Discovering P2P (Paperback)

~ Michael Miller (Author) "Twenty years ago a revolution was born..." (more)
Key Phrases: distributed computing company, central index server, distributed search engine, Windows Messenger, Groove Networks, America Online (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

--Covers current P2P applications and tackles the thorny issues of P2P Intellectual Property Protection and Privacy.
--Provides hands-on instruction about some of the more popular P2P file sharing products, including Scour, Gnutell, AIMster, and Freenet.
--Demonstrates how to communicate and collaborate in the workplace using AOL IM, Microsoft Messenger, Groove, NetMeeting, Freetopia, and more.

From the Back Cover

Peer to Peer: Groundbreaking, Controversial, and Still Growing
Not every "next big thing" has lived up to its promise, but the technologies comprising peer-to-peer computing are definitely here to stay. Inside, Michael Miller walks you through this still-burgeoning field, showing you where it's come from and where it's headed. In between, he looks closely at P2P's current representatives, including Napster, Aimster, and SETI@home, drawing from their successes and controversies to paint a vivid picture of a diverse set of applications that continue to change the way the world thinks about computing.

Delve into every aspect of the P2P revolution:
* File-sharing
* Collaboration
* Communication
* Distributed computing
* Applications development

Explore the state of the art in P2P ...
* Gnutella
* Napster
* Aimster
* Instant messaging
* SETI@home
* Microsoft's .NET initiative

... as well as P2P's origins and future directions.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 1st edition (November 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782140181
• ISBN-13: 978-0782140187
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,338,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the "next big thing", March 19, 2002

By	Henning Follmann "hfollmann" (Chatham, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Citing the backcover: "Incisive, Opinonated Coverage of Applications That Have Captured the IT World's Attention".
Let's translate this: "Superficial Enumeration of Applications".
This book does not provide any deeper information about P2P applications. Also the section about business models is not well founded and does not provide any helpful information. I was really disappointed!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars look for a more recent text, June 20, 2006

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The book gives a good explanation of p2p networks as they were understood at the time of writing in 2001. Napster, of course. But also Gnutella and SETI@home.

However, if you are new to p2p, you may want to search out more recent texts. There has been a lot of developments since 2001. Most notably with the rise of Bram Cohen's BitTorrent, and its novel use of downloaders to act as uploaders for files. Another factor is that the use of various p2p networks did appear to lead to the music industry's weak sales in recent years. While BitTorrent is now proving to be a worry to the film studios.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what i thought, August 22, 2002

By	"zakazmi" (Glasgow, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

Not very readable, didn't find it interesting, after going through the first part of the book i put it somewhere and never bothered to completely read it.