Napster Alternatives
Gnutella
Gnutella has quickly become the most popular Napster alternative
for a few good reasons. Currently it is the biggest of the alternatives, so
there is a higher chance of finding the song you were looking for. Furthermore,
Gnutella is not limited to mp3 files. It can be used just as easily to trade
just about any type of file. This includes graphics (*.jpg, *.bmp, *.gif,
etc...), movies (*.asf,*.mpeg, etc...) and applications (*.exe, *.zip, *.ace,
*.rar).
The most important feature however, the type of network implemented,
has nothing to do with service or capabilities. While Napster used the central
server architecture, where all searching activity was done using their servers
and then the actual downloads got done client to client, Gnutellas uses the
peer to peer architecture, meaning that all your searches gets passed along
to other users. Every single search will pass through at least one fellow
user's computer, which will check to see if the file is located on that computer.
If it is, the result is sent back to the searcher's computer, and then passed
along to another user who will repeat the process. The search is passed along
for ever, or until the original user cancels his search, regardless of the
results collected. When a download is actually performed, the traffic is routed
directly to the user who has the file, similarly to Napster. This distributed
networking architecture has the advantage of being impossible to derail by
corporations or the government, unless they decide to go after every single
user individually or the Internet Service Providers who refuse to block it
out. It is unfortunately quite a bit slower than Napster was. But it is a
small price to pay for free music.
