INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY Group ICT-54B: Ta Quoc Viet, Tran Viet Anh, Pham Duy Hoan, Luc Quoc Quyen TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .1 4 Job Allocation • Luc Quoc Quyen (20092161): Abstract (1) and Introduction (2) • Tran Viet Anh (20090158): Technology (3) • Pham Duy Hoan (20091134): Features (4) • Ta Quoc Viet [editor] (20093262): Conclusion (5), Guide (6) and Reference (7) 1. ABSTRACT Downloading is the most important thing when you are using the Internet. It is the simple truth that everyone who has experienced in it knows. In Vietnam, there are over 50,000,000 Gigabytes which were downloaded from the Internet to computer each month [1] . At the early days of Internet, computer scientists have focused on creating a new technology to help people to share data with the best benefit and the highest speed. Nowadays, there are two technologies which are the most popular in the world. They are Direct Protocol and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Protocol. This essay will provide a general knowledge of each technology and some suggestion to choose the best Download Programs. 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1. OVERVIEW The essay was divided into 4 main parts. Part I focuses on the History of File-Sharing Technology. Part II addresses the definition of each technology and explains the differences between them. Part III discusses some good and bad features of Direct Protocol and P2P Protocol. Part IV explores how to use some popular download programs via each protocol and provides a brief conclusion. 2.2. HISTORY When the 8-inch floppy disk was developed by IBM, sharing files was pretty easy – you copy the original data files, and then borrow the disk. Obviously, there were only a few computers around back then, but this happened again almost two decades later, when optical and flash media became nothing out of ordinary. A few years later, in 1978, CBBS becomes the first Bulletin Board System (BBS) [2] , but BBS access is limited to phone lines until early 1990s. Anyway, almost two decades ago, BBS was probably the most widely used file sharing method. INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY In 1979, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis came up with Usenet. It is a network that was initially based on the UUCP protocol for dial-up connections and has, since being transported over the Internet, used a specialized client-server protocol, the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). Its main purpose was the exchange of text based messages, but through attachments allowed users to encode files and distribute them to participating subscribers of Usenet Newsgroups. Usenet remains one of the largest carriers of file sharing and Internet traffic. Legal challenges to P2P systems have spurred a resurgence of Usenet. Usenet itself has also been the target of legal challenges pertaining to its use in file-sharing. In 1985, the FTP protocol becomes standardized, and in 1988, IRC is born. In 1990, the real thing starts with the formal proposal of the World Wide Web, followed by the introduction of the MP3 standard, at the end of 1991 [3] . In June 1999, Napster was released as a centralized unstructured peer-to- peer system, requiring a central server for indexing and peer discovery. It is generally credited as being the first peer-to-peer file sharing system. In the case of Napster, an online service provider could not use the "transitory network transmission" safe harbor in the DMCA if they had control of the network with a server. Many P2P products will, by their very nature, flunk this requirement, just as Napster did. Napster provided a service where they indexed and stored file information that users of Napster made available on their computers for others to download, and the files were transferred directly between the host and client users after authorization by Napster. Shortly after the A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. loss in court Napster blocked all copyright content from being downloaded. Gnutella, eDonkey2000, and Freenet were released in 2000, as MP3.com and Napster were facing litigation. Gnutella, released in March, was the first decentralized file sharing network. In the Gnutella network, all connecting software was considered equal, and therefore the network had no central point of failure. In July, Freenet was released and became the first anonymity network. In September the eDonkey2000 client and server software was released. In 2001, Kazaa and Poisoned for the Mac was released. Its FastTrack network was distributed, though unlike Gnutella, it assigned more traffic to “super nodes” to increase routing efficiency. The network was proprietary and encrypted, and the Kazaa team made substantial efforts to keep other clients such as Morpheus off of the FastTrack network. In July 2001, Napster lost in court and was shut down. This drove users to other P2P applications and file sharing continued its exponential growth. The Audiogalaxy Satellite client grew in popularity, and the LimeWire client and BitTorrent protocol were released. Until its decline in 2004, Kazaa was the most popular file sharing program despite bundled malware and legal battles in the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. In 2002, a Tokyo district 2 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY court ruling shut down File Rogue and an RIAA lawsuit effectively shut down Audiogalaxy. From 2002 through 2003, a number of popular BitTorrent services were established, including Suprnova.org, isoHunt, TorrentSpy, and The Pirate Bay. In 2002, the RIAA was filing lawsuits against Kazaa users. As a result of such lawsuits, many universities added file sharing regulations in their school administrative codes (though some students managed to circumvent them during after school hours). With the shutdown of eDonkey in 2005, eMule became the dominant client of the eDonkey network. In 2006, police raids took down the Razorback2 eDonkey server and temporarily took down The Pirate Bay. Pro-file sharing demonstrations took place in Sweden in response to the Pirate Bay raid. In 2009, the Pirate Bay trial ended in a guilty verdict for the primary founders of the tracker. 3.TECHNOLOGY 3.1. DEFINITION Those are clearly definition of 2 most usual file sharing protocols: • A peer-to-peer, commonly abbreviated to P2P, is any distributed network architecture composed of participants that make a portion of their resources (such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth) directly available to other network participants, without the need for central coordination instances (such as servers or stable hosts) [4] . • Client–server model of computing is a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between service providers, called servers, and service requesters, called clients. [5] 3.2. DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES In P2P, Peers are both providers and consumers of data, in contrast to the traditional client-server model where only servers upload, and clients download. A similarity, Some P2P systems have a central server that was connected with all nodes. But the server only tracks, indexes peer’s IP address and uses those data for expand its network by sending IP address list to peers. In fact, a pure P2P network doesn’t have the connection of client – server but only node-node that functions as both ways upload and download on the network. Peer-to-peer was used in VoIP, Real-time chat, HDTV online, etc… Especially, it was popularized by File-Sharing systems such as eDonKey, BitTorrent, Gnutella. Direct download use Client-server model to request download and transfer data from server to client via FPT, HTTP. 3.3. CATEGORIES 3.3.1. Peer To Peer Networks Some of the most popular options for file sharing on the Internet are peer- 3 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY to-peer networks, such as BitTorrent and eDonkey network. Users can use software that connects into a peer-to-peer network to search for shared files on the computers of other users (i.e. peers) connected to the network. Those files can be downloaded directly from other users on the network. Typically, large files are broken down into smaller pieces, which may be downloaded from multiple peers and then reassembled by the downloader. At the same time, the peer is uploading the pieces it already has to other peers. Even after download completed, user can upload that data to others to support their downloading speed. Nowadays, BitTorrent become the Number.1 file sharing network on the internet. It has been estimated that it may account for roughly 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009 [6] . Programmer Bram Cohen designed this protocol in April 2001 and released a first implementation on 2 July 2001. [7] The reasons BitTorrent become popular because of its convenient. Users can publish their data or download other user data fast and easy by torrent client programs. They package all information of data in a torrent file (.torrent) and then publish it. Other users download that torrent file and run it by any torrent client to download data piece by piece. In addition, there are many torrent tracker (a kind of central server) support user to find as many peers as possible which are downloading same data. For example: Isohunt.com, SuperNova.org, ThePirateBay.org, etc… 3.3.2. File Hosting Services File hosting services are a simple and traditional Client-server model method to download file, video, and any kind of data that is not webpage. Internet users can download data directly from file hosting services by using download links (http, ftp) that are provided by service sites. These sites allow web and FTP access for users to manage or get download link. They can be optimized for serving many users (hosting) or only for single-user storage. Related services are video sharing, photo sharing, virtual storage and remote backup. Two of the most popular file hosting services: MediaFire (i.e. MF) http://mediafire.com MegaUpload (i.e. MU) http://megaupload.com A video sharing service is provided by MegaUpload that can stream video files were stored at host: 4.FEATURES 4 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY 4.1. PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK (P2P) 4.1.1. Advantages Because of the principle of peer structure, this protocol has many advantages compared to other commercial networks. In peer-to-peer network, all machines involved provide resources, which may include bandwidth, storage space, and computing power. So the more machines join the network, the stronger overall ability of the network becomes. As nodes arrive and demand on the system increases, the total capacity of the system also increases [8] . Decentralization of peer networks also helps the networks work well even when some machines have problem. Thus, searching for and sharing resources become more quickly and effective. 4.1.2. Disadvantage But users who use P2P also have some problems when they join the networks. The most important problem is that consumers can be faced with a number of risks when they download and use commercial P2P file-sharing software programs [9] . A file-sharing program which users download and use include other software, such as spy ware or adware. So they may inadvertently share sensitive personal files residing on their hard drives. Users can also receive dangerous viruses with files and programs when sharing files using P2P programs [10] . And viruses can impair the operation of their personal computers. So it’s very dangerous that your computer may be at risk at any time. Finally, because of the way files are shared in network, users, especially children may be exposed to unwanted pornographic images or movies. 4.2. CLIENT-SERVER NETWORK 4.2.1. Advantages User (client) also can only download files or programs directly from the servers through client-server network. In this case, there are many clients (users) but they just are the consumers. Servers are the suppliers. All resources are stored in these servers and users can download them from servers or upload to servers. In contract to P2P, users are not allowed to share resources directly with others one, it means all computers must connect to only one server. In this situation, users can download directly files or programs from the servers and do not depend on the numbers of computer involved in the network. So that users may get the resources conveniently. And users may not face some problems with viruses or personal files like P2P because with this protocol, the security of data will be higher than P2P. 4.2.2. Disadvantages But this protocol has some disadvantages because of its principle. If there is only a fixed numbers of servers, while there are too many clients participate in the network, the data transfer capability will be reduced. The more client network has, the less speed data will be transferred. In addition, if the servers are crashed, the whole system network will be stalled. It 5 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY is the big problem that you try to download a file while there are too many users are downloading it, the traffic congestion will occur. So you should not use this protocol to download any big files because of the slow speed. 4.3.DOWNLOAD PROGRAMS About the programs that can support you download through these protocols; there are many programs like that. For example, with client-server, we have many choices that are supported to help users can download file more quickly. We can mention the most commonly used software like FlashGet, Internet Download Manager (IDM), Free Download Manager, Orbit Downloader, Download Accelerator Plus, Gigaget, and Wackget. All of these programs can help users increase the download speeds. But nowadays, Internet Download Manager (IDM) is thought to be the most popular download programs, and the fastest download application. It can increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads, and more and more effective features supported. It is really a good choice for you to download file or program directly and quickly. In P2P, we also have other choices to share resources. They are Tranmission, Azureus, µTorrent, Bittorrent, FlashGet, etc… Today, µTorrent is known as number one download program to share resources on Internet via P2P. Its activity is based on P2P network, so it has a huge resource, and it can download large files with maximum speed. It also occupies a very small capacity in your system. So if you want to download large files easily, µTorrent would be a reasonable choice. IV. IV.1. IV.2. IV.3. 5. CONCLUSION First, there is not a shadow of doubt when we call file-sharing technology is the essential factor of using the Internet. It has been developing day by day throughout the history. From the very early day of information technology, it had proved that it is very useful, handy, and important. Next, it is very hard to say which technology is better. But it seems to be that we should use both of them. The Client-Server Network is readily to download small files, and sometimes safer than P2P Network; because the data is more stable, unity and secure. Nevertheless, with the huge file, if you want to download by the Client-Server Network, in this case the ratio of getting file corrupted is higher than using P2P Network; not including you have to take too much time to download because of low speed and file split. That why both method of downloading are still using commonly and independently on the Internet. Finally, I hope that you can figure out the similarity and difference between P2P Network and Client- Server Network. Nowadays, the two main types of file-sharing technology, 6 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY peer-to-peer and client-server, are applied widely and deeply everywhere in the internet. Each has its own properties and applications; thus, it will be very helpful if you understand thoroughly. Then you can make an effectively decision when you want to download files from the Internet. 6.GUIDE 6.1. Internet Download Manager (IDM) IV.1.1. Getting IDM Download source: http://www.internetdownloadmanage r.com/download.html You can try it in 30 days or buy it with ~400000VND. Purchase page: http://www.internetdownloadmanage r.com/buy.html IV.1.2. Using IDM • The main window shows a list of downloaded files. This list includes additional information about downloaded files like file size, download status, estimated time to complete, and current download speed and downloads description. You can sort the list by any column by clicking on a column header. • There are several ways to start your downloads with Internet Download Manager. -Automatic Mode: This mode is the easiest one. In this case you don't need to do anything special, just browse the Internet as you usually do. IDM will catch your downloads and handle them. -Right click in Browsers: You can right click on a link in your browsers, and select "Download with IDM". -Drag and Drop: You can drag and drop links to download with IDM. -Add URL button: You can add downloads manually using Add URL button. -Copy Links to Clipboard: IDM can catch download links in clipboard. -Command Line: IDM can work from a command line. -Import Downloads: IDM can import download links from a file. • Configuration for IDM: On the main menu, look at Download tab, find and click the Option button to open the option panel. Here are some explanations of tabs options: -General: can be used to change IDM System integration options (automatic startup, integration options into browsers, URL clipboard monitoring). IDM integrates into Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, and many other popular browsers by default. -File types: can be used to change the list of file types that will be taken over from a browser and downloaded by IDM. -Save to: defines the default "save to" directory for a selected category. You can also change this directory by picking Properties item in the right click menu of a selected category in the main IDM window. Downloaded file will be saved to the default directory of 7 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY an appropriate category. But you can change the directory to save the file before downloading in Download File Info dialog. If "Remember last save path" box is checked and you have changed the directory in Download File Info dialog, then the default "save to" directory will change for all subsequent downloads in this category. -Download: In Dialogs group box you can control how IDM dialogs are displayed. Select "Don't show" item in Download progress list box, if you don't want to see "Download Progress" dialog at all. If you don't like to see "Download Progress" dialog appearing in front of all other windows, select "Show minimized". You can disable "Download Complete" dialog using "Show download complete dialog" box. • For more detail of using IDM, you can open its manual. 6.2. µTorrent IV.2. IV.2.1. Getting µTorrent Download source: http://www.utorrent.com/downloads This is a free-ware so that you don’t have to pay any money to use it. IV.2.2. Using µTorrent • Starting download [11] : -Browse to a site that serves torrent files and peruse their list to find a file you want to download. -Click the link that provides you with the *.torrent file. This file type will be recognized by µTorrent if you've set the option for it to do so. If it is not opened automatically by µTorrent, then you save the *.torrent file to your hard drive. - Run µTorrent and click "Add Torrent ." from the File menu. Select the *.torrent file you saved in the previous step. The download item should appear in the main window. Once the program has found peers that are serving the file, it will begin downloading the file to your computer. • Configurations for µTorrent: you can press Ctrl + P in the main window to open the preferences panel. Here are some explanations of the preferences tabs: -General: change the language, window integration, privacy… -UI Setting: change display, system tray icon, action for double click… -Directory: change the location of downloaded files, location of *.torrent files. -Connection: change listening port and proxy… -Queuing: change queuing setting… -Scheduler: tell µTorrent to stop torrent jobs, use a different bandwidth limit, or stop downloading entirely during specified times. • For more detail of using µTorrent, you can open its manual. 7. REFERENCE [1]. Thongkeinternet.vn. Internet statistics of Vietnam. VietNam National Internet Center. [Online] VietNam National Internet Center, April 2010. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://www.thongkeinternet.vn/jsp/trangchu/ind ex.jsp. 8 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY [2]. WikiPedia.com. File sharing. WikiPedia. [Online] Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, May 29, 2010. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing. [3]. Codrut Nistor. File Sharing – History. pctips3000.com. [Online] pctips3000, June 24, 2009. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://www.pctips3000.com/file-sharing- history/. [4]. Rüdiger Schollmeier, A Definition of Peer-to-Peer Networking for the Classification of Peer-to-Peer Architectures and Applications, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing, IEEE (2002). [5]. Reese, George. Database Programming with JDBC and Java, Second Edition. Database Programming with JDBC and Java, Second Edition. November : Sun Develope Network, 2000. [6]. Ernest. BitTorrent Still King of P2P Traffic. torrentfreak.com. [Online] February 18, 2009. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-still-king-of- p2p-traffic-090218/. [7]. Cohen, Bram (2001-07-02). "BitTorrent — a new P2P app", Yahoo eGroups, Retrieved 2007-04-15, link: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/decentr alization/message/3160. [8]. WikiPedia.com. Peer-to-peer. WikiPedia.com. [Online] Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, May 25, 2010. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to- peer. 9 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY [9]. WikiPedia.com. Mạng Đồng Đẳng. WikiPedia.com. [Online] Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, May 06, 2010. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to- peer. [10]. Staff Report. Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Technology, Consumer Protection, And Competition Issues. s.l. : Federal Trade Commission, 2005. [11]. eHow Contributing Writer. How to Use uTorrent. ehow.com. [Online] eHow, Inc. [Cited: May 30, 2010.] http://www.ehow.com/how_2054135_use- utorrent.html. 10 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 . two main types of file-sharing technology, 6 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY peer-to-peer. file sharing on the Internet are peer- 3 Group ICT-54B – Ha Noi University of Technology. Ha Noi May 30, 2010 INTERNET FILE-SHARING TECHNOLOGY to-peer