P2P can be used is so many formats, from gaming to music, file sharing, etc. I think that there are srtill many ideas that can be forged for this awesome communication process. I would really love to see a true MMORPG P2P. Meaning the EU are the ones who own and run part of the whole game.

Hey I didn't know P2P is being used by games for multiplayer gaming! That comes as news to me!!!
I'll do some research on that and put it in the article too. Thanks a lot guys!

But whoever thought of the idea of P2P must be a genius though many people use it for wrong purposes.True it is always best to buy copyrighted music but P2P can be helpful if you want to distribute something like a customised version of some linux distro!!!! In that case you won't find a better solution than P2P.

A very good detailed article you've written, though i see some things missing since the technology has been updated and new things have come but still i would say that is a very informative article and almost covers every aspect of the p2p technology.

Nice article you wrote, i'd make a defined statement that theres a difference of P2P (Pay 2 Play) and what your talking about. Theres a huge difference just about, and can sometimes be mistaken when your talking (depending on the context). Obviously you know what your talking about, and thought it out, good job . Hope to read more articles like this by you.

Thanks for this useful article! I never knew (and never bothered to find out) exactly how P2P works. I only use it lol One of the few annoying things about p2p is that sometimes you end up never being able to download the whole file you want especially if it's a huge file, and it's far slower than downloading from regular file hosts.

This was a well written article with a lot of good information. While I usually am a fan of peer-to-peer networks....i'm also starting to see a change in the trends. We learned a lot about web 2.0 in one of my classes for college. Basically the whole idea of web 2.0 is sharing and collaboration. In a simple way - peer production. Using resources that we all have and working together for a common goal.

Facebook, Myspace, Youtube.......they all require peer-to-peer production. People make those sites and without the work they put in we wouldn't have them. Think about the new Facebook applications. Anyone can make any type of application and have it used worldwide. It's a way for the overall product to get better while using all the available resources.

The comparisons we got in class for peer production and collaboration were about Goldcorp Drilling and Linux. With Goldcorp.....this fledgling drilling company.....they needed a new way to find the stuff they were looking for (oil i believe). So what the CEO of Goldcorp did was completely reveal all the information they have. All the drilling locations they've been to.....what they're looking for......etc. IT was really a mind-blowing concept in the business world where a company's secrets are usually held close to their hearts and not released to people. But Goldcorp released the info, and asked for help. They said "Give us your ideas" and people responded. A ton of people had great ideas and different ways to figure this stuff out that Goldcorp had never thought of. They went from 100 million dollar company to a 9 billion dollar juggernaut.

Linux is the same thing. In case you don't know what it is.........it's an Operating System that was built and is maintained on the idea of collaboration. It's open source so you can change stuff to make it better......but only if you share your ideas with everyone else.

It's amazing and peer-to-peer really is the wave of the future. Get on or get lost.........it's going to be big.