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File Sharing

Peer to Peer File Sharing

Peer to peer file sharing is the practice of downloading files from another “peer” workstation. This is in contrast to a typical server/client relationship where servers supply and clients consume. In traditional peer to peer file sharing, the person you are downloading from is known; they might be someone on your campus, within your corporation, or just another person on your home network. These file sharing capabilities are built into Windows and Mac operating systems.

P2P File Sharing

P2P is an evolution of peer to peer file sharing. In P2P, the people/computers you are downloading from are anonymous and can be from anywhere on the Internet.  Because P2P spans the Internet, there are likely a number of computers that will “share” the file you want. In certain P2P protocols, pieces of the file you seek are retrieved from several different computers. This expedites the transfer process and makes it an especially useful method for sharing large files.

Legalities

Both Peer to Peer and P2P technologies can be used for legal or illegal purposes.  For example, P2P can be used legally when distributing large files such as open source software, video transmissions (some podcasts), and Internet radio. Unfortunately, because P2P is so efficient for transferring large files, it has become a popular method for illegally sharing movies, music and pirated software. This practice is contrary to Carnegie Mellon's Computing Policy and puts you at risk for losing your campus network connection.

For information on how to disable peer-to-peer file sharing on a number of popular programs (e.g., BitTorrent, BearShare, Limewire) visit the University of Chicago's document entitled Disabling Peer-to-Peer File Sharing.

File Sharing Alternatives

File sharing is not supported on the campus network. Pages presented in this document will walk Windows and Mac users through the process of disabling file sharing. We recommend the following supported alternatives for sharing files:

AFS (Andrew File System) space: MyFiles:


Last Updated: 9/9/09