Re: BitTorrent

[mike808@users.sourceforge.net]

Robert Citek wrote ..
> On Monday, Feb 14, 2005, at 21:35 US/Central, 
> mike808@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> > BT is fundamentally no different than any of the P2P networks,
> > but without the "network" part. Each tracker is an isolated P2P 'swarm'
> > in and of itself.
> 
>  From what I understand, if you want to use Napster, Kazaa, etc. you 
> have to register with those services.  That is, those companies provide
> the "trackers."

Exactly. That's why I said BT isn't a "network" of trackers, 
with builtin search-and-discovery features. Each tracker is an isolated
"network" serving up exactly one fileset. Each tracker has nothing to do
with any other tracker. Easy to distribute, but hard to search globally,
since they pop up like mushrooms, and go down faster than a groupie trying
to get backstage at a Usher concert.

> BT differs in that anyone can setup a tracker and anyone can create a .torrent.

And anyone can setup an website too. That doesn't mean the world can either find it,
or find it interesting. That's the part of the problem that the P2P networks are
trying to solve, in addition to the swarming/scaling distribution problem.

> Even as a P2P method, BT differs from others in the way it uses the tracker, 
> which allows for swarming and efficient scaling, as you mentioned.

P2P networks also have fairly efficient swarming and scaling -- otherwise 
they wouldn't have been so successful. As I've noted, P2P also uses a tracker concept,
it's just that P2P networks have "coordinated" the tracker function to be searchable
and distributable in order to be resilient to damage/tracker failure.

You can't do that with straight up BTs. Although there is some very interesting
stuff being done to solve that last problem with centralized, uncoordinated trackers.

And people are putting multiple trackers in their BT files, and Azureus can let you
dynamically alter/update/select from them.

And I'm sure you can find some Azureus plugins, which add interesting capabilities.

Mike/

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