A guide to peer-to-peer file sharing

Deanna Koch

Aug 25, 2011

Peer-to-peer file sharing has been making a lot of headlines recently because of illegal downloads. There are many legitimate and legal reasons to use and support P2P sharing though. Therefore, this article provides a guide to peer-to-peer file sharing.

What is peer-to-peer?

Peer-to-peer technology, or P2P for short, is like creating your very own network in order to share files back and forth. You can share software, music, videos, or sensitive documents. Whenever a person needs to share downloads and install the torrents software programs, he/she can access the peer-to-peer network, and retrieve any necessary files. There are a variety of torrent programs to use such as uTorrent, Vuze, and BitTorrent. Once you have a torrent program installed, you can then access the private P2P network, and begin downloading what you need to.

When to use peer-to-peer?

Using a peer-to-peer network for sharing programs or files, or even downloading software is great for certain office environments. Rather than using flash drives or jump drives to transfer files and documents between people, this network is a more effective and efficient way. Sometimes, you need to share a file with someone in another state not just the next cubicle over, and the ability to download it from this small network is ideal. This is also a very effective way to offer quick downloads to clients purchasing software from you. If you don't want to take the time to mail them out an installed CD or DVD, you can offer them access to your P2P network, and allow them to download their software in just minutes.

Security risks

When you access a P2P network to share a specific file or program, you are also opening up your computer for sharing. If you do not set your torrent application's setting correctly, you could end up accidentally sharing files that you had no intention of sharing. If you inadvertently opened up sharing on your drive rather than a specific folder, people could be downloading films from your computer, and you would have no idea until you received a cease and desist letter from your Internet Service Provider. Sharing items that you don't own the copyright for, or that you don't have permission to share is a serious offence, and could incur
jail-time as well as hefty fines.

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