AfterDawn: News

Grouper, a different form of P2P

New P2P software currently under development may change the way many of us use P2P. On existing P2P networks, if you share files, you are sharing them with the entire world so to speak, but with Grouper, users can setup mini P2P networks and share amongst themselves. Also Grouper does not allow you to download music from other users, but it does allow music to be streamed from other users PC's. This would be just the same as going to friend’s house and putting on a CD. Other files however can be shared directly between users.

Private P2P networks do exist, but this software makes setting up a mini P2P network as painless as possible. At the moment, only Windows 2000 and Windows XP support the software. Users can join the mini P2P networks you create through an email confirmation system. Since you would probably setup a network of friends, you would all have comparable tastes, which makes this software more appealing. Record labels have been long complaining about the mass distribution on P2P networks, we will have to wait and see what sort of response they give to Grouper's new friend to friend based sharing system.



Grouper is still only being tested but I for one, certainly am looking forward to trying it out.

Sources:
The Register
Grouper.com

Written by: James Delahunty @ 13 Sep 2004 18:04

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• 10 comments

• Damon1

  Looks very interesting this App, its a little unstable at the moment, but hopefully after the bug fixing stage is over, I'll be a great little proggy.
  
  It is still in Beta testing, after all.

  14.9.2004 09:21 #1

• WARNE

  It might be a good concept, we'll see

  14.9.2004 19:26 #2

• Buik

  Anything to vex the RIAA & MPAA is welcome. Their position on the fair use doctrine is is well known.
  
  tc

  14.9.2004 21:27 #3

• neewbie

  Seems pretty sweet. looking foward to the release

  15.9.2004 01:07 #4

• Toiletman

  Quote: you are sharing them with the entire world so to speak, but with Grouper, users can setup mini P2P networks and share amongst themselves. I approve! It's just like a much more user friendly version of DC++! However I can see a few problems, such as infected files being uploaded...
  Quote: Also Grouper does not allow you to download music from other users, but it does allow music to be streamed from other users PC's. So in order to listen to music I would have to have an always on internet connection? =| Sorry 56kers, I guess you're out...
  
  Also, since we're sharing in private networks, doesn't that mean people will be uploading from us all the time? My download maybe amazing, but my upload totally slows my web surfing down! =(

  15.9.2004 12:18 #5

• Dela

  I think you've missed the concept Toiletman.
  Quote:I approve! It's just like a much more user friendly version of DC++! However I can see a few problems, such as infected files being uploaded... Well... Someone sets up the P2P group and invites people to join it using an email verification system. So if you and your mates are gonna invite somebody who will turn around and upload infected files to you guys, then you guys deserve the infected files :P
  Quote:Also, since we're sharing in private networks, doesn't that mean people will be uploading from us all the time? My download maybe amazing, but my upload totally slows my web surfing down! =( The whole point of P2P is to share and in probably such a small user count in the group, leechers wouldnt be a very good idea!

  15.9.2004 14:25 #6

• Damon1

  Quote:So in order to listen to music I would have to have an always on internet connection? =| Sorry 56kers, I guess you're out...No Tman, 56ker's are not outta luck, it seems someone on 56k can stream audio from a person on a faster connection quite well, with no or only a small amount of buffering through the song. But streaming audio from a 56k connection to someone else seems to be impossible at this stage.

  15.9.2004 20:44 #7

• dabagboy

  I really liked the concept--- to bad that yesterday the DL page was "CLOSED Due to B/W shortages" and today the whole website!!!

  21.9.2004 04:37 #8

• juicy04

  Grouper is back up and they say they have fixed a bunch of bugs. Seems to work well for me and my friends.
  
  www.grouper.com
  

  23.9.2004 16:59 #9

• cfigallo

  Seems that there were problems with Grouper's colocation facilities, so they switched to another one. That got rid of the routing bugs. Then they realized that some of their beta users hadn't kept up with the new builds, so there were some backwards-compatibility issues.
  
  The new release seems solid to me. No more "false offlines" happening.

  24.9.2004 15:26 #10