics and taking donations then building something that truely works efficiantly and as it should.. yes it works, but once you get into the technical stuff you see how bad it is.

If its not clear by now, Im interested in developing a better protocol.. however since even the people who seemed interested in helping me create it havent done much, and I havent had allot of time to spend on it as late, devel has all but stoped, cant say much more out of security.

[StankDawg]

Gnutella is not even closely relate to napster. That is just wrong.

Napster works by everyone gangbanging their searches to a central server, which then gets passed directly to the other clients to establish a P2P connection for the download. While much faster, it is COMPLETELY PROPRIETARY, and that is the reason it was shut down so easily. Gnutella is exactly the opposite.

Gnutella, and all of its derivatives, are TRUE PEER-TO-PEER clients. The search gets passed on to x number of closest clients who search for the requested file, and then in turn pass it on to the next handful of clients. The further the search goes, the more chance of success. Those resulting clients that have the file are reposted back to the original to handshake and establish a connection. This is a weakness of the hierachical topology in general. (It is close to a true decentralized topology in theory, but since the client that requests the search results is the point of return, that makes the search a hierarchical topology and the actual P2P download, when established, decentralized. Therefore one limits the other.)

The reason that people do not like gnutella is because they don't understand how it works. The big drawback of it is that if you are on dial-up (Which a LOT of people were when it first came out years ago) and your closest peers to search are also on 56K (or less) then the seraches get bandwidth-intensive, and quite simply slow. Also, dial up users come and go, so paths get dropped frequently, which is frustrating. If you have a core of high-speed users in your peer group, with "always-on" connections, it should be fine.

edit: I kan't spell

[latency]

I've used limewire with varying degrees of success (couldn't find too many rare things I was looking for ie not too popular electronic artists and new/rare remixes that I could sometimes find in kazaa-lite)

[LeeBoy]

Gnutella, and all of its derivatives, are TRUE PEER-TO-PEER clients.  

StankDawg,

I think you talked about this on a RFA last year or somthing didn't you?

I remember you talking about this very thing.


Thanks for the great Info

[StankDawg]

Gnutella, and all of its derivatives, are TRUE PEER-TO-PEER clients.  

StankDawg,

I think you talked about this on a RFA last year or somthing didn't you?

I remember you talking about this very thing.


Thanks for the great Info

yes, i dont remember which episode...i just searched the show notes and didnt find it. was it the one with mute and I that didnt have notes? i didnt think it was that long ago...

[White_Raven]

EDIT: I ment that being a p2p it was based off the idea of free peer file sharing network, not the protocol itself per-say; I was unclear and Im sorry for that, however Gnutella is not truly peer based from the docs I read, yes it is mostly however to get on the network one must first know of a server on the network; Thus it has to contact a cache of hosts either though a website of use on thats included with the distrib to get ont on the network due to the "blindness" of the protocol they tout as a feature; To me that means its dependent on having abother server up it knowns about, just like the central server model even though the p2p itself is peer based - Maybe that clers up what I ment, if not let me know

[StankDawg]

All you need is 1 address to get it started. Most distros come with several included (in case some get shut down) and there are many websites where you can find updated ones. But all you have to do is make that first connection, and you are pretty much set for life since you now have a huge database of other clients to pass through.

Gnutella is unstoppable. And if you connect with a peer group of other high speed clients, its performance is awesome as well.

[White_Raven]

But thats just it; I agree that gfnutella has allot of staying power, and I belive in the NEED for that type of system, but its just a pet peev for me as the idea of keeping a host list with the distro seems insecure; after all if a distrib comes with a list, and the RIAA decides to get that list, take out all the hosts, and render the clients unable to get online? Then that distrib is usless simply due to not having valid hosts to connect to; yes its far fetched, not easy, and will probly never happen.... but isnt that how expliots are explioted?

[StankDawg]

the list is ever changing. the act of connecting, gives you more servers on your list. They cannot shut them all down. And every time a new release is made, they release anew list also. They update more than the RIAA can keep up with and shut down.

[White_Raven]

What about tracking hosts? seems to me a map of the network could be created the same way. Either I understand what your saying, Im just a perfectionist I guess..