Gnutella is a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing network where users search for files through clients and download them. It lacks a central server, making it difficult to shut down, but using it to distribute copyrighted material is illegal. The first client was developed in 2000 by Nullsoft.
Gnutella is a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing network. With similar results to the old Napster, Gnutella users are able to search for a song or file through one of the Gnutella clients and then download that file to their hard drive. What makes Gnutella different from Napster is the fact that it lacks a central server and, instead, each of the computers on the network acts as both a server and a client.
To use Gnutella, users put files they are willing to share on hard drives and make them available for others to download in the normal peer-to-peer method. Then, using one of Gnutella’s many clients including BearShare, Gnucleus, LimeWire, Morpehus, WinMX, and XoloX, a user types the name of the song or file into the software’s search field. The computer then connects to at least one other computer via Gnutella and checks if that computer has the desired file. Your computer has been programmed with another computer’s IP address or is using one of its software’s preprogrammed servers. That computer then connects to at least one other, and the process continues indefinitely, until the file is found or the time-to-life limit (TTL) of the search has expired.
One of Gnutella’s most vaunted qualities is the fact that it always works; if a user is able to connect with at least one other computer, the entire network is queried during the search, not just one server. This, however, means that there is no guarantee that the desired file is located on one of the computers reached through the network. The search can also take a minute or more before a response is received.
While Gnutella itself is legal in the United States, since sharing public domain files is legal, the act of using Gnutella to distribute copyrighted music and other files is illegal. However, Gnutella’s lack of a central server makes it very difficult for a court order to shut down the service. Some naysayers of the service have found ways to disrupt the network with an overload of fake searches or a flood of corrupted files.
The first Gnutella client was developed in 2000 by Nullsoft, which had just been acquired by AOL. The program was made available for download on the company’s servers for one day on March 14, 2000. AOL later pulled the program due to legal issues, but not before thousands of people downloaded it. These downloaded copies spurred free, open-source clones, which continues to be how Gnutella exists today.
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