What is peer-to-peer?
Peer-to-peer (better known as P2P sharing) is an advanced networking system that is way different from the client-server model.

What is the client-server model? Well, any damn website is the best example of a client-server model. We, as visitors, are the clients who request the server to show the webpage. So it basically is a one-to-one correspondence. The client requests a page and the server obliges. The same logic applies for sharing a file. If you want to download a software, say ‘Google talk’, you go to the Google page and download it. If your friend wants it too, he too goes to the same site. Thus the same server doles out downloads to whoever requests it.

A server is basically a computer that is online 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. Suppose I create a software and I want to share with friends. The software I create will be on my PC. So do I have to keep it connected to the net all day? My telephone bills would definitely set new records month after month!!

Fear not, here’s where P2P comes in handy. It works differently from the client server model. It works on the basic principle that when someone other than me downloads the entire software, he too becomes a server. So if a third person wants to download it too, he downloads parts of it from both us. Then, he too becomes a server thus, as many people it reduces precious bandwidth consumption for each of the peers involved. Thus the file can be easily shared ‘Peer-to-Peer’.

While the concept seems all rosy, the history of P2P sharing hasn’t been so. It has lead to various piracy issues in the past. I mean who’s stopping me from sharing a copyrighted file? Piracy protectors have a hard time with P2P.
But then comes the big question:

To Peer or not To Peer??
While P2P can be a boon for budding software developers (people like us, maybe), it can be a pain in the ‘you know what’ for creators of authentic material like the entertainment industry, software companies etc. So it all boils down to one’s own discretion.


Advantages:
You could find whatever you want whenever you want. Afterall if you need a particular file, someone in the World Wide Web must have it! You’ll never miss out on that sound track you heard in the rickshaw today, any movie, documentary, project… whatever, whenever!
Disadvantages:
You need a P2P software for it. Not a big problem though.
The popular ones are:
LimeWire (www.limewire.com)
BearShare (www.bearshare.com)
EMule (http://sourceforge.net/projects/emule/)
Shereaza (www.shareaza.com) to name a few.

So is the P2P concept still a budding concept. Definitely not! It’s been there since as early as the 1970s! But then it hasn’t gained momentum in our part of the world. A little awareness would do us good.
So P2P anyone?

This is an article I wrote for my college mag. please do tell me if I've got something wrong before I publish it!
Is there anything more that I can add?
The main aim has been to keep plain n simple!!

As I'm a big music fan I would add Soulseek (http://www.slsknet.org/) to that list and some bittorrent client also. For the rest of the article is good enough for me.

personally i would also add a small section about security as it is a mjor consideration these days and p2p clients arent exactly the best way to keep your machine secured! otherwise its good and informative!

Also as a disadvantage that law isn't generally clear on p2p. It depends on countries but anyway, you have to be cautious if you use them sometimes. And maybe you could mention which p2p contain spyware, related to the security section that shadowx has just suggested.

You didn't mention that peer-to-peer is important in the gaming field, and how it could potentially perform better than the client-server model. Although it seems like that's not what your work is concerned about, you can't skip such an important part of it.

That's a good article, very simple and concise. I love P2P, the software including it is probably my favorite type of Software . Although, a lot of P2P software does have its downfalls (Filled with trojans, viruses, and spy ware), I think Peer-to-Peer needs to stay and continue to grow, and now with the newer malicious free programs this is rarely an issue (especially when compared to the original Kazaa). I love P2P!

P2P is illegal here in america, but there is always some people who still do it and there is some more programs I read on limewire and it uses java, i think I read and thats really bad because that takes alot of space and slows down your computer's browser. It would be really bad if you have dail up but theres others that don't require it like ares, I don't use P2P because I say its better to buy something like a song or movie and be safe instead of getting caught and getting fined with 250,000 dollars and plus some time in prison.

P2P is important for the upcoming gaming industry, like Supreme Commander for example uses p2p for online play, p2p will always have its downsides yes, but if you don't go around downloading illegal programs then it isn't that bad, a little searching around for some faqs, some game servers etc. p2p cannot be destroyed someday people will learn the message bill gates has been trying to spread and everybody would start to use p2p for legitimate stuff