History
The original Napster peer-to-peer file sharing service was a protocol which allowed users to transfer files directly between their clients. The protocol was reverse engineered by a developer nicknamed Drscholl and several other programmers. The first OpenNap servers appeared in 1999, operating in the same manner as Napster servers did. A client program connects to a centralized OpenNap server, search for, share and download files. The OpenNap server keeps track of all available files and provides clients the ability to search the index of available files and initiate a direct transfer between the clients. The files available via OpenNap servers are stored on the clients, never passing through the server. In addition, instant messages (private chat) and group chat services similar to IRC are also available.
OpenNap servers can be interconnected with each other, to form OpenNap networks. In order to find as many files as possible, many clients connected to multiple OpenNap networks. In 2000-2001 an indexing service for all OpenNap servers was created, called Napigator. Napigator allowed server administrators to add their server to a central list, so they could be easily (and often automatically) found by client software.
Read more about this topic: Open Nap
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