Peer to Peer (P2P) Technology- How it works:

Ever wondered how P2P works? This guide will run down most of the major P2P services and how they work. Peer to Peer technology lets people share files over a network on the internet. Most people now use what is known as the second generation of P2P, which is unlike its predecessors like such as Napter, the second generation has no centralized server, making it harder for it to shut down.

How first generation P2P services worked:

A connection is established by a peer finding another peer to connect to. Each peer exchanges active peer and their addresses. When a connection has been established, the user can then search for files. When a search has been submitted, it connects to all nodes on its connection list. The results are then displayed and a connection is made.

How second generation P2P services worked:

Gnutella2: Hubs are used to quickly search for files, eliminating the original "find peer and search" method. Instead, they store a list of files on all the "Leaves" (A peer) that are connected to it, thus dramatically reducing search time. Advantages: Unlike Napster, if a hub crashes, it's network stays alive. Disadvantages: Doesn't make network any more durable than the first generation of P2P. Gnutella2: www.gnutella.com

FastTrack: Programs such as Kazaa and iMesh use the FastTrack protocol. Normal peers connect to a supernode which acts jsut like a hub. Supernodes also connect to other supernodes, allowing search requests to move through the network very quickly. Peers then establish a direct connection to a client after a file has been found. Advantages: Any client can become a supernode. Disadvantages: Corruption of files occur. Clients include: Kazaa (www.kazaa.com), iMesh (www.imesh.com)

BitTorrent: .torrent files are used to store information about the file being shared. Once a torrent file is opened, the client connects to the tracker which tells the client where the file is located and what other peers/seeders there are. BitTorrent works by chunks of small files being transferred (even through multiple connections), while you are downloading. The files are checked for corruption as the download continues. Leechers are people who download and don't upload, and are highly frowned upon on some sites, disallowing them from downloading any further. Advantages: Very fast for popular, new files. Disadvantages: Trackers are unreliable and if it goes down, the file is lost.

When searching for the right ISP there are a number of items to look at. How much is it going to cost me? What is the connection like? What are the Features? Is it available in my area? You will soon find that there are many ISP’s to choose from. So, it is beneficial for you to pick the right internet service provider.

The cost is probably the most important aspect to most subscribers. Yet, many are not willing to put up with the low quality provided by free ISP’s. This leaves them looking for low cost ISP’s. The best way to find the lower cost ISP’s is to search for them. Most of the ISP’s you are going to see advertising are going to be a bit higher than those who do not have as much advertising. A search of the internet may help you find some of these ISP’s.

Although the price may be right, if your connection is weak you may not to go with that ISP. This can happen because problems with the cable or phone lines are common with the ISP. It can also occur if your ISP has a large volume of users trying to access the internet at the same time. This is particularly true with dial-up ISP’s that do not have enough phone numbers. Also you want to make sure that the ISP is compatible for the tasks you want to do. For instance, AOL users sometimes have problems with some aspects of the net. This is because the program that runs AOL is so dominating. If you frequent certain sites, they may list ISP’s that have problems using the site. This usually applies to sites that have music, video and effects but don’t really apply to straight text.

The features are also important. In fact, if you don’t want to be frustrated with pop-ups you may find yourself drawn to ISP’s that offer pop-up blockers and virus protection. You may be worried about your children surfing the web. A feature to block adult sites may be what you are looking for in that case. ISP’s are coming up with new features all the time so you really do have some choices here.

Another important aspect is availability. Not all ISP’s are widely available. This is especially true for ISP’s that are free or low cost. Even if an ISP is available in your area, there may not be an available local phone number. When you use your dial-up modem with a long distance number you may incur long distance charges while you are on the net. In addition, if there are local numbers but not many of them, you may have trouble connecting to the internet.

Approximately 4 million people in the UK use ADSL with an extra 2 million using a cable connection, meaning 6 million people in the UK have an always-on internet connection. Of these over 1.7 million are subscribed to BT’s broadband package, making them the UK’s main broadband provider.

Back in August 2000 BT first launched its high-speed internet connection to customers. Initially only available to around one third of UK households and costing £500 a year it was the first step in many to Broadband Britain.

There are currently only 2 ways to connect to ADSL in the UK. Recently a technique called Local Loop Unbundling means you don’t need to have a BT phone line, but at the moment only 1% of people on broadband in the UK use this method. The only other way to connect transforms an existing BT phone line into a high-speed digital line. This is only available with a BT phone line though, so even if you don’t subscribe to BT’s package your ISP still has to pay BT money to maintain and connect your line. Because of this BT has been able to dictate the availability of broadband in the UK for a few years now.

For fear that UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom would break-up the company because they held a monopoly by owning all the phone lines and means to connect to broadband, BT has agreed to offer rival companies access to the “Local Loop”, which is the network of telephone lines around the country. By doing this BT could stand to lose many customers as other companies can offer their broadband directly and without having to pay BT expenses.

Since the introduction of ADSL in the UK many potential customers found their local exchanges were simply out of date and the lines too old to be able to handle this new technology. Campaigns run country-wide as BT will only upgrade exchanges if there is adequate interest. ADSL is still not available in many villages and more rural areas of Britain but BT is vastly expanding and upgrading its network to try and cover all the country, Broadband is currently available in more than 96.6% of all UK households.

BT’s standard package is 2Mbps with a 1 GB monthly download limit. This means you can only download 1 GB’s worth of content, be it WebPages, music or movies, a month. This is more than enough for typical WebPages, but excessive music downloads will result in your account being suspended or limited for the rest of the month. You can upgrade your broadband to a 15 GB monthly limit for a little extra a month. BT also offers Pay As You Go dialup and unlimited dialup contracts.

BT Broadband also offers a variety of packages and upgrades designed to suit every user. You can upgrade to a gaming account to play xbox and PS2 games online, you can setup parental filters for your children, and there’s protection against spam, junk mail, pop-ups, virus’s and online intruders.

One of the main reasons people will continue to signup to BT is its reliability. They have broken the mould of all ISPs having poor customer service and are incredibly helpful with setting up your connection.

BT are aiming to trail their 8Mbps connection soon, intending it to be in common use by the end of the year. BT’s ultimate goal is making broadband available throughout the country, including rural areas.

Broadband is the name given to a high-speed Internet connection that provide large bandwidth. It is a quick connection, typically “always-on” and capable of transmitting data at a much faster rate than a standard dialup modem connection. Broadband also won’t tie up your phone line, allowing you to use the internet and telephone simultaneously. Broadband can be provided from a dedicated line such as Cable or ISDN, or over the top of your phone line such as ADSL.

Low-band Internet access is typically running up to 56kbps using a dial-up modem. Mid-band Internet is a phrase given to dialup that operates at 64kbps or 128kbps. Broadband starts at 512kbps (approximately ten times faster than typical dialup) and is also typically available at 1mbps, 1.5mbps and 2.2mbps. Some companies offer broadband at 4mbps and 8mbps. The maximum possible for cable is around 26mbps and 24mbps for ADSL although these speeds are not sold commercially due to the high cost required to upgrade telephone lines to be able to transmit at this speed.

With broadband you can quickly download or stream music and video. Many websites are designed especially for broadband users with intense integrated graphics, flash and video. Another popular use of broadband is online gaming. Xbox and PS2 consoles include broadband support, by subscribing to gaming packages from your ISP you can play Xbox and PS2 games live with other people over the internet. Online PC gaming has been around since the early days of the internet, but now with faster speeds there is less lag (slow or jerky response from the computer making it hard to play) and you are no longer keeping an eye on the time as you play, making it much more popular. Many recent games are released requiring an internet connection, without them you simply cannot play.

With users so keen on downloading music and video most broadband providers have introduced a maximum limit on the amount you can download. This can be as low as 1 GB up to 30 GB for power users, or unlimited for the extreme. Exceeding your ISP’s download cap will result in you having a limit connection for the rest of the month or none at all.

The future of broadband is the possibility of Internet Television. Currently there is not enough bandwidth (the amount of data you can send and receive down the line) to give as good an image as of a standard television. But with ever increasing internet speeds Internet Television will soon be with us. You can already legally download clips from your favourite shows, music videos and other content you would normally find on your television, just not in real time. Another use developed because of broadband is online telephony. Software that enables you to turn your computer into a telephone and talk to people from across the world without any extra cost is not only commonplace but of a higher quality recording than standard telephone lines. It seems with ever increasing Internet speeds, Broadband will be able to replace television, telephone and will soon become a welcome addition to every home. Broadband is helping the internet become an extensive resource that’s easy to access and fun to use.

Securing your Windows Xp computer is done by achieving two main tasks.

The first, is to prevent unauthorized users sitting at your computer and logging in through your keyboard.

The second, is to prevent access to your computer through your internet connection. Preventing unauthorized users is done by controlling your user accounts management.

This is done by creating one account beside the administrator account. This way, you end up with one administrator account for managing the whole system, and another user account for using all the time you are not managing your system.

Once you install Windows Xp operating systems, you create a user account beside the administrator account. This new account user ID and password is only known to you, the administrator. By doing this, you disallow anyone from using your computer by sitting at your keyboard.

The second task is to prevent unauthorized internet access from the outside world. Your computer internet connection is the main source of all kinds of attacks that will damage different programs installed on your computer.

Attacks from the Internet can be of different forms. Their effects can vary from slowing down you machine to producing annoying messages. Today with the high speed Internet access, you get bombarded with problems much more when you were using dial-up connection.

There is certain measures you can take to stop the Internet attacks through your high speed connection. I recommend you do four things:

a-Install an Adware / Spyware removal program on your computer.

b-Install an Antivirus program.

c-Install a Pop-Up blocker program.

d-Install a Firewall, software or hardware.