My opinion on  Gnutella vs Freenet

This is a rough essay. I'm happy to get feedback, but I won't be distressed if I don't :].

Firstly, the two networks have different design goals. Freenet is infrastructure - it's to peer to peer applications as RPC is to client server applications. Gnutella is a specific application, with it's own infrastructure built in - much as (say) HTTP is a client-server application with it's own infrastructure. Sure, HTTP needs TCP/IP - or an equivalent protocol - say IPX. So does freenet, and so does RPC. I'm sure that holes can be poked in the analogy, so either suggest a replacement, or gloss over it ok?

I'm not worried about the design goals though. To me, freenets much touted anonymity is a "nice" thing. That is to say, that not having it hasn't stopped me using the internet. Sure, my home LAN has webbug breaking http ACL's on it, and that's a reflection that a I care about privacy.

What's really got my goat at the moment is that GNUtella encourages use without reciprocation. With Freenet, what you download is immediately available from your node for redistribution. With GNUtella, unless you consciously decide to do so, what you download and what you make available for upload are partitioned. I think that the share and share about aspect of freenet is one of it's best aspects. No effort needed. No risk of losing your files. Your resources add to the value of the network, unlike GNUtella, where a default installed client (say 90% of the client base at a guess :] ) will share an _empty directory_.

I have a request, for any GNUtella users reading this... if you download and keep a file, make it available to the network. Share out your machine. My settings are configured to allow up to 2 concurrent uploads. This affects me sometimes. And it certainly will affect my ISP fees to some degree :]. It's a implied p2p contract to contribute back to the network you are sharing from.

Rob Collins