The p2p:// protocol

File-sharing applications have made it possible to turn every connected machine into a ftp://-style server. My question to you developers of gnutella clients is whether you can push further and enable http://-style serving and turn ever machine into a web server.

Presently, web traffic moves around based upon domains and IP addresses. But the average user is connected through a dial-up account that offers different IPs for each logon. Even for some DSL accounts, the user's machine exists as a different IP for each logon. Even if we knew how to turn our machines into web servers, it would do no good as our IP address is never the same.

But what if Gnutella clients directed .html results straight to a user's browser. An alternate world-wide-web might be possible where searches conducted on the Gnutella network returned web pages sitting within specific directories on each user's machine. Though the scope of my search might be limited, I can conduct a real-time search of the information published to the network.

The premise is to enable anyone to publish a website, and to enable them to do this easily without having to know how to run a web server from their own machine.

And to take this one step further, would it be possible for Gnutella Client IDs to become domains? Or for gnutella clients to become GNS (Gnutella Name Servers)... And is it feasible to build plug-ins which direct requests from browsers who type "p2p://...." towards the peer client software which then finds the appropriate machine and serves the first index.html?

In a simple example, a request like p2p://mr2v.limewire.com or p2p://mr2v.bearshare.com would return the first index.html file within my HTML directory which sits within the SharedDirectory I use for Gnutella. But instead of this request using Limewire.com or BearShare.com as a redirect, the gnutella client searches the network for the "mr2v" client, and its repective HTML folder.

I am not the networking engineer I realize the rest of you are. I just believe there is a need in the world for simple hosting possibilities for the average human. In addition, as the file-sharing networks face criticism from Copyright owners, it might be in all of your best interest to work together on a protocol which takes Gnutella to a level which not only makes more possible with gnutella clients, but also opens up the possibilities for more "non-infringing" opportunities.

Enjoy
david touve

Like I told ya at PHO, this is great stuff!

w0rd.

I, like mr2v, am not the network engineer that some folks here are, but this is good stuff. To quote ebj..."w0rd"

i love ideas.

Such projects are already underway . . . one is being spearheaded by IBM :

http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/bayardo/userv/userv.html

w0rd, indeed.

Ahhh... but has IBM already patented the idea? I hope not. I hope you all can find a way to make this happen... perhaps we need to start a section on Gnutella for discussing and making it happen.

IBM! Ha! Don't let them get your hopes up. The Freenet Project is already working on an alternative WWW which is 99.99999% anonymous. Its still in early stages of development, but if you even mention the IBM project ot those guys they'll laugh.
If you want a serious P2P network with a future check out http://freenetproject.org

Also this alternate network has its own filesharing proggie called Frost. Everythings written in Java too so it doesn't matter what OS you run.

The new version of BadBlue is designed to do pretty much what you've described. The version 1.6 is the first (so far as I know) full-blown web server - e.g., it supports PHP/CGI/etc. - and Gnutella servent. It's not available directly on the site yet, but you can get a preview copy here:

For Win95/NT4: http://badblue.com/bb95x.exe

For Win98/ME2/2K/XP:
http://badblue.com/bb98x.exe

Very much geared towards enterprise file-sharing as well with an integrated ability to publish Office docs to HTML 'on the fly'.

The idea is nice, however I'm not sure if it would be used often. Just look at what people do with their free personal homepage.

In reply to untitled9: I really don't think the Freenet architecture will hold when it is actually used by a significant number of people. I also do not believe that modem users are able to use the network at an acceptable speed. Even broadband users will quickly encounter their upload limit in such a network. This is a problem now with Gnutella, and it will be a larger problem with Freenet, as a Freenet node generates much more traffic (also data traffic is routed through the overlay network, which is not done in Gnutella). The only advantage Freenet has is that you are absolutely anonymous.

As you know, many Gnutella clients already have the ability to serve web pages. But just the kind of files they have listed, not downloads through a browser. The reason you cannot download through a browser is that many Web-based "Gnutella Search Engines" are abusing this feature. They allow non-Gnutella users to download, but not contribute. Now, there's be a fierce discussion about this over and over, but each time it boils down that yes, indeed, this is not healthy to the Gnutella network. Why? Because each node on Gnutella has a limited reach, even though the entire Gnutella network may be as big as the Internet itself (I doubt - but by way of speaking). So for now, this kind of thing will not work exactly as you've suggested. However, if in all cases a Gnutella will handle the task of downloading, then that might change.

Forget the idea of a p2p protacol being used over browsers and the like...but think of it as 'the internet 2' imagine what the net could be like if it was based on technologhy like the nutella network, if setup well where people who know each other connect to each other forming communities, intrests would be grouped and search results from querys for info would be much more relevent.

hrmm ive kinda gone into one and not made much sense i think ill come back wen ive worked this out a bit more

The BadBlue Gnutella support is now out (the links above are dead).

http://badblue.com/bb98.exe (Win98,2K,XP)

http://badblue.com/bb95.exe (Win95,NT)

It's a combination personal web server and Gnutella servent, and the Gnutella P2P capability can be enabled/disabled at will.

Damn dumbass's
Yeah if its so easy you program it!
First things first the gnet is facing serious problems which have to be address first before we can pour head long into such ventures.
The future of file sharing is sharing! great applications like liemwire are insuring the future by MAKING you share and stopping webpage searchs. also the speed of the gnet is a big issue the gnet should be 10 times faster at searching and downloading than any web based type, especially for 56k users. also a huge change in the chat area should be the first breakthrough with some features similar to whats available in Msn messenger would be great. But lets seperate things. browser should be for the web and p2p clients should be for gnutella. but what we all want from gnutella is speed, great searchs and clients should MAKE you share as most leechers dont know jack about anything all they want is there free porno and mp3.
But i digress i would like to see a bit more ease of use, definately like to see the ability in chat to see ppls a/s/l's and have a similar chat window to msn messenger but without the cutesy icons. also with limewire do i need a built in mp3 player do i need so much info on those screens!
divide it up a bit more. anyway i could go on and on about this.
but if we give p2p / gnutella web site technology we invite commercialisation this brings restrictions, try looking up lukifer dvd tools now days see how law inforcement takes away all our toys! . so get off the subject of including website and focus on what we need. SPEED and better CLIENTS that make ease of use and inforce SHARING so using gnutella will be ten times more pleasurable than any other means of searching for things you cant get. ie most searchers on gnutella are for things that are not commercially available example: i live in place where futurama is not shown on tv and cannot bought on video or dvd. also connectix virtual game station bought out by sony and no longer available????? sorry ive now gone into babbling mode cya...

somehow i don't think dave meant do it tomorrow.
he is planning ahead for the days when downloads are faster, when more than mere males interested in porno games and mp3 are on line, ie, those that see the net as a way to get through a ton of info quickly, if you know how to discern fact from fiction.i personally do not watch the news anymore, as i am more informed, three months prior to breaking news.
as for who pays for the downloads, advertisers or yourself, how about the people downloading, just a thought.
all i can add is there is two solutions to every problem, and many ways to get things done.
this way of thinking, and finding ways around the problems, is something that should be seriously considered now.
if present laws and policies have their way, the freedom of info we have recently enjoyed will soon be curtailed, once again slowing done all aspects of our lives.
we are slow close to tek overcoming most of the obstacles you have mentioned, including programming difficulties.. has anyone started work on self coding share file servers yet.