Popular File Sharing Utilities

File sharing means storage and distribution of data by peer-to-peer model using the personal computers. People who use these utilities usually are uploaders (senders) or downloaders (receivers). The peer-to-peer model used in the type of sharing data is different from client-server where the server was uploader and the client was downloader is that a pure P2P network does not have the notion of clients or servers, but only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as both "clients" and "servers" to the other nodes on the network.

P2P model is advantageous because in P2P networks all clients provide resources, including bandwidth, storage space, and computing power. Thus, as nodes arrive and demand on the system increases, the total capacity of the system also increases. This is not true of a client-server architecture with a fixed set of servers, in which adding more clients could mean slower data transfer for all users.

In this post, we will discuss about various P2P client available throughout the internet.


1) LimeWire
This file sharing utility connects to the Gnutella P2P network. This software is popular because it has clean and nice interface with no ads. As far as performance is concerned, this software claims to be "fastest file sharing program". It is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems.


2) eDonkey
This filesharing utility is popular expecially in Europe. The two P2P networks eDonkey and Overnet combined support a large base of users and files. The eDonkey P2P client is no longer being maintained. eDonkey clients may fail to function on the network due to lack of support. It is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems. But the free version of eDonkey contains embedded advertising.


3) Kazaa
The Kazaa software family (including the Kazaa Lite family of applications) has been the single-most popular P2P file sharing program / system of all time. Kazaa is fast and easy to use. However Kazaa software and the FastTrack network it utilizes appear to be declining rapidly in popularity and availability of files. Some have criticized the intrusiveness of "adware" embedded in free Kazaa clients.


4) BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth. The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound.) In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible.BitTorrent is open source in nature.


5) eMule
eMule is a file sharing utility and an alternative to eDonkey2000. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

More or less, every P2P client has same purpose, to share the files. What distinguishes on client form another are their features and the performance. You can easily tests all the clients and use that suits our need.

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