I think we need to define what P2P is before we can address this. IMHO, P2P started with NAPSTER, yes before that there was WWW, gopher, ftp, files by email, bitnet, x/y/z modem, bbs (dating myself here), but the large scale bandwidth usage that is seen started with NAPSTER.
P2P I would define as distributed file sharing with database like search capabilities. If you define it in this context, the bandwidth characteristics of P2P is a lot closer (but on a higher scale) than the bandwidth characteristics of a traditional web surfer. Hence, ADSL in particular and asymmetric data comm in general hamper P2P. Bora > -----Original Message----- > From: Martin J. Levy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 4:13 PM > To: Sean Donelan > Cc: Bora Akyol; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: Senator Diane Feinstein Wants to know about the > Benefits of P2P > > > Sean, > > >There were lots of FTP mirrors around. > >Every Sun workstation could have a Anonymous FTP. Of > course, the problem > >was every Sun workstation could be an Anonymous FTP :-) > > ... but you forgot to mention that filtering and firewalls > and NAT were not in common use, hence everywhere was > accessible from everywhere. P2P was all there was. > > Martin >
